If you hang around photography circles – or even attend the workshops I help lead – you’ll no doubt hear a discussion on creative vision. In short, what did you see in your mind’s eye when you took the picture, or what was your vision for what this photo would look like when you’re done. The idea, though admittedly perhaps pretentious at times, is meant to encourage (and remind) people to be intentional with their images. For me, I typically catch a vision for what I’m wanting while I’m shooting. I very rarely go into a scene knowing exactly how I want it to look when I’m finished.
There are have been a few exceptions, however. My Star Voyager image, for example, I had researched and planned to the point I could see it in my head before I even got there. Same thing goes for the old truck out at the Joshua Tree junk yard. I wasn’t 100% sure how it lined up with the night sky, but I had a pretty good idea, and I knew exactly how I wanted it to look when lit. Another example is this week’s Picture of the Week.
I mentioned at the beginning of this series that I really wanted to explore other parts of the Smokies that I don’t often visit. I was looking around one evening and saw some pictures of the Alfred Reagan house in the Roaring Fork Motor Nature trail area of the park. The house had some interesting characteristics to me – the painted exterior, including the colorful front doors, as well as no front-facing windows. I would definitely want to show off those doors, I thought to myself, but then how would I light the scene if I couldn’t put lights inside? Well I had learned a little trick a few weeks prior when I was messing around with the Bud Ogle cabin. I had Holly go behind the cabin, relative to the camera, and light the trees up. It was a really cool effect, but somewhat subdued in that image because of all the other lighting going on in that particular image. This is when I really started to build out the rest of my creative vision for this image.
By the time I reached the Alfred Reagan house, which took a lot more effort than I anticipated, I might add – having visited it for the first time that very night – I already knew exactly how I wanted to shoot it and light it. I already knew how the sky lined up. I just needed to pull it all off to my satisfaction.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the other two images I mentioned were favorites from the year I took them, and remain so today. This particular image is also a favorite. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out, a lot of which has to do with the amount of effort I put in on the front end!
More next week!
–Dan Thompson