I think every photographer goes through periods of change, ruts develop, distractions happen, and sometimes life just moves on seemingly without any control. I know I go through periods when I can’t seem to get a pleasing image, at least in my opinion. Is this from lack of trying, or maybe trying too much? Sometimes a spark is needed to help provoke a new way of looking at the world. A type of creative spark, something to break out of the mundane. I know personally I have been kind of uninspired in my photography, oh I still enjoy it, but maybe I needed such a spark. One thing that has been a distraction is my love for gear and things that are technical. I get wrapped up in it, and soon I am playing more with the gear and hanging out in the forums looking and reading about gear. While gear is good, gear is just a tool. The main part of the equation is the image. So lately I have been trying to avoid the gear and focus more on the photography. In the field I am carrying fewer lenses and less gear and that is making things a little easier, easier to be creative. To use the tools that I have with me, rather than rummage through all the equipment.
I stumbled upon the Craft And Vision website and David DuChemin’s posts on the Pixelated Image Blog and a lot of things he had to say resonated with some of the feelings I have been having and helped me to look at things in a different “light”. Namely, photography can be difficult, and it really is not so much about the gear, but about the “vision”. The Craft and Vision website has a lot of inexpensive e-books about various aspect of photography and essays to make you think about the “craft”.
The most recent one to be released is Beyond Thirds – A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition by Andrew S. Gibson. While this ebook is not intended to be a full treatise on composition, it does give some fuel for thought. The book for me was a gentle prod to make me think about composition when I am taking an image. I know I get pretty reflexive about using the “rule of thirds”, it has been ingrained into my thought processes from reading many other books and making conscious efforts to use that rule in some of my images. Well, as the book points out “rule” is a harsh term and that it really is more of a guideline. Not all images work well using thirds as a guideline, this book served to remind me that there are other considerations and other ways to compose an image. The book does go through and shows some nice images and discusses the merits of the particular composition selected by the author. It did make me think about how I am creating images and to think about how I want to capture my vision and intent.
I mentioned that it is far from a textbook but it is gentle prod to think about how to express yourself and how to improve your images. The price of the book is a very reasonable $5, Click here to purchase Beyond Thirds – A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition by Andrew S. Gibson. If you use the code BT4 when you check out, the price is only $4, OR you can use the code BT20 to get 20% off when you buy 5+ PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST November 19th, 2011.
