This will be short; I want to make you aware of something very important. Let's begin with a hypothetical situation. You always wanted to visit Asia. You finally get your chance. You'll be traveling for two weeks -- Angkor Watt, The Potala Palace, The Forbidden City, etc.. You take your camera. Back home and 3000 photos later you get to work editing. You take your 120 best photos and assemble them in a show (background music of course) that will run on your DVD player. One evening you have the family and friends over to watch. It starts great, but by the time you reach Singapore the kids are drifting away.
By the time you reach Tibet a couple of the adults are talking quietly in the back. People are getting bored before the show's over. What do you expect? It's boring to try and look at 120 photos all taken from the same place. That's right; 5 foot 4 (average adult) inches from the ground is the same place, and photos taken from that place characteristically all look alike. It makes sense doesn't it? Get on your knees! Get on your belly! Climb a tree!
When I was studying photography in college I spent a long time looking at the photos taken during the Depression. I got pretty familiar with the work of Dorothea Lange and there was something about her photos that I was having trouble identifying. Then one day I saw a photo of her. She was about average height, maybe a little less, but she had a Rolleiflex hanging around her neck. It hit me like a ball bat to the head. To focus and compose a photo with a Rolleiflex you look down into the top of the camera. She was holding the camera nearly two feet lower than someone would hold an SLR. Look at the photo on the right. She's looking up at the subject with the camera -- it makes a huge difference! I wish I could raise my voice during this chapter.
It sounds simple, but it's not. I know Ms. Lange was using that Rollei intentionally. (I realized that when I saw another photo of her with a camera on the roof of her car.) The problem here is that beginning photographers don't think about this, and it's so important. You're working in a medium that is moderated by high technology and that technology subtlely influences what you do. You bring the camera up to eye level to take a photo without thinking about it. You have to start thinking about it!
There are lots of other ways in which the nature of the technology pushes you to take one kind of photo and not another. There is no higher power dictating that all photographs must be rectangles. You make rectangle shaped photos because the viewfinder in your camera is a rectangle and because the local photofinisher's equipment is designed to make 4x6 prints. The technology is deciding for you. Never let technology decide for you! If only I could scream that at you! Technology is suposed to serve us, but far too often it chains us. Make square photos. Make round photos. Make long photos and make tall photos. I said in the first paragraph that this is very important. I'm not sure I have anything more important to tell you. It's about paying attention to everything that you do. To become a good artist you must heigthen your level of awareness. You can't break the chains if you don't know you're chained. Who's running the show; you or your camera? Your camera is stupid.
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