Guest Post by Jack Brauer on Landscape Photography - The Hollow Pursuit of Tripod Holes
Guest Post by Jack Brauer on Landscape Photography
The Hollow Pursuit of Tripod Holes
What I do not recommend doing is to see a striking photo and say to yourself “I want to go THERE!”. Some photographers do this. Hell, I even catch myself with this impulse from time to time. We see a photo we love and we’ll figure out where it was taken and we’ll hike for days to basically reshoot the scene. That kind of motivation is no different than the icon shooting that I mentioned before – except it’s just harder to get there!
No, what I’m talking about here is finding your own locations. It doesn’t have to be a place that nobody’s ever been before; after all the entire planet is more or less thoroughly explored and photographed by now. When I mean is to do your own research, come up with your own ideas, and then pursue those ideas. This is part of the creative process!
By following in other’s footsteps and trying to copy other images that you’ve seen, you’re shortchanging yourself of the initial creative spark. In fact, in that case the creative spark is not yours at all – you’re simply executing someone else’s original creative vision! Sure, you can make your own variation on the composition and maybe you’ll get lucky with even better weather conditions, but the end result will always be less gratifying than a photo that you conceived and created on your own from start to finish.
The Hollow Pursuit of Tripod Holes
What I do not recommend doing is to see a striking photo and say to yourself “I want to go THERE!”. Some photographers do this. Hell, I even catch myself with this impulse from time to time. We see a photo we love and we’ll figure out where it was taken and we’ll hike for days to basically reshoot the scene. That kind of motivation is no different than the icon shooting that I mentioned before – except it’s just harder to get there!
No, what I’m talking about here is finding your own locations. It doesn’t have to be a place that nobody’s ever been before; after all the entire planet is more or less thoroughly explored and photographed by now. When I mean is to do your own research, come up with your own ideas, and then pursue those ideas. This is part of the creative process!
By following in other’s footsteps and trying to copy other images that you’ve seen, you’re shortchanging yourself of the initial creative spark. In fact, in that case the creative spark is not yours at all – you’re simply executing someone else’s original creative vision! Sure, you can make your own variation on the composition and maybe you’ll get lucky with even better weather conditions, but the end result will always be less gratifying than a photo that you conceived and created on your own from start to finish.
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| Jack Brauer |