P#20 Q1E: The Language of Photography
Bryan Peterson explains how learning creative photography is somewhat like learning a foreign language
Photography isn't just about picking up a camera and shooting random shots. If you really want to get into the world of this art, you have to learn the language. Bryan Peterson explains how photography is much more than just pointing and clicking a camera.
Visiting a Foreign Land
Bryan Peterson: Let's say you're going to go to a foreign country. If you're going to be there a while, you need to learn a bit of the language. What does this have to do with photography?
Every single camera bag is a foreign country to every beginning photographer. Until they learn the language of that bag, they will never be able to appreciate what it wants to record.
When most people go to a foreign country, they only bother to learn the basics of the language. They learn to say, "I want a glass of wine." Or, "Where's the closest restaurant?"
The same thing applies in photography. They go, "All I really want to do is take safe photographs." If that's what one wants to do, they just need a digital point-and-shoot. They want to take a picture of the mother and the baby -- take a shot to send out to the relatives. Those people probably won't be in my classes.
What I'm looking to do is reach those people who want to go beyond feeling safe. If you know the language of your lenses, they will get you in trouble and get you out of trouble for good reasons.
Look at it like this... If I told the students, "Look everybody, there's a phenomenal storytelling photograph here," they might be able to understand what I meant by it if they've read Understanding Exposure, my book on exposure. However, they may not know what that means in terms of the vision.
A storytelling picture is one where we have a great opening line with a great story all the way through and a smashing ending. Nine times out of ten, it's going to be a photograph that draws you in like the first page of a great novel and unveils this wonderful story as you go deeper into the photograph where we then end up at the end of the photograph and discover, "Boy, this has been a terrific read."
In Conclusion
My interview with Bryan Peterson proved there's more to photography than meets the eye. In fact, learning your way around your equipment is kind of like visiting a foreign land. You have to learn what those items in your photography bag do before you can even begin to fathom what they should be recording.
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