----- Original Message -----
Hi Bob,
I feel that your rules and many others are correct - you'll have not
quarrels from me about them. ;)
But, I also hope that photography is, like
any form of communication and art, also about eliciting a response, and
hopefully an emotional response. When I take a photo, in the back of my
mind, I very likely have a great many rules in operation - the rules about
light that you mention, as well as "rules" about composition, and various
technical aspects about my camera, lenses, and film/sensor. And yet,
when I produce a good photo, I sincerely hope that it elicits an emotion -
happiness, joy, sorrow, awe, sadness, etc. And, just as frequently, with
many of my best photos ("best" means elicits a great emotional response in
me, and
I hope in others) I may not have necessarily followed the rules because that
particular photo pushes me beyond my comfort zone.
A great portion of my photography learning (camping onto another thread)
has been attained through taking technically competent images - but they
weren't necessarily inspiring images. The emotions that they elicited
was something more akin to "yuck," or "so what?". So, according to
the feelings that I've expressed about the role of photography, yeah, these
photos did elicit an emotion, but not the emotion that I was hoping to
achieve... ;)
Some of the most fun and inspiring
photography that I saw this past year was taken by my then thirteen-year old
son. He's aware of many of the rules of photography, and does a great
job of helping me at weddings, shooting digitally over my shoulder while I'm
using film, or shooting his own images during the ceremony and
reception. But, last summer, while on a shooting trip/vacation, he was
quite bored. I wanted to have some peace & quiet so that I could
make my "beautiful, emotion-wrenching" photos, but he wanted to pester
me. So, I gave him my digital camera while I worked with my film
equipment. As I watched him out of the corner of my eye, happily
entertaining himself, sometimes showing me his photos, his perspectives, he
started to move beyond what I think of as "typical" photography
behavior/style. I remember thinking at the time, "he's not following
photography rules or S.O.P.s, but at least he's keeping himself busy and not
bothering me" or something to that effect. But when he showed me what he
had captured, I thought, "WOW! This is pretty cool stuff!" I've
not tried to recreate what he did, but maybe someday I will... Oh, and
out of the images that we both took that day, I felt that his were
better. I was trying to test some new tools and techniques with my film
cameras, and the results didn't live up to my hopes. My son also tested
some new techniques and got wonderful results!
In my former professional life, there were
many people with whom I worked who were well respected because of their
competency - these folks knew the rules, the boundaries, etc., and played well
there. But, the folks who were the most exciting and the most creative
were the people who knew the rules and could see beyond the rules,
to find new ways of doing things because the rules, while well intended,
reduced our ability to attain the desired results. The best
people, I feel, are the ones who focus on the desired results, and who knew
the rules well enough to figure out which rules were helpful and which rules
weren't helpful...
Sometimes, the desired results require that
we follow the rules - and sometimes not. So, there is a place for
rules, but only to the point that rules enhance, not stifle,
creativity...
Enjoy,
Tim!
