Go Find the Art

This certainly isn’t the first post of its type, but I figure the more we remind ourselves of this the more it might sink in and the more we’ll make some art.

Three weeks ago I had planned to get out and shoot on a Sunday. I didn’t have any major plans and I used up the morning doing other stuff. By the time I got around to go shoot it was close to mid-day and it was a pretty hazy day at that. The light around central Oklahoma isn’t exactly beautiful on a hazy early afternoon. Regardless of where you live I’m sure you can relate.

I had a brief Twitter exchange with a photographer in Phoenix on another subject and he commented on enjoying the beautiful day. I replied back to him that the light here was just ugly, but I was going shooting anyway to prove to myself yet again that it just…doesn’t…matter.

Sitting on my desk right now is a copy of U.S. Camera’s Everybody’s Photo Course by Joseph Foldes that I picked up at an antique show in a stack of old photo magazines. It was published in 1961 and has a series of instructional lessons with assignments building from basic understanding of exposure through complex lighting. This of course would have nothing at all to do with this post if it weren’t for Lesson 24: Seeing Pictures.

Too many cameras lie idle because “there is nothing to photograph”. I hope that yours is not one of them…

There is an endless variety of subject matter available to all of us, everywhere. Our task is to discover and to photograph it.

The first thing to realize is that you can take a good picture of practically anything. You don’t have to wait for something unusual to happen, or until you can visit a “picturesque” place. You just have to learn to see, to notice subjects that will make a good picture.

Good advice and advice we probably all can use from time to time.

So the light was lousy that day. So what? Since I don’t pursue picturesque landscapes (pretty pointless in the middle of Oklahoma anyway) what the light looks like really doesn’t matter much. Will I find the same shots I might have found at sunrise? Doubtful, but I can find something good to shoot.

So what I really need is a plan. Nothing too rigid or I won’t be able to see freely. So here it was (more or less):

• I wanted to work with a 35mm full-frame exposure on my Holga. I’d tried this before with less than satisfactory results, so I wanted to give it another shot.
• I wanted to shoot some black and white in my Yashica-Mat TLR. Given the sky was kind of hazy and featureless…
• …it also gave me an opportunity to try some filtering. I’ve got a stack of old Series V filters and a Bay 1 adapter to mount them and this would be a good day to try some filters to make the sky cooperate.

I had the perfect place in mind for shooting. There is a very nice outdoor energy exhibit at the Oklahoma History Center with lots of old oilfield equipment. It is a target-rich environment and I hadn’t shot there in over a year so I was looking forward to working there.

And I’m off. And I drive to the Oklahoma History Center. And I find the gates around the exhibit are locked up tight. Hmmm. I did say I didn’t want to be too rigid.

So there’s always Bricktown. Of course when I think Bricktown it’s like photographic deja vu. I’ve shot it, and shot it, and shot it, and one thing I don’t like doing is repeating myself. However, rather than viewing that as a limitation I decide it’s just going to add to my challenge so I head that way.

On my way toward Bricktown I decide to take a detour through a new neighborhood of townhouses and condominiums east of downtown, and I see a very cool installation art piece I’ve never seen before. It’s pretty dramatic with tall white metal structures pointing up and a series of cables running from the structure back toward the ground. It’s interesting and I want to shoot it. This looks like the perfect opportunity to use the Yashica-Mat with a K2 medium yellow filter to help darken the weak blue sky. Given the white of the structure I should be able to get a pretty good contrast with the sky and it should make for an interesting black and white composition.

I work around it and come up with a few interesting angles and get three shots. This is one of them.

I’ve broken the ice and now I’m getting into it. I’ve shot some and I’ve found a cool subject that will need further exploration on another trip. Now onward.

As I drift around “seeing” photos I start to find a few worth putting on film. A shot here, a shot there, and I’ve come up with a few I’m happy with. Here’s another of them, and was one of the first I shot with the Holga that day.

As I drift past Sonic headquarters I notice a couple of enormous earthenware pots at their front entrance. I’m sure they’ve been there for a very long time, but somehow I’ve missed them. Looks like another opportunity for some medium format black and white…

And so it continues. A nugget here, a small gem there. A latte at Starbuck’s. It was pretty cold that day. I needed the liquid warmth.

With harsh sunlight comes strong shadows. If you look at them as an opportunity rather than a problem you can find they can help contribute to a photo. Here’s an example of that, and a good subject that runs right off the 35mm and right on past the sprocket holes.

As I wrap it up and head toward the vehicle I’m really dying to get a shot of one of the fiberglass buffaloes that is installed along the canal. These things are all over Bricktown and each is painted differently. The paint scheme on this one has a lot of character and I really want a head shot, but that puts me pointing right at the sun. I can shift a little, but I’m still going to have a pretty ugly exposure situation working against me. I consider trying to turn the buffalo but I figure that’s probably frowned upon and he’s likely to be too heavy for me to do that. So I can’t move the sun, I can’t turn the buffalo, and I’m not waiting for sunset. Guess I better pick another angle.

Nothing like a fiberglass buffalo backend to wrap up a day of shooting.

So the light was lousy. So what? I proved to myself again that you can find shots when you look for them, even in less than optimal conditions.

I got to shoot the 35mm full frame Holga. I tested some black and white filtering on the Yashica-Mat. I found a new and interesting subject. I got some exercise. I had a latte. It was a good day.

When you shake off all the limitations and pre-conceived ideas and boil it all down to just having a desire to make some art with a camera, you start seeing photos all around you that might have been missed otherwise. There might even be a fiberglass buffalