Why Beautiful Moments Are Beautiful

I've made various iterations of this image over the years, but it never gets old. This view looks north from the south end of the pond at the vo-tech, and while we were making it, showed us the value of moving, particularly up and down, to fine tune a composition.
I’ve made various iterations of this image over the years, but it never gets old. This view looks north from the south end of the pond at the vo-tech, and while we were making it, showed us the value of moving, particularly up and down, to fine tune a composition.

As photographers, we have a tendency to get a bit on the self-important side. For example, we often scoff at soccer moms with cell phones. We also tend to classify cameras as “amateur” or “professional” while losing sight of the fact that it is we who are amateurs or professionals.

We spotted this image early in our walk. It features on of my favorite tricks: locking my exposure with the sun hidden, then moving slightly to bring it into the image at the just the right brightness. It is very effective at expressing the brilliance of sunshine.
We spotted this image early in our walk. It features on of my favorite tricks: locking my exposure with the sun hidden, then moving slightly to bring it into the image at the just the right brightness. It is very effective at expressing the brilliance of sunshine.
I made these ripples by throwing a stick into the pond.
I made these ripples by throwing a stick into the pond.

One of the most significant aspects of professional photography is having our audience in mind at all times, whether the audience is readers in a publication, attendees at an art expo, visitors to our home, viewers of web sites, or just us trying to explore ourselves through imagery.

With our audience in mind, the purpose of our photography is almost always to illicit an emotional response. Maybe, as is sometimes the case in my work, our goal is to bring the feelings of triumph or tragedy to the reader. Maybe, as in the case of a wedding photographer, our goal is to bring joyful and intimate moments of the event to the viewer.

In either case, and many more, the central idea is use our cameras to translate moments into images, which then bring those moments to the audience.

I had four students in this most recent session, which is a good number. I feel like they got a lot out of it, and were excited to return for two more nights.
I had four students in this most recent session, which is a good number. I feel like they got a lot out of it, and were excited to return for two more nights.

What about beauty? Flowers. Sunsets. Canyons. Forests. Essentially, beautiful photographs work because they elicit an emotional response in the viewer. A snowboarder flying off a cliff edge elicits excitement. Sunlight filtering through a tree elicits memories of childhood. Grey-black clouds of a thunderstorm illicit feelings of foreboding.

I thought about these ideas recently as my intermediate/advanced class went on our walk to the pond at the Pontotoc Technology Center. Ostensibly intended to guide them from the nuts-and-bolts in the beginner classes to putting those tools to work, invariably we discover much more to photograph, often in the beauty of nature. When we do, it has a way of feeding itself, such that I can stand back and act as advisor, and let my students grow and explore their imaging potential.

Even after the light was mostly gone, the sky offered this silhouette. It shows the value of patience, and waiting for the light when other photographers might be long gone.
Even after the light was mostly gone, the sky offered this silhouette. It shows the value of patience, and waiting for the light when other photographers might be long gone.

1 Comment

  1. This entry is why I keep coming to your blog over and over again. This is exactly what I want to read and informs me so much, not so much on the technical side, as to all the other reasons why I have grown to love and want to do photography.

Comments are closed.