June 2000
President's
Message
Portrait of Tom Clark
Article: Seeing the Big Picture - Part 2
Seeing the Big Picture
- Bill Talarowski
Part 2
In the last issue, I commented on finding shots during your travels, previsualizing what you wanted to do with it, and knowing exactly what the shot is going to look like when you view the final result on your light box.
All this comes about by constantly putting into action what you learn at the camera club, from your personal reading, and of course, from all the mistakes you make along the way. Yes, there is a price to be paid but once learned, it should bring you many more successful images. Once you have learned the “rules of composition”, lighting, exposure etc., you will not be able to take a shot that is not photographically correct. The inner creative spirit will scream at you and will not let you create something that is not esthetically pleasing. Each image is your little child that you gave birth to and called your own. That is why I’m pushing so hard to be creative and why being different from others is no sin.
I once attended a PSA convention held in Denver, Colorado. As part of the activities there was a trip to a spot south of Denver called “Garden of the Gods”. This place is a group of rock formations very much like those found in Arches National Park, Utah. Late blooming flowers were everywhere, beautiful models were provided both in and around the flowers and up on the rocky out croppings as well. While all this was going on, an old fashion cookout was filling us all to the point of bursting. The picture opportunities were there, but unfortunately, as is the case in this type of thing, everyone was going to be taking the same thing. Not that this is bad, because some kind of picture is always better than no picture at all. The weather was fine, I met many nice people and all in all had a wonderful time.
Much too soon though, the 2,000 or so who had attended the affair, had to start the trek back to the buses, which was by way of only one serpentine route. About 400 people had climbed the trail before I made my start. Along the way, about 15 feet off the trail, I saw growing in the weeds, the loneliest little daisy you could imagine. I also saw not too far away, the trunk of what was once a mighty oak tree lying on its side rotting away and returning from whence it came. Along the surface of the cut were marks left by the saw which felled this gift from God. These cuts were being set off by the lighting of the setting sun coming over the distant rock formation. Almost instantly, in my heart I knew that that daisy had to be put in front of that cut log. First I positioned myself so that the daisy’s S curve went left to right, and that the lighting just brushed the daisy leaving the coarse saw marks in shadow with just a hint of detail. I had to use a small F stop to get maximum depth of field. This is what is called previsualization of a shot and what will happen when you learn all the tricks necessary in taking good images. Without any forethought the whole menu for the image was laid out before me like some computer program and all I had to do was jump on and go for the ride.
There was one down side to this happening. When I had finished and was trying to stand up, I almost jammed a guy’s camera down his throat. I was so intent on getting the image that I was unaware of a group of people that had joined me and that this particular person was shooting directly over my shoulder. This is what I mean when I say, “is this truly your image” or is it something you’re copying from someone else’s efforts. There are so many images out there begging to be born, why copy another’s work?
This helpless feeling I had was reinforced over the next couple of years when entries started coming in for the WIEP. There was MY now-not-so-lonely little daisy sporting all kinds of exotic, glamorous names, taking center stage as if trying to forget its humble beginnings. For me, I took solace in the fact that I was its original parent and I gave it life when I placed it in front of that old, rotting oak log and for me, that was good enough.