What are My Camera Settings?
I recently was asked a really good question from a fellow photographer and it motivated me to write this blog post. The photographer asked why I do not share the camera settings and the filters being used for my photography when I share my art on my social media. This question really got me thinking about photography as a whole and my purpose of capturing nature and creating art.
For me, photography is more than just creating beautiful art. Yes, I love being out in nature and photographing the beauty around me, but its more than that. Nature moves me in a way that evokes strong emotions that I hope the viewer will feel as well.
When I am out capturing photographs, I do not want to think too hard about the camera tech. Yes, the technical part of photography is crucial in the creative process, but it isn’t everything. Let me explain.
When I am out capturing beautiful moments, I do not want to think too much, but just want to react to the situation. Overthinking camera tech could make me miss out on the fleeting moments in nature. As all of you nature photographers have experienced, mother earth will not wait for me as I scramble to change my settings or overthink my compostion. I have learned to make the camera feel like my right arm so that it is just an extension of my creative process. Once camera tech became second nature to me, I found freedom.
But how did I get over this hurdle? It was simple. I photographed everyday. Whether it was walking to the city park or photographing at home taking still life photographs of objects. I would put myself in various lighting situations where I could fully learn and understand the technical part of photography without the pressure of making a fine art image. It is so important for a photographer to get very familiar with their gear so that they are not thinking too much on the tech, but really are focusing on the creative process.
Being a photography instructor for The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite, I witnessed students who had the latest and greatest gear. But they were all thumbs when it came to their camera equipment, which led them having a hard time getting their head out of the technical.
It was usually the person with the iPhone that would come up with some very unique thought provoking compositions. While the person with the digital camera would try to mimic the iPhone photos, but couldn’t do to not knowing their equipment.
When I saw that struggle, I would encourage them to think creative first, then technical last. Because the creative side of photography will lead a photographer to the technical. Once they got into the creative process, they were having more fun and actually picking up way faster on the technical aspects. This leads into the next phase of the artists journey: capturing emotion.
Several previous artists’ body of work has stood the test of time because of the emotion they evoke in the viewer. I have witnessed visitors in The Ansel Adams Gallery admiring Ansel’s photographs and tearing up as they felt into the emotion of the photograph. That is so humbling to witness as an artist. I doubt Ansel ever fully knew the impact his art made and is still making on peoples lives today.
For me, it took some time to fully understand this concept. I once sent one of my water abstracts to a good photographer friend and he replied back with how that photograph made him feel angry. At first I was kinda taken a back by the response. Why would I want someone to have negative emotions of my art? When I looked at the image, I felt power and strength, not anger.
Something I had to learn is that art is subjective and if people are having strong emotions looking at my imagery then I am doing really well as a photographer. And this is true whether they are experiencing negative or positive emotions. That’s not up for me to decide.
The impact that art makes on people’s life should never go ignored. In this crazy, busy society that we all find ourselves in, thought provoking art is more important than ever. I do not want to make just beautiful photographs, but I want to capture my subject’s essence that will provoke emotions in my viewer. That is crucial to making art that will be forever remembered and quite possibly touch the viewer in a way that cannot be explained. I do not want the viewer to be analyzing how I achieved the final result, but noticing how they felt when they looked at my art.