Making Art vs. Taking Pictures

Over the past few days I have been reading post from three of my favorite blogs—Moose Peterson, Craig Tanner and Scott Kelby.  The postings were about different subject:  Moose, don’t take your photography too seriously, have fun, it’s just a picture; Craig (in Daily Critique on HDR, you will have to register on his website to see the Daily Critique), accepting new forms of photograph and making art rather than taking a picture; and Kelby, (guest blogger for day), showing how he created different images.  

These blogs reminded me of a day I spent in Naches, Mississippi earlier this year with one of my friends.   I was setting on a bench feeling very frustrated because I did not like anything that I had shot all morning—the subject was not really that good, the lighting was too harsh, the colors did not seem to work together, etc., etc., etc.  The only creativity that I was using was to make up excuses as to why I had not taken a decent photos.   I then decided to give myself an assignment:  MAKE five photographs within 50 feet of where I was sitting that I would be willing to share with other photographers.   I immediately stopped looking and started studying my surroundings.   All of a sudden, I saw lots of photos-to-be.

Today, I am going to depart from my usual format.  I am not going to discuss a single photograph—the camera settings and the post processing.   Basically, all the photographs were taken with my Nikon D3 with a Nikon 28-70 f/2.8 lens and I did a little work in Lightroom and used a few (or no) nik Color Efex Pro or Silver Efex Pro filters on them.

Enjoy.  And go out there and make some art!

PS-After I posted this I visited Steve Schuenke's blog and found a really cool photograph and Steve noting some of the same things I discussed here.  Go check it out!  In case I forget (I am old) to post it on his blog, "Steve, I like your photograph.  It is so interesting on so many levels:  color, movement and new photographic technique to explore.  Thanks."