Innumerable number of photographs get clicked everyday by snap-shooters and photographers. A very very minuscule number of these photographs are worth taking a second look. What goes into making a photograph is a thought process and visualization of the final image. Here is a ‘behind the scene’ story of making a landscape photograph.
(Pasture in a forest. A very attractive location for photography)
Every photograph has a story behind it. It means something to the photographer. There would have been incidents, anecdotes or thoughts that led to that image. The gap arises when the photographs fail to convey these stories. This is the medium we have to convey our thought and experiences. So, is it not obvious, that our photographs should also tell these stories?
Some of the best photographs are created when a fleeting moment is captured to convey a story which otherwise can never be said in posed photographs. These spur of the moment scenes are what photographers long to capture. Once captured, these once in a life-time moments become candid shots.
There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative. Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever. – Henri Cartier-Bresson
There are times when the artistic instinct suffers a mental block. Writers don’t know what to write. Sometimes they sit with a blank paper not knowing where to start. Similarly photographers too suffer a mental block. The creative side of our mind stops working. What do the photographers do then? Most photographers end up clicking mediocre images, just for the sake of capturing. A few others don’t use their cameras and end up brooding and even sad.
Sunlight that appears to look like rays in a landscape, is very attractive to look at. These rays can add the magic to even the simplest of landscapes, transforming them into works of fine art.
In the midst of the spell of cold weather, there was a day with clear weather and good sunshine. What more could a photographer in me ask for? I packed my camera and tripod and visited a nearby mountain stream. My purpose was clear. I wanted to capture some motion blurs.
Learning from Rembrandt has been appreciated by many of my readers and so based on their request here is another similar article.
Oscar Claude Monet was a famous french painter, who is well known as the founder of french impressionist painting movement. He took his painting outdoors from the studio and painted mostly landscapes. The impressionist movement itself consisted of putting across ideas to the viewer more strongly rather than focusing on accuracy of natural elements. As is the case with most painters, even Monet can be great source of learning for photographers too.
(Impression, soleil levant – the hallmark painting of the rising sun which gave its name to the art movement)
