expectations
Before I launch into rambling, it’s fantastic to see so many gorgeous images being dredged up from the depths of people’s archives to be given the attention they deserve. Following on somewhat tenuously from the whole editing issue, I just read a new take on something I’ve heard/thought about plenty before:
Given the luxury of time, the expectations of what we might have hoped to catch for a shoot pass into appreciation (or disappointment) for what we actually capture. It can take a little time for the mind to “change channels” about our expectations.
I’m no stranger to the concept of leaving time between shooting and processing/editing so that you ‘distance yourself from the emotional attachment to the subject/shoot’ but I’m of the opinion that your emotional attachment to the shoot is something that adds to the results, rather than detracting from them. Otherwise you’d be as well to have someone else edit and process your work. But this is a new slant on it for me. Well, a combination of new and one of those things that you kind of knew in the back of your mind but couldn’t realise or articulate until someone else does, so much more eloquently.
I started writing this post last week, and even after thinking about it for days I still managed to go out shooting on Sunday and come home to edit and process what I shot, heavy with expectations (my subject was a rain soaked early blossoming tree in gorgeous post-shower sunlight against a background of earthy brown bushes). And as you might expect, I was disappointed, because I think I was looking for something, rather than looking at what I had. I’m tentatively hoping that when I go through them for the second time, I’ll actually get to seeing what I took rather than looking for what I thought I should have got.
Some people tend to work better when they are told what they do isn’t up to scratch. It makes them strive to work harder, be better, show what they are really capable of at the peak of their ability. I think of it as the demon with pitchfork school of encouragement. I think it suits a certain kind of personality. I’ve discovered that when I’m ‘encouraged’ in that way, I’m more inclined to say “Fine then, I won’t bother” rather than striving to be better. But by some cruel quirk of fate, I seem to have a demon with a pitchfork in my own head. Maybe by giving the demon some cooling off time, I can stick corks on the pitchfork…
Point of interest: After checking the preview of this post I noticed that the tree I was shooting yesterday is the very same as the one in the image I’ve used in my blog header, which I must have shot this time last year…
“I was disappointed, because I think I was looking for something, rather than looking at what I had. I’m tentatively hoping that when I go through them for the second time, I’ll actually get to seeing what I took rather than looking for what I thought I should have got.”
Exactly how I feel most times I come home and upload the photos. For some strange reason I’m always happier if I come back a few days even weeks or months to a photo before working on it. Some of my favourite shots are ones I didn’t look at for weeks. I usually have high expectations when I’m out shooting but I’m starting to become more relaxed with the environment I’m in. Its starting to bring out a new side of me I never knew about. I hope some of that makes sense, the written word is not my forte.
I wonder if it’s a natural progression thing. I think there are phases we’ve all been through, come to think of it. Maybe it’s only after all these ‘standard’ things we go through, that we go on to develop individually. Maybe.
Psh, I’m hardly articulate but ramble on anyway. Is like feeling my way around in the dark…
Great expectations :-) Every time when I go through all uploaded pictures (and Darren already understands), I am waiting for “the one”. And it is never there. But that is another story.
We all have pitchfork in our heads. But fortunately for me, the photography is the means of relaxation and therapy against it. Of course, I would like to produce nice, good and captivating pictures. Maybe I am not dragged by the response from the viewers, some may say that I don’t care. But the picture is mine and projecting of myself. The pitchfork in my head must not have influence on my photography, because I do photography only because I want to.
Does it make sense? I don’t know, but I tell you one thing – it is good to listen to opinions, but don’t let them discourage you from doing something you like. And especially if you are good at it.