Ten days ago I was talking with Dave and the subject of amateur astronomy and telescopes came up. This happens to be something I know a bit about as I built my first ‘scope as a teenager and have been fascinated by astronomy for most of my life. I promised to put together some notes and will probably post them here as this isn’t the first time I’ve been been asked for recommendations
On the train ride back from seeing him I started thinking about the two types of serious amateur astronomers I know - those who love the telescopes and those who love the sky. Of course these mix, but for some the end passion is the hardware and they tend to build or buy the best they can afford.
When it comes to nature I’m mostly in the other camp. I love to observe. There are times when what you want to look at is difficult to see without some sort of aid and then I take an interest in the tool and there is the serendipity of using a tool to see the world in new way, but observation comes first.
About a week later Om posted a note on his blog asking for advice on photography. His blog is popular and several people offered comments ranging from mechanical to how to “see” images. It took me back a dozen or so years...
I was in a four floor studio in Manhattan’s Little Italy directing a fashion shoot.1 The photographer was a well-know fashion photographer - I was more than a bit intimidated by his reputation. He wanted to see my “book” - some samples of my editorial work. This was all Photoshop work - image manipulation had been a hobby of mine dating to pre-Photoshop days. To my surprise he approved and accepted me as a peer. Walking to a bookshelf he pulled down one of his “books”.. As I paged through I was struck by how many of the images I knew. Iconic fashion photos that I recognized even though fashion was far from a core interest.
I was tempted to pull out my camera and photograph him at work. Fortunately he said something that prevented me from doing that.
He was testing the lighting with an old Polaroid camera. He had the model stand for a few test images and shot in black and white. After a half dozen images, each with some lighting changes, he pronounced he was ready and his assistant handed him a loaded Pentax 6 by 7cm medium format camera.
Even with the change from film to digital images medium format cameras are the standard used in commercial and editorial fashion. They aren’t as small or flexible as a 35mm camera (or an equivalent DSLR these days), but they can still be handheld and the resolution can be excellent.
He and the model stumbled around for about fifteen minutes until they were both comfortable and understood each other. She needed to have a sense of what to do and what she would look like. She needed to understand the light as well as present him with a series of potential poses. His job was capturing the moments when she moved her body through the amazing. It was dramatic when both of them synchronized with each other’s needs. The shutter fired at a regular rhythm - they had both achieved a flow of sorts.
During the first wardrobe change I had some questions about his gear as most of it was exotic to me. He told me a little story to move me towards something a bit more productive.
It seems years before he was on assignment for an important shoot for Vogue. He had been flown to Fiji along with an art director and a few excellent models. To his horror the trunks with his camera gear were lost. There was little choice but to improvise. He went to a store in the hotel and purchased a dozen or so Instamatic cameras and all the film the hotel store had and directed the models and his assistant to get as much film as they could find.
The Kodak Instamatic was the ubiquitous cheap camera of the 60s and 70s - the camera you might give to a kid on his tenth birthday. Fixed focus, a cheap lens and most had no settings. Your choice was usually limited to the film cartridge - black and white or color.
But it was a camera and he was a photographer.
They spent two days shooting and went through about one hundred film cartridges. He experimented a bit putting vaseline on some of the lenses to soften the image even more. The strong constraints were a fantastic experience and focused him very strongly on rediscovering the subject and the story that was unfolding.
He showed me the photos that were published in Vogue - I instantly recognized them. They were and are iconic images.
His epiphany - and what he wanted to share with me - was the camera is not as important as many people think.
I had been prepared to bring out my camera and photograph him. It was a then new Nikon N90S with some fancy zoom lenses and a lot of settings. He was working with heavily worn and very manual cameras and only three fixed focus lenses. He knew his tools - cameras, lighting, lenses and film - well enough that he wasn’t even using a light meter. It struck me that bringing out my camera was silly so I focused on the work and hand and tried to observe and learn a bit.
We were looking for eight, maybe twelve, usable images for each of five clothing outfits to give me enough choice to tell a story. He and the model knew what they were doing and over 900 frames were exposed in the twelve hour session. He would make a verbal comment when he thought something was great - mostly as part of working with the model. I marked those comments and all of the usable photos came from that subset.
The constraints of the shoot were strong, but he was used to working with constraints of many types and, with the help of a good model, some art was created.
I’m not a great photographer by any means, but he and others who are offered some advice. After awhile you realize the good ones are telling you the same thing.
° Learning is worth more than expensive gear. Once you have a basic camera you can learn how to see images. Several hundred dollars budgeted towards a new lens might be better spent on a photography course or perhaps a ticket to some location that might inspire you.
Part of this may be travel. I was lucky enough to have grown up in a place is amazing physical beauty - that is if you went out and looked around a bit. Jeri is also from that area and has shown me a few of her photos. It is clear she has developed a good "eye" and sense of photography. You can discover scenes around you wherever you are, but sometimes a trip gives you a bit of insight.
