In or out of the boundaries ?

[Clueless Winddancing]

Music composers are credited for making sound pictures, draftsmens and painters show tactile qualities and even gravity, etc. I've been wondering how to best effect "hillness" (the slope, smoothnes, suddenness, abruptness). Or, the hardness of the cement in a skateboard park's base. Does crossing the boundaries amounts to transforming sensual qualites and mental constructs to a two dimentional representation in such a satisfactory way that any viewer would have a parallel approximating experience. Such an image would "work"!
Are most images just mug shots?
Just poking a camera at something no more "gets" the sense of it than does a police mug shot portray the sense of a person. They only minimally identify the arrested. Just as a dumb shot of a hill minimally identifies the hill it is as useless as kicking car tires in determining the value of the car. I'm confused about attempting to "get" qualities. I don't even get where to begin to understand this business unless it might be to "master" lighting for its qualities of direction, volume; camea view point, focal length. Surely it can be constructively thought about rather than a rare and accidental event of getting the essence manifested on paper. Is there where a Fine Arts education would travel to be able to consciously reveal the grounds of qualities; or, have I gone round the bend? Even then I have to ask myself, "Why bother?" It really seems just an expensive, mildly pleasant, temporary diversion.

[neil poulsen]

I think that the effect of a good photographic image stems from the two-dimensional image itself and from the feelings and thoughts that the image invokes in the viewer.

In the same way that a photographer "pokes" a camera at a scene, a painter "pokes" a brush at a canvas. The success of the outcome in either case depends on how one "pokes!" It relies on both the artistry and the craft of the photographer or the painter.

For example, consider the well-known image by A. Adams, "Clearning Winter Storm." On the one hand, there's the sheer beauty of the image, the effect of silver from the dark areas intermixed with white areas, and the striking juxta-positioning of the whites against the darks. At a higher level, there's the drama that one feels from the clouds in the sky and the poetic beauty of the valley and scene.

To capture an image like this requires both serendipity and an imager sensitive enough to maybe foresee the potential outcome. The imager was lucky to be at the right site at the right time. Perhaps the imager anticipated the scene and the time, but I still think that serendipity plays a role. Even then, many excellent photographs are "accidents," in that the photographer may not have anticipated the excellent outcome that occurred. The success of the photograph was a happy darkroom surprise.

Education can help. It can help draw out the talent and the expressiveness of the photographer, and a good education also builds craft. Both are important. Clearly, A. Adams possessed the former. But, his "Clearing Winter Storm" would not have been nearly as successful, had it consisted of only lifeless grays, versus also including crisp blacks and whites. The success of this image also required a first-rate craftsman.

This whole process starts from within the imager: what does he or she feel about images, how do they move or inspire him or her, what is their resolve to create images that can move and inspire others? Given that this is in place, a good imager pursues the lighting techniques, the knowledge, and the craft that will help them actuate this internal drive. It doesn't begin with craft or learning lighting techniques; it begins with reactions taking place within the imager.

[Gordon Moat]

Consider a scene as if you would draw it (pen & ink or pencil/graphite on paper). What elements would you leave in? What elements would you minimize? What elements would you emphasize?

Then consider a composition that creates eye movement. Try to make primary and sceondary focal points. How do the focal points relate? What alignments are created in your composition? Is there a flow or rhythm to the focal points?

When I was learning about drawing in college, we had a sketchbook that we had been drawing in daily. Then one class we were taught about Golden Section. Our exercise to investigate was to take a sheet of acetate with Golden Section grid lines marked on it, then go back through our sketchbooks and compare our drawings to the Golden Section. What I discovered was that most of my drawing fit into Golden Section proportions and alignments. So I had been doing that intuitively prior to formally learning that. I think this is one example of accidental composition, though after I became more aware of that most of my drawings continued to fit the Golden Section. I don't want to suggest the idea that Golden Section is the best, or only, choice in composition, since there are definitely instances when not following it can be very effective and compelling.

The minds eye of the viewer will fill in any missing details in an image, either drawn, painted, or photographed. You only need as much detail as spurs the imagination and thought of the viewer. Too much, and the emphasis and ideas are lost. Too little, and you fail to hold the viewers attention. As with many things in life, getting a good balance makes this work.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography (http://www.gordonmoat.com)

[Daniel_Buck]

I think you may be looking to hard into it!

[Don Boyd]

I think of a "good" photograph in the same way that Archibald MacLeish brought light to poetry in Ars Poetica:

A poem should be palpable and mute
As a globed fruit

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone
Of casement ledges where the moss has grown -

A poem should be wordless
As the flight of birds

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs

Leaving, as the moon releases
Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,
Memory by memory the mind -

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs

A poem should be equal to:
Not true

For all the history of grief
An empty doorway and a maple leaf

For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea -

A poem should not mean
But be.

So, the last line would read, "A photo should not mean/But be."

There is no good image without a viewer that brings it to life in her. I echo Gordon's observation that a good photo allows room for the viewer's sense of discovery, the internal connection that occurs - emotional, intellectual, spiritual. Too much information and we are told what it "means", too little and it reminds us of the vast wasteland of our own mind.