Photography as Art
“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.”
I’ve been photographing Acadia National Park for a long time now. Every visit is different, but I find myself returning again and again to the same places every year, and I occasionally make forays into areas unknown to see what I find. But how many times can I go back to Jordan Pond or Duck Brook before I get tired of them? Well, actually… probably never because there’s always the hope of seeing a favorite location in a new light. And of course, you never get tired of seeing something truly beautiful, no matter how many times you look at it. But what does change are some of the techniques I use to create my photos, and my continual struggle to create art with my camera.
On my most recent trip, last Autumn, I experimented with camera movement to create a unique look to my landscape images. Normally I use a tripod, locked down for maximum sharpness, along with lenses that are renowned for their sharpness and ability to resolve the finest details. But in these new images, I wanted to photograph what the landscape feels like, instead of just what it looks like. By creating more Impressionistic pieces, the viewer only sees a big picture- a swath of color, some shapes or suggestions of trees, paths or boulders. The details are lost or obscured leaving a simplified, stripped back landscape.
I regularly talk about going beyond the snapshot and creating art with your camera. Anyone can whip out their phone and snap pictures of a scene. But put some thought into your images- study your composition before you shoot, decide what you’re looking for before you find it… pre-visualize your images. Once you start to create art with your camera, you’ll find so much more pleasure as an artist that just being a camera technician.