° Don’t discount cheap point and shoots or the current crop of good smartphone cameras. They allow you to take photos quickly without your being noticed. You can blend into the background and take shots that would be impossible with an expensive and physically large camera. You can carry the point and shoot everywhere you go in case you notice something interesting. The best camera in the world is the one you are carrying when an image presents itself.
° Constraints are important. Very flexible and automatic cameras can make you lazy. Giving yourself constraints to move yourself to a state where you have to think about the shot and try something new. Using a fixed focus lens - otherwise called a “prime” - is a wonderful way to force creativity. Forcing yourself to a single aperture or shutter speed is also a great way to learn.
° Images are part of a story. Observe, shoot and write. When you can see a story the right sort of images will appear. If you are shooting people try to see their story and have them tell it. This is particularly important when you are working with people.
° I’m terrible at it, but shooting video - capturing audio, video and creating a story - is a powerful way to learn. It is an area I need to spend more time with. Some of you (hi Juliette and Jheri) are very good still and video story tellers. You certainly don’t need fancy gear to do this - perhaps a better microphone. The video capability of your point and shoot is probably just fine.
° Learn how to edit. Be critical and throw away the bad learning what has worked. Shooting digital is very inexpensive. Even the pros rarely get one good image for every hundred they shoot. One National Geographic photographer told me he is happen for one great image in a thousand.
° Know when to just watch. Years ago I traveled to a total solar eclipse. There were a few hundred people, dozens of specially prepared telescopes and nearly everyone had a camera. During the two or so minutes of totality most people were trying to get photos. It was such a waste. I’ve never seen a photo that captures the feeling of totality and there are thousands of photographers who are much better than me. My learning was any time spent fooling around with a camera when nature is offering real drama is time wasted. It is much better to just observe and be astounded by what you are seeing.
Let the pros do their thing and look at their work later. You need to observe a lot before you know anything about the story that is unfolding and some events are ephemeral and so well captured that experiencing the event directly is more powerful and teaches you more deeply.
° Give yourself some interesting challenges.2 Find a muse using your passions as a guide. Spend a lot of time doing what you love. Sometimes it makes sense to extend yourself and to shoot something that from a different point of view. Learn what the world looks like with a from a different point of view in time or space or even the wavelength of light you are exposing. Serendipity and discovery can happen.
° Save the crutches for the end. My sister and I both enjoy the digital editing phase - trying to add a bit to the photos we take to make art. She’s much better at it than me, but it is a fantastic learning experience and gives me a better sense of images to take in the first place.
There are some easy to use digital editing tools to spice up images. They are a cheap way to get to the unusual and become old very quickly - in the end they are toys. Use them, but only after you have taken good images in the first place. I would stick with more serious tools and learn the basics.3
In a nutshell I would say just learn how to observe. Don’t be lazy and let your camera make it easy for you - give yourself constraints and you will learn how to observe. Focus on trying to tell a story. Don’t spend a lot on gear. If you have a cheap point and shoot, you have enough to learn on and - if you are great - you could even publish iconic images in Vogue. Critique your own work and learn from it.
If you have kids or young relatives encourage them to observe the world. Even a 14 year old kid using a camera primative by the standards of today's point and shoots can take credible photos and learning how to do it can sharpen his or her observational skills.4
I’ll put together a telescope and microsope note soon for Dave and post it here for anyone else who may be interested. Perhaps I can suggest a few directions and save some money.
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1 Why I was doing this is a story a bit too long for here, but I go into it a bit in my TEDx talk. It is remarkable what you can do if you just try things - people just sort of grant permission.
2 This was taken about a decade ago from a very different point of view taken with a disposable Barbie's First Camera. Some details are in the TEDx talk...
3 Pixelmator is an inexpensive starting point as is Photoshop Express. Photoshop has a serious learning curve and is spendy, but can be wonderful if digital manipulation is your thing.
4 A rainbow in early June taken near my home in Montana when I was 14 with an extremely simple camera and scanned from a fading print. I was only intent in capturing the double rainbow, but it appears I had learned a bit about composition by then. If I had a smart camera that wasn't forcing me to be clever, perhaps I would have never learned these things.
wonderful Steve. Thank you for sharing!
Posted by: Jean Russell | 12/02/2011 at 11:21 AM
I know several amazing photographers and none of them are deeply into their cameras. I know any of them could shoot art with you cameras if they had to. You are right that you learn by constraining what you are doing tightly. These iPhone enhancement programs are beyond silly and show the person doesn't understand the art.
Posted by: Jheri | 12/02/2011 at 08:50 PM
Annie Leibovtz has famously been telling people simple point and shoots are great. You'll probably never master one to the point where you can take photos of her caliber. Her camera recommendation is one you can carry with you - she even recommends the iPhone
http://www.petapixel.com/2011/11/16/annie-leibovitz-calls-the-iphone-the-snapshot-camera-of-today/
Posted by: steve | 12/03/2011 at 01:32 PM