My own imagination is so I can live in my own reality.

As we climb the ever increasing mountain range of Photography, we have emotional ups and downs, we have successes, we have failures, we have people who support us and we have people who really do not like anything we produce.

One thing I have realised over the years is it is important to be true to yourself and be yourself.  Others will try and change your mindset, your voice, your vision and YOU.

Be original, there is only one of you, they broke the mould when they made you, no one else has lived the life you have lived, to get to this point. This is the originality you bring to photography, as much as there is nearly nothing that has not been photographed it has not all been photographed by YOU, through your eyes.

Keep climbing on your own path, a path less travelled, as you are the only one walking it. As much as we all capture images, we all do it slightly different, you can be in a group of photographers photographing the same scene, yet we all photograph something different, different camera settings, different perspectives, that's right we are all different. I believe we are all free to use our own imagination, one persons weirdness is another persons art and my own imagination is so I can live in my own reality.

They need YOU for the magic to appear.

 

We often get to a stage in our photography where it all seems a little hard, am I doing the right thing, I want to learn how to do ! but it is so hard, should I take the next step or stay where I am comfortable. No different from looking at that step mountain face, should I, could I do this or am I biting off more than I can chew, how will you know unless you try. No one can criticize you for trying, I believe it is a bigger crime not to try.

Yes it might seem like a drag, such a lot to learn, I have such a long way to go to be like?, why do you want to be like?, you are you and to be someone else is hard because that place is taken, you need to be YOU, You need to impress you, you need to tell your story, as you have lived your life not somebody else's life..

 Then all of a sudden it make sense the light bulb goes on in your head, something now make sense. I often get this on my workshop's, students will come to me and give me a hug and often say "I get it" We will never get all of it, there is just tooo much to learn and not enough years to learn it all, but we can make sure we are trying our best, pushing ourselves further and further, looking for improvement and seeing our failures as learning successes.

Yes you will feel like you are on thin ice at times but have faith like the guys in the image above, they are walking on Lake Mavis. YOU can do it, if you believe in yourself and accept you will make mistakes, learn from them, take criticism, learn from it. As I read a few years ago a quote by, I can not remember, it goes something like this, "a typewriter never wrote an novel or a fancy camera took an award winning image", they need YOU for the magic to appear.

If you want help finding that magic or trying something different  why not join me on one of my workshops.
www.scottfowlerworkshops.com

Storytelling in an image.

If images are to tell or imply a story, they must be about something. They do not have to reflect only deep themes. A photograph of a flower or a beautiful person can be about simple elements, just the beauty of nature or the image can be about innocence or the simple power of  a line.

A good story has a sense of wonder, it often asks more questions than it gives answers. It can be about what you leave in the frame or what you take out. You are responsible for every pixel in the image, if it is there it is because you wanted it to be there or did you.

Consider which lens to use can depend on the story you are trying to tell or the way you want the viewer to think or feel about your image. Being conscious of the tools you have available and being mindful in the use of them will make your storytelling more intentional and compelling so the viewer of your images can get a better feeling of what you want them to experience when viewing your images.

I am think about running a one day Natural light portraiture workshop here in Christchurch NZ, anyone interested, the top portrait was shot using natural light.

Creativity is not a magical process

A magical fairy will not appear on your shoulder and give you a jolly good smack round the head and suddenly you will be creative with heaps of award winning ideas, just bolting out of your head like a scalded cat. It often seems like you have just had a great idea and produced a great image, have you considered that the initial though or seed has been germinating in your subconscious for a while and only when all the elements are connected does the idea appear to your conscious. 

One of the keys to being more creative or creating new idea is to experience and exposure yourself to a variety of influences, the more diverse the better, then give yourself time to think about them. It can be suggested that you are gathering RAW MATERIAL.

This is one of my creative streaks, surrealism. My ideas have been influenced by many different, not just photographers but painters have planted seeds in my head and out eventual pops something like the image's above.

I love photographing people, when working with a model an idea that has been flying around in the visual circus called my brain will leap to the front and I will create an  image like this . Where did this initial idea come from I have no idea, I know that somewhere a seed was sown, germinated and when the conditions were correct sprouted. You too can have ideas appear like this it is about exposing your self to lots and lots of different types of art and having the Patience and confidence that it will get easier, I will create more creative images, however if you are going to sit on your backside waiting for the fairy you will be wait a longtime for nothing. 

