I talk to a lot of photographers and many have ways that they do things. I go to an event and I do this this and this--and usually in that order. Its smart to have plans and go in knowing ways that will work to get the picture you need. I often challenge myself to not do this. For instance this past basketball season I shot the majority of my games with the 300 mm lens. Its really too much lens for shooting the whole court. The action closer to you is very difficult to capture because in needs to be so compact and tight in a small area that I almost never get a frame worth using. The other end of the court however is great and half court when something happens just right-- like a collision or diving for a ball its a great lens to have. But mostly its harder to shoot basketball with the lens--its a challenge. I also have been looking a lot at my commercial work over the last year and discovered I am more geared toward the darker pictures and my lighter--high key images often lack. I don't like this. So of late I've been thinking more high-key and trying some things to see what I can figure out and add it to my bag of tricks. I even have some white face paint thanks to a great clown friend of mine and through some experimentation started figuring out some high - key things that work. This image...well it got a little crazy. I've also been experimenting with some surreal ideas in my personal work and this image began moving towards that and I just let it. There is always much to say in this world and figuring ways to say it to connect with different people is a difficult task--I may communicate something with this piece to one person--or a group and communicate absolutely nothing to another--I guess that is the nature of art. Digital manipulated photo from a high key shoot with Jessica by Richard Sayer.
As soon as I was done posting above I had another thought and --yes I have yet another thought on this piece that I may try and post soon too--This is the part of the creative process that I love the most--the 'what else?' thoughts that I have--and I just had a 4th idea--maybe idea three will have to wait!
Ok--I have to quit now because I have to head to Edinboro to talk about ethics of photojournalism--you know the idea that you can never manipulate a photograph and present it as real.....and yes I see the irony.
Not sure about this--going to walk away from it for awhile. Don't think I'm a surrealist.