Seeing Photos: Study the Great Photographers

Stonehenge. Copyright The Estate of Fritz Henle

A very important part of my own journey in learning to see photographically has been looking at the work of other photographers. Those whose work has been most inspirational for me are Fritz Henle, my first, and still one of my greatest, influences; B.A. "Tony" King, Robert Doisneau, Elliott Erwitt, James Ravilious, and Richard W. Brown.

This is a diverse group, and you might well ask "How does this business of studying the work of other photographers fit in with your recommendation in your previous post about finding one's individuality?"

To that question I can only reply that it works. I have drunk deeply at the well of each of these photographers and my own photos are the better for it, yet my pictures do not look like theirs.

My favorite way of looking at photographs is in books, of which I have a large collection. Some of the photographers I mentioned still have books in print; some of their books can be found in used bookstores, and most of their books are available through online bookstores such as abebooks.com. But building a collection, even with used books, can be an expensive way to go.

I think books are actually the second best way to look at photographs. The best way, of course, is to view original prints. But that's not an option for most of us unless we live in large cities with art galleries that show photographs.

So that leaves looking at photographs online: an option that's available to just about all of us. If you're reading this, it's open to you. Look up the photographers I've listed above, and add one more name to the list: Jay Maisel.

Nest time I'll name more photographers I think you can learn from and whose work you may enjoy looking at.

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography copyright 2023 The Estate of Fritz Henle. Text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags: photography    photographic seeing       Fritz Henle     B.A. "Tony" King    Robert Doisneau     Elliott Erwitt      James Ravilious     Richard W. Brown     Jay Maisel

Seeing Photos: Find Your Individuality

Peterbilt

Copyright the estate of Charles Robert Barnard

 

 

What do you like to photograph? What really interests you? Finding your individuality is an essential part of seeing photographically.

Bob and Jane were lifelong friends of ours. For his birthday one year in the mid-1980s, Bob told Jane he would like to have a camera. I recommended a Canon AE-1.

Bob was a contractor. He never took a class in photography. As far as I know he never even read a photo magazine. He just began photographing the things that interested him as he went about his daily life. By the time of his passing from brain cancer 20 years later he had accumulated a sizable and unique body of work that showed his world as he saw it in his own individual way.You can read more about Bob and see more of his pictures here.

 

 

For myself, I enjoy photographing many different things. The old, the abandoned, the beautiful. The strange, the unusual. The off-beat, the quirky. Old stores, old barns, old houses, old churches; signs, abandoned automobiles, fields of flowers, scenes of natural beauty, the play of light on a human face or on the face of the earth.

The way you "see" photographically may be very different from the way I see, even if we photograph the same things. And that's as it should be. I'm not you, and you're not me. Our different circumstances and different life experiences make us who we are and determine how we see our different worlds. Your way of looking at the world will be different from mine and your photographs should show that difference.  Your photographs must be yours.  They must come from your heart, your way of seeing life and the world.

 

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography copyright 2023 The Estate of Charles Robert Barnard. Text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags: photography    film photography    photographic seeing    Canon AE-1 camera    Peterbilt truck

Seeing Photos: Great Light Is Where You Find It

After evening chapel at the Church of God mission hospital, Nigeria.

In 1989 I was on a three-week tour of several African countries on assignment for the World Missions Department of the Church of God -- a tour that took me to Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, and Kenya. I spent several days at the Church of God mission compound at Abak, in Ibom Province, Nigeria. One evening, as I was walking across the grounds toward the mission hospital, I noticed that the beams of the setting sun were running horizontally across the ground and splashing sunbursts against the hospital wall. 

The evening chapel service had just concluded. A few people were standing around, but what I mostly saw was the  light. I was carrying my faithful Olympus OM2n camera loaded with Fujichrome 100-speed slide film and fitted with a Tokina 100-300mm f4 zoom lens. There was no time to plan a careful composition, change lenses, or take a meter reading. I seldom used auto-exposure in those days, but the OM2n had that capability and I quickly flipped the switch to auto and made three quick shots before the light faded. 

My lens was at the 300mm setting, wide open at f4, and the auto-exposure was giving me 1/15th second. I had little  hope of getting anything usable -- but nothing attempted, nothing gained! Since there was no chimping in those days, I had to wait until I was back in the U.S. to find that I had one very sharp exposure and another that was usable out of the three. 

And although I had been only minimally conscious of the people in the photo as I shot, their positions turned out to be just right. Serendipity.

This, by the way, is an exception to the rule that light should come at an angle from one side or other of the subject. Great light is where you find it, and when you see it, go for it. Take a chance. You may not get the shot you're hoping for, but then again, you might. Either way, you'll learn something valuable.

Signed copies of the new second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags: photography    film photography    photographic seeing   travel    Africa    Ghana    Nigeria    Zambia    Kenya    Olympus ON2n camera    Tokina lens    Fujichrome 100 film    Church of God missions  

Seeiing Photos: Look for the Light

Ford 8N Tractor in shed, U.S. Hwy. 19, Lumpkin County, Georgia.

Photography is about light.  In fact, the word "photograph" comes from two Greek words: photos, which means "light," and grapho, which means "to write."  So to photograph really means to write with light.

The best light for photography usually comes in early morning and late afternoon when the sun is low, bathing everything in a rich, golden glow and casting long shadows which reveal texture and form. 

However, you can often find good light any time of day if you learn to look for it. In order to reveal texture and form, light must play across the subject from one side or the other. Straight-on light will always result in a flat-looking subject.

 Notice what the light is doing in the example above. See the way it brings out shapes and kisses the old boards with warmth? If the light were hitting the shed from the front, it might be a pleasant picture of an old shed and an old tractor, but it would have no depth, no character.

Studying the light, learning to notice what it's doing, will probably result in more rapid improvement in your photography than anything else you can do. And it's something you can do anytime light is present, whether or not you have a camera in your hand.

(Canon EOS 5D Classic digital camera, September, 2006.)

Signed copies of the second edition of Backroads and Byways of Georgia are now available. The price is $22.95 plus $3.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to me at 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2023 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags: photography    photographic seeing    Canon EOS 5D Classic camera    travel    Georgia