Don’t Overlook the Simple Subjects
During the photography classes I teach I always do a session on composition. I explain that the art of photography is 20% technical ability and 80% composition. My students are directed to selected one simple object – a fire hydrant, soda can – anything really, then shoot 25 different images of it using the composition styles I have discussed in class with them. I further restrict the exercise to either color or black & white as well as just one focal length of lens. Each student is further instructed not to delete any images as it is good to learn both from what we do correctly and what we do incorrectly. My goal is to get them to see how composition affects the image regardless of the subject. In other words, I want them to see the possibilities not just the object. The exercise builds creativity and they are encouraged to do it once a month as a method of improving their ability to see and think creatively. The results I see are amazing and different from student to student.
One of my passions about travelling is the ability to just roam about an area finding new roads, new things and ways to get lost. However, with the aid of a GPS, it is getting harder and harder to get lost. GPS for me is my insurance policy, my back up plan. I like working from a topographical map. I can see contours in the landscape. Orienting the map correctly and paying attention to the sun – I learned this as a Boy Scout – helps me see steep ridges and gentle slopes, I can visualize shadows for potential images. The best thing is not worrying about time, schedules or a definite destination. My recent annual pilgrimage to South Dakota afforded me this opportunity in the Badlands National Park area of that state.
My wife was driving with her parents across the states from Pennsylvania and this afforded me a number of days to focus on photography and “get lost” in a spectacular landscape.
One afternoon I was driving East through the Pinnacles section of the park and turned South onto Conata Road just before Dillon Pass. I knew there was once a town out there near State Road 44. I did not really know where I was heading, except out of the National Park and into the Buffalo Gap National Grassland. With a plume of dust behind my rental car, I rumbled down a dirt road and over the cattle gate at the park entrance. Somewhere between me and State Road 44 would be what was left of the town, if anything.
Eventually, I could see some debris in the distance and upon closer inspection, there was an old bullet riddled car (think of steel plated Swiss cheese), a tire, pieces of a roof, a foundation and an assortment of other things. I had found Conata. As I walked from the car a shed rattlesnake skin was stretched out on the ground in front of me. This was a gentle reminder to watch where I stepped.
How many times had people driven past the vehicle not thinking of its value as a subject, I wondered.
That car would be my subject as I went through my composition exercise. I walked around it numerous times both close and far. There was a wind and I was far from the Badlands. It was still – no birds – and isolated. The car was old. I had to show all of this in just one frame. I chose black and white for the old feeling. I would shoot with a wide angle to show isolation by "pushing" the horizon further away in the image. – I could get close and at the same time make the peaks of the Badlands look small on the horizon. Choosing an angle away from the road helped with the feeling of isolation. Everything fell into place. Again, I wondered how few people took the time to stop and explore.
