No awkward explanations... just a busy summer and fall. However, if I'm going to have a blog, I better stay on top of it. Rather than updates and the ever-yawn-worthy 'whats happenin'?', better to use this blog to explain what this is all about. You know.. like I said it was in the beginning. Le Sigh.
So where better to start than talking about why I chose to shoot the way I do. That weird stuff.
Ultimately there is one critical aspect to this: The key is how to use the elements to make the image interesting.
What is 'interest' though? People tend to have expectations based on experience. They're used to seeing photographs that are a certain way; a smiling face, center of the frame, eyes looking at the camera etc etc. It could be the most beautiful person in the world, technically perfect exposure and focus, yet because that's what the viewer expected to see, it's not very 'interesting'.
The answer to making an interesting image is to break those expectations. Present the viewer with a visual puzzle. This can be done in a multitude of different ways...
In the above shot, there are lots of repeating vertical lines, and the subjects are lined up uniformly, but because the thing the viewer wants to see most, the heads, are missing, it will make the viewer pause a second and look at other elements.
This image embraces something I'm fond of using (or not using that is) and that's focus. The shot is obviously out of focus. The intention here, to grab the viewer for that extra second, is to make them look for something that's in focus. People like clear objects. They expect them to be easy to see. Take that away and you grab those extra few seconds and make them ask "what's that smudge? a person? a cotton ball?" This image also characterizes another trick...
The previous sample you can see the subjects, or smudges, are positioned to the far left and right of the frame. In this next sample, you can see the subjects are small compared to the image and placed in the far bottom right corner. Photography follows a few rules, and the important one in this case is the Rule of Thirds. How does this fit with expectations? Well, the eye expects to find the subject in the center. If it's not, again, something is weird and it has to search and move. In the case of the last image, we're also seeing a lot of dead-space or negative-space. That is, there's an area with nothing there.. makes a person ask "why did he make them so small and hide them in a corner?"...
This last example uses a couple of the past techniques. The subjects are placed at the outside fo the respective frames. Important parts are missing and cropped out, and we also see some out-of-focus. So what's left to see here? We can see Lisa's eyes, and know she's looking at Adam, but we can't see him. Really all you can take from this is possibly the most important part of an image: conveying a feeling or an emotion. The viewer is forced to only look at her eyes, and forced to understand what she's feeling, because here's nothing else to see.
These are only a handful of considerations (psht, like I'd let you in on all of my secrets) when directing a viewer. It's not, or shouldn't be, about making a pretty picture. It's about controlling what the viewer sees and guiding them to understand what you're showing them, and what you saw when you created it.
Photographers often talk about "capturing special moments" (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little..) but really the skill isn't just in delivering technically sound shots, with today's cameras any monkey can give that good go... it's about the ability to go beyond that, and put some impact and weight behind it. The real challenge is in creating an atmosphere for the viewer when you can only access one of their 5 senses.
Making an image 'interesting' doesn't make it good. All it does is give you a few more seconds of the viewer's attention to get across your message. So using these tricks can confuse them enough to keep their brain engaged in the shot while you say what you have to say...
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