Art of Photography

"The more you understand what inspires you, the more readily you can put yourself in its path" David duChemin

This is the beginning of a long discussion on the art of photography, what other professionals are shooting, a study on composition and a look at creative authenticity, just to name a few of the topics. I intent this discussion to be different from what other photographers have presented and some of it will be a compilation of their written thought. However, before I begin it is important that I establish the basis for this discussion. I have spent most of my life as a Certified Public Accountant and as various Financial Officers in retail companies. My increased activity in photography has occurred over the last 12 years most of which has been personal, hands on experience from books, seminars, work groups, friends, and my own trials and errors.   I have no formal education in art, photography or creative design and I supposed one could question my authority to expound on this topic, given my left brain experience. Well, I all I can really say is that I have an inquisitive mind with a desire to "get it right."

Photography is a very complex topic that covers a broad genre from news, sports, portrait, business, journalism, scenic, travel, contemporary, studio, and product photography. Further, the concept of photography has expanded with the use of computers and post processing. Often the final result of post processing bears little resemblance to the image that was captured. Are these types of images still part of photography? I don't know, and it will not be part of this discussion. I will leave this to others. My discussion will be somewhat narrowly  based is suppose. I will primarily deal with scenic photography and the other types of photography that closely touches this definition. Further, this discussion will concentrate on the art of capture, not on the art of post production.Finally, as a starting point, I will not deal with the prerequisites of a good image; appropriately exposed, in focus, correctly lit and lacking in dust or spots.

One always has to be careful when discussing these elements. "In focus" is a very good example. There are times when I will choose to take a picture slightly out of focus. I may be in a situation where it is slightly foggy and I want to create an image with a soft feel. As we all know, rules are made to be broke. The point I am trying to make is that I will not deal with the fundamentals of photography and I will assume the reader of my posts has these concepts well handled and is looking for a reasonable discussion of the aesthetics of photography.

I was tempted to call this discussion the "Art of Landscape Photography," but on reflection, I did not want to restrict the topic that much. A lot of the compositional elements I will talk about apply broadly and not just to taking pictures of our natural surroundings.

Finally, a "blog" conveys the thought of snippets of information and comments, not treaties. In keeping with our fast paced life, where we want to get to the point of things and move on, I have decided to present my topic and then provide sub posts that continues the discussion. For example, in my post on Ian Robert's book Creative Authenticity, I will not have one post that deals with the book, but one that introduces the topic followed by subsequent posts that talk about some of the elements of his book that I find relevant.Enjoy.Earl