Tuesday
Apr142009
Better Photo's Through Effin' Swearing!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11:37PM
Warning: Don't read this if easily offended
I'm not talking about making promises to yourself here, like "I swear that I'm going to use the rule of thirds more often", or "I promise not to blow out my highlights all the time". No. Definitely not. I'm talking about using expletives, swear words and coarse language to improve your photography.
What the hell am I going on about? Passion. Emotion. Aggression. Photography can be a relaxing, zen-like pass-time, but sometimes we need to give ourselves a kick in the ass to achieve our best.
When 'ol Joe MacNally was talking about taking a photo of the light on the top of the Empire State Building, do we imagine he said "I'm going to take a Photo of the bulb being changed on top on the Empire State"? No. He probably said something like "Man, I'm gonna take a photo on top of the god-damn Empire State, Man!"
Do we really think that Robert Cappa (God rest his soul) really said "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not closer enough."? I don't think so. This guy was one of the greatest war photographers ever. While smoking a cigarette he would have said "If your pictures 'aint good enough boy, you ain't f@*cking close enough!"
So how does this relate to our attempts to become better photographers, to shoot our best, to fulfil our potential? Well, when you're standing in front of a scene, think about what's special about it, how you're going to shoot it, then add an expletive.
Let's imagine we're standing in front of a lovely landscape, and we've got an Adams-esque black and white treatment in mind, with massive depth of field. We could say "I'm going to make this shot really sharp", and make sure we're using a nice tight aperture and keep an eye on our shutter speed.
Even better, we say, "I'm gonna make this shot damn sharp", set up the tripod and use the shutter delay.
Lets go all the way: "I'm gonna make this shot so f#@king sharp your Mrs could shave her moustache on it!" and use the tripod, tight aperture, shutter delay, mirror lock-up, work out the hyper-focal distance, and then wait for the wind to die down so that the leaves on the trees stop moving.
Another example. We're looking at a scene, and want to try a different, unusual angle, 'cos we all know that photo's taken from eye-level can be a bit boring.
"I'm going to use an unusual angle" you say as you simply turn the camera to take the shot in portrait rather than landscape mode.
"I'm gonna take this from a bloody unusual angle!" You shout (to yourself please) as you drop down onto one knee and tip the camera slightly.
"This shot is gonna be from the weirdest sh#t-hot angle f#@king ever!" You cry as you squirm in the mud on your belly, with the camera raked over to 45 degrees, shooting a HDR with 9 manually bracketed exposures....
Get the idea?
I'm talking about taking things to extremes to force ourselves to see what we're capable of, then to push that limit further. If you're going to take a photo that's abstract, don't mess about, make it damn abstract! If you're deliberately taking a blurred shot, make it bloody blurred! If you're going to get close to your subject - get f#@king close!
Our biggest barriers are often our own habbits and inhibitions, so we need to understand that to be the best we can, we need to be our own inspiration when out in the field. I'm not talking about beating ourselves up, verbally. I am talking about choosing our attitude, choosing to be positive no matter what kit we're shooting with, no matter what the subject is, or what the light's like.
I'm talking about walking out of our homes and saying:
"Today, I'm going to take some f#@king great photographs!"
Cheers, Rob.
I'm not talking about making promises to yourself here, like "I swear that I'm going to use the rule of thirds more often", or "I promise not to blow out my highlights all the time". No. Definitely not. I'm talking about using expletives, swear words and coarse language to improve your photography.
What the hell am I going on about? Passion. Emotion. Aggression. Photography can be a relaxing, zen-like pass-time, but sometimes we need to give ourselves a kick in the ass to achieve our best.
When 'ol Joe MacNally was talking about taking a photo of the light on the top of the Empire State Building, do we imagine he said "I'm going to take a Photo of the bulb being changed on top on the Empire State"? No. He probably said something like "Man, I'm gonna take a photo on top of the god-damn Empire State, Man!"
Do we really think that Robert Cappa (God rest his soul) really said "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not closer enough."? I don't think so. This guy was one of the greatest war photographers ever. While smoking a cigarette he would have said "If your pictures 'aint good enough boy, you ain't f@*cking close enough!"
So how does this relate to our attempts to become better photographers, to shoot our best, to fulfil our potential? Well, when you're standing in front of a scene, think about what's special about it, how you're going to shoot it, then add an expletive.
Let's imagine we're standing in front of a lovely landscape, and we've got an Adams-esque black and white treatment in mind, with massive depth of field. We could say "I'm going to make this shot really sharp", and make sure we're using a nice tight aperture and keep an eye on our shutter speed.
Even better, we say, "I'm gonna make this shot damn sharp", set up the tripod and use the shutter delay.
Lets go all the way: "I'm gonna make this shot so f#@king sharp your Mrs could shave her moustache on it!" and use the tripod, tight aperture, shutter delay, mirror lock-up, work out the hyper-focal distance, and then wait for the wind to die down so that the leaves on the trees stop moving.
Another example. We're looking at a scene, and want to try a different, unusual angle, 'cos we all know that photo's taken from eye-level can be a bit boring.
"I'm going to use an unusual angle" you say as you simply turn the camera to take the shot in portrait rather than landscape mode.
"I'm gonna take this from a bloody unusual angle!" You shout (to yourself please) as you drop down onto one knee and tip the camera slightly.
"This shot is gonna be from the weirdest sh#t-hot angle f#@king ever!" You cry as you squirm in the mud on your belly, with the camera raked over to 45 degrees, shooting a HDR with 9 manually bracketed exposures....
Get the idea?
I'm talking about taking things to extremes to force ourselves to see what we're capable of, then to push that limit further. If you're going to take a photo that's abstract, don't mess about, make it damn abstract! If you're deliberately taking a blurred shot, make it bloody blurred! If you're going to get close to your subject - get f#@king close!
Our biggest barriers are often our own habbits and inhibitions, so we need to understand that to be the best we can, we need to be our own inspiration when out in the field. I'm not talking about beating ourselves up, verbally. I am talking about choosing our attitude, choosing to be positive no matter what kit we're shooting with, no matter what the subject is, or what the light's like.
I'm talking about walking out of our homes and saying:
"Today, I'm going to take some f#@king great photographs!"
Cheers, Rob.
Reader Comments (3)
Great post :)
In the north of Norway, where I come from, we curse and swear a lot more than in the south of Norway. It is actually legal for a northerner to curse at a police officer, but it is not legal for a southerner. It is because cursing is considered a normal part of our language :)
Now in relation to the article I agree that focusing your mind in one direction or the other could be really useful when taking photographs. Perhaps one could try to be really sad, really happy, really in love, really hateful and so on, when capturing scenes that is supposed to convey a special feeling. The opposite would be hard: taking a happy photo when you are down, or a interesting photo when you are really bored.
F**k me! well said .........
Thanks guys, not quite sure what reaction the post would get, but I'm f%@king pleased!
Cheers, Rob.