So if you want to see my creativity at work, join m eon one of my workshops -www.scottfowlerworkshops.com

Learning to see is not about opening your eyes but having an open mind

Learning to see is not about opening your eyes but having an open mind.

Part of having an open mind is learning Patience, it is an ability to not only wait but to wait while being perceptive and open to possibilities around you, and know that nothing stays the same, if you wait and are patient something will happen. We are often lucky with our captures, I wonder how much luckier we could be with more patience and an open mind.

Patience is allowing yourself longer than you thought it could possibly take to master this craft. The magazines and so called experts never told me it would take this long, and knowing how to operate the camera is just the first step of many that will take a lifetime of patience in a journey that has no destination and always hoping tomorrow it will get easier,  ha sucker, dream on.

A bit like climbing a mountain, when you reach the top of the one you are capable of today, there is another one more difficult across the valley, have you the patience and
open mind to learn the skills so you can climb the next peak or are you all out of patience and happy to wallow in the valley. How will you see the beauty in the next valley, if you can not get over the next peak.

Having succesfully reached one peak, now for the next one, that's even higher and harder, do I have the patience to achieve this goal, do I believe in myself, yes is the answer to that question.

Challenge yourself.

Challenge yourself.

I am a great fan of challenging myself, I believe it is important in my growth as an artist photographer to set challenges or some might call it projects.

 I predominantly shoot busy images, images with lots of stuff in them, I challenge myself to produce work that I see as being simple, not busy. I find this hard, but in saying that it causes me to slow down and smell the roses so to speak. My brain both of them generally run at 400MPH with many different ideas, tasks being thought about at the same time. By making/forcing myself to slow down and consider the simple elements of a scene, it gives the brain a rest. I see this as a challenge or a project, so too make it a little more difficult I choose only one lens and only allowed myself to take only 36 exposures, as was the count on a roll of film and no deletes and all images must be usable.

Try it, go out somewhere new or well traveled, take a lens you do not normally use, give yourself a challenge, only 36 shots, only simple, only as a mouse would see the world, as examples. Or go all the way and set a long term project like my Story tellers imagination that I will not stop till I have 50 images, I will then produce a book and that will be the end of that body of work. I will then do something else. Remember a project is not finished in my opinion till it is in either a book, an AV or printed as an exhibition. A project can be on any subject it is your choice like so many things.

If you want more help join me on my workshops
www.scottfowlerworkshops.com

To process or not!

To process or not!


( the images on this blog have been changed from RAW to JPEG, no playing was done by ME in the processing of these images, all the computers own work!They were all shoot RAW 2008 and converted to JPEG 2 days ago)

Recently I got a comment on Facebook, here is the comment- "Explain to me why a photo has to be modified in your Workshop. Come on Natural is real so why change it unless you don't have the expertise to take the real shot" Harsh words, one might say!

I thought to myself what is "Natural", does the author mean straight out of the camera, if so I have bad news for them, there is no such thing as "Natural". I am making an assumption here that the natural photographer is not talking about shooting in the nude, but they mean JPEG which in my mind is an anagram for -"Just Pray Everything's Good".  You press the shutter, the camera sensor collects all the data in RAW format, then if you have it set to JPEG format it will do a whole bunch of predetermined adjustments to your image and gives you a JPEG image, your image has been processed, the camera has done it, it is not "NATURAL".

 The "Natural Image" has been altered twice on this image's way: first, it was perceived by the sensor in its own way, and second, it was optimized by the in-camera software. Post-processing is often necessary to correct the camera's mistakes and let photos look realistic. Software post-processing is not only for making photos more vivid, its original goal is to make them realistic!

The choice to process your images, is a personnel choice, the same as, do you shoot RAW or do you Just Pray Everything's Good. DO you post process using Photoshop or the likes, do you print and what printer do you use, what paper do you like. 
The other part of the question was directed at my workshops, I only give a helping hand where and when asked for, it is not a prerequisite to post process your images, or to shoot RAW, as I always say it is YOUR choice, however make sure you have all the information so that YOU can make an informed choice, not because some so called expert says so. As for taking a good shot, I like them and that is all that matters, The "natural photographer" well I have not seen his images so I could not possibly comment!
Remember you can enjoy one on one time with me at one of my many workshops.
www.scottfowlerworkshops.com