Why Photography? Part V

Basho’s Temple Bell © 2010 Bo Mackison

The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. ~Basho

(Fifth in a series on why I chose photography as my creative medium and the basis of a new career.)

#5. Photography allows me to set aside time each day to play.

Yes, Play.

I take photos nearly every day. I usually process most of them that same evening. Occasionally the weather keeps me inside, so then I pull out my collection of photographs I’ve taken, and I look for a photo I marked as having promise, but one that I never spent time playing with.

When I first started shooting photos, I thought post processing would have no place in my photography. Then I realized I needed a program to manage the thousands of photos I had, or I would never be able to keep track of what I had. I finally settled on Adobe Lightroom and use it not only to organize my photos, but to do some post processing.

I like to challenge myself to take the photo in the camera, but honestly, there are many times when a bit of a crop, or a little more exposure or clarity improves the photograph. I even been known to take some of the color out of a few botanicals, though I’m not too fond of super saturated photographs.

In the case of the above photo, I started out with 42 shots of this flower, most of them nearly the same. Just a few variations in the composition.  I was shooting with a little wind at my back, and though Sherpa was assisting by holding a wind block, occasionally the breeze would sway the flower. And I was shooting with a borrowed camera, and wasn’t totally familiar with all the controls, so I took a few trial and error shots. By the time I culled out the slightly out of focus photos, and the ones that didn’t make the cut, I had seven photos I liked.

Then came the fun part. Which one did I want to work with? I chose this particular shot because I like the suggestion of the stems coming from the deep interior of the flower. Then I started playing. A bit of light. A bit of black. A very slight increase in vibrancy and then a decrease in clarity to give a dreamy feel to this luscious white bloom.

I played with the composition until I had the feeling I wanted. The feeling. That’s important to me.

That’s pretty much how I do many of my photos — by the feeling I get. Hard to explain. That’s why I call it play. Because I spend a lot of time playing with minor adjustments until the photo is just so.

And once in awhile, I end up with a photo I really love. Basho’s Temple Bell is one of these special photos.