Photographic Seeing: Unleashing Your Imagination

 Crazy, cock-eyed spider

Clinging to Life

The Rise of the Swamp Monster

As I said in my previous post, if you have a reasonably good camera and a lens or two and you can use them to make reasonably sharp, well-exposed pictures, your problem is probably not your camera. Any camera made in the last ten years or so is capable of making those sharp, well-exposed pictures. If you're not getting that kind of results, you probably need to read the manual.

But if your photos are sharp and well-exposed and you're still not happy with them, the problem is probably with your seeing. You need to learn to see photographically.

How do you learn to do that? One of the first steps is to unleash your imagination.

Look at the picture at the top of this post. It's one I've shown a few times before. What do you see? Do you see a bale of hay, several pieces of plastic sewer pipe, and a couple of pie plates? Or do you see a crazy, cock-eyed spider?

Look at the next picture? Do you see a lightning-blasted, nearly dead tree? Or do you see a tree that against all odds is clinging tenaciously to life?

And what about the third picture? Do you see a stump that has been trimmed by the highway crew to keep it from falling across the road? Or do you see a monster rising from the swamp?

Unleash your imagination. Look around your world. See what's there, and then ask yourself, what else is there?

Learning to see photographically is a lifelong project. But learning to let your imagination roam free is a start. More to come.

(The spider was photographed on film, but I can't remember when, or what camera was used. The other two pictures were made with my trusty Canon EOS 5D Classic digital camera in May, 2010 during my first book photography tour around Georgia.)

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