About Creating Emotional Photographs

 Photography encompasses such a wide range of creative styles, it is all but impossible to define all of them. There are axioms that apply to all styles of creative endeavors such as light being the driving force behind all compositional arrangements. However, for myself, capturing an emotional photograph is one of the most difficult in all of photography because it requires something extra, something that must come from within, down deep inside the hidden places that at times may offer the most vulnerable of expressions. Every photographer possesses this instinct. Every photographer expresses it in their own unique way, and every photographer must come to grips with how to express what resides within their own expressive state.

The exciting thing about creating emotional photographs is that it allows for a full range of expressions and offers any photographer the opportunity to reveal a part of themselves that may not always be readily or easily expressed. It also allows room for just about any form of expression and is not locked into a set scale of do's and don'ts. In other words, you can create an image any way you want to express it. It is less about capturing reality, and more about expressing emotion through a creative outlet.

I suppose the most difficult part for a photographer is figuring out how to capture emotion. Most of us, myself included, tend to look for details of reality, you know...that spark of light in a deer's eye, the veins of a backlit maple leaf, the magnificent antlers of a bull elk highlighted against a snowcapped mountain. These in their own right express an element of emotional value and there are many photographers, many of them I know personally, who do a wonderful and amazing job at capturing these kinds of photographs. I'd guess that 90% or more of my photographic efforts fall within that scale of photographic attempts.

However, every once in a while, something else get stirred inside of me. I struggle to define it. It is difficult to effectively describe how it works. It's just a feeling. You know it when it's there. I call it an art, The Art of Being There, where all the elements suddenly come together and deep within yourself, you don't just see it, you visualize its significant impact on the moment. It almost like the moment suddenly reveals itself. Sometimes it last for but a short time, other times it lingers on for a while to evolve toward a climax of light. Sometimes, there is an instinctive urge to turn around and look the other way just to see what is there. Often, when that happens, the light becomes softer, more diffused, with deeper and richer color, in a different way from the more direct, contrasting, lighting sources. The impact of such an image is often profound and stirs the emotions of who may linger their own visual moments to absorb the true nature of the image.

The nice thing about creating emotional photographs, well, its all about personal expression regardless of what the norms of the photographic art world tell us to do. It also provides one of the most rewarding and satisfying ways of expression.

Keith

The Eloquent Composition - Observing a Small Patch of Nature Up Close

 A great many times I am inspired by the works and applications of other photographers. Often, when I feel like I have fallen into a rut, simply by viewing, or watching, or reading about what other photographers are doing will stir my creative juices into flowing once again. The previous article about backyard nature photography by Barbara DeGraves ( Post Link ) stirred a dormant spark back to life within myself and I began to look more closely at the nature opportunities I could discover right outside my backdoor.

At first I simply walked around and took a few snapshots here and there, but even through this routine approach, I began to recognize and see opportunities. I discovered a patch of late summer flowers that was surrounded by little bluestem prairie grasses. Within that patch, small, easy to overlook critters roamed through what to them was a jungle paradise.

For two days straight, I took a couple of hours each day to simply sit down next to that small patch of nature. At first I really did not see much, just routine compositions here and there, but after a while, I started to notice little, what appeared to be, lady bugs taking a hike along the stems and across the curved leaves of the bluestem grass. I zoomed in but not to closely. When I took a closer look at the images, a pattern began to develop. Simple yet eloquent compositions formed across my view finder. 

A wooly worm snuggled safely on a stem, a feather caught by the grasses, cotton-like seeds spreading their delicate feathery arms to catch the wind, were but a few of the simple, yet amazing features of nature playing out within a few yards of where I sat. One of the most subtle eloquent compositions involved the head of a tall grass being illuminated by a narrow beam of sunlight against a dark background. Easy to overlook, but by sitting and observing, it is the simplicity of compositions like those that begin to present themselves.

On day two, I once again sat next to that same plot of wildflowers, only this time I purposely looked for those simple and eloquent compositions. It became the theme of my outing as I moved a few yards here and there to take in a different lighting angle. I even shot some video clips as gentle breezes softly moved the tall grasses, and colorful leaves already turning for this early fall season glowed backlit by the sun. Just a few scenes that made up my little patch of nature.

Needless to say, I enjoyed those few hours just sitting, observing, and photographing this small patch of the natural world not far from my backdoor.

Creating simple, eloquent compositions takes an eye of observation. Seeing what is there falls within the realm of looking beyond the obvious, and taking the time to slow down to allow nature to reveal her hidden self. Too many times I have bypassed a location because I mistakenly took a quick look and moved on. Possibly, as a result I missed many high quality photo ops. As in most things, keeping it simple most of the time results in more powerful and pleasing compositions.

The big compositions are all around us. They are pretty easy to find because they tend to jump out at us.  It's the small compositions we most often overlook.  Take time to just sit and look around. You might be amazed at what will become visible. Use the same basic rules of composition as applied to the big compositions...

only...think about adjusting the exposure to generate more dramatic lighting effects. A simple beam of light illuminating a single flower, or a tiny creature crawling along a stem, then maybe a moth or small butterfly hidden amongst the jungle of flowers, requires the use of a large aperture to compress the main subject and blur the background. Because of the jumbled nature of such compositions, I will most often use manual focus so I can focus past interfering foliage between the camera and the subject. This in turn creates a surreal depth of field, the kind that separates the ordinary, from the extraordinary.

Use the compositional elements that are there creatively, and remember, simple eloquent compositions often become some of the most powerful and revealing photo's you may ever take, and its a fun few hours just slowing down and simply observing the world around us.

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