On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Emily L. Ferguson wrote:
> Now no one could argue with the fact that fall colors in New England
> are, hmm, shall we say, uh, overdone?
Fall colors everywhere are understandably a popular subject. Overdone ?
Maybe in the sense that they've been done endlessly in the same ways.
There are no cliche'd subjects, only cliche-filled minds shooting them.
> oak trees all of which conspire to product a heady wine of color for
> anyone sensitive to the outside world. ^^^^^^^^^^^^
Aha...every question contains the seeds of its answers. Maybe you
should have left the Provia and the Nikon at home, and run out like
a Maenad, naked in the cold rain, drunk (or otherwise intoxicated) as a
skunk, rolling in the mud, on spongy leaves until covered red and orange,
and blasted away with an Holga until hypothermia sobered you up and sent
you back to the car for another hit...hiccup...oops, where were we ?
> So as I look at my slides I try to work my way through the morass
> towards something original.
But...how do you know what *is* original ? You have to study leaf shots,
zillions of them, and then wait for, or make happen in the viewfinder,
something you have never seen.
Unless one has (or have access to) a huge photo-library and a scholarly
bent, IMO, one should work on oneself as a person. You can only shoot what
you are sensitized to see, who you *are*. In the end, all the hardware,
software, gadgetry, film, etc are inert, dead. You are the only living
link between the image and the scene.
"Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen."
--- Robert Bresson
> But I'd like to see what others on this list think about the element
> or combination that makes an image rise above the classic, or cliché
> (if you prefer).
Formulas are the cold Kisses of Death, the ultimate way to stillbirth
your creativity --- unless --- you french-kiss It, subvert them, then they
are boxes that motivate you to escape.
> Do any of you have a checklist of design elements, or guidelines
> about color or about perspective that you retreat to when you find
> yourself drunk on the subject matter and seeking a basis from which
> to move to something unique?
NONE.
Be yourself. Loosen your passion into your photography. Go beyond the
pretty colors, feel what is happening there...in every sense. What do you
feel about the turning of the leaves ? What do you know about them ? The
biology; the forest turning into deadland; the cycle of death feeding
life feeding death and the promise of resurrection
in the Spring; memories inside you loosened by the falling leaves; what
is invisible...or lies below, or above what you are seeing ? Are you too
drunk to see what is before you ? and much more than I have time for
now...
Hope this helps, or at least confuses.
--- Luis
