Intentional Photography
It’s too easy to take the beauty around us for granted. Making photographs with intention can keep us from falling into that trap.
When I wake up well before the sunrise and drive to my local park to make a photograph, I’m acting with intention. I don’t know if what I see will be magnificent or merely pretty. Either way, I am appreciating it by being there in the moment.
Similarly, relationship counsellors and life coaches tell us to be there in the moment for our kids and loves. Put the phone down and really listen. Get away with them to a place where there are no distractions. Ask questions to make sure you understand what they’re saying. Ask yourself if they want you to help them solve a problem or just need you to be there so they are not alone in it.
Winter, Floyd’s Fork
Can we do the same with our photography? A friend and excellent photographer, Paul Cook, commented that the photograph before this paragraph had a cold feel to it despite the reds and oranges—normally warm colors. I confessed that I had added a slight blue tone to both the shadows and the highlights to emphasize how the scene had looked and felt to me. I toned it that way because that was what I felt in the moment. Those warm colors may presage spring, but they have a wintry shade. He also agreed with me that the debris in the foreground was distracting. I knew it was but kept it in because the creek, Floyd’s Fork, had been in full winter mode—muddy and full of drift brought downstream by the melting snow and rain upstream. Spring is on the horizon, but we must journey through more winter mud and debris to reach it.
I’m writing about this photograph even though I don’t consider it a portfolio piece. The debris was a natural part of the scene, but it’s definitely distracting. Consider this photo practice before I find a less distracting foreground that enhances the message of spring on the horizon. That’s what I was thinking that morning.
This, I think, is why I photograph landscapes. Intentional photography makes me slow down, focus the camera and myself, appreciate the scene, really listen to it, and make a photograph to make sure I understand what it’s saying. When I really get it right, my photographs share that message with the viewer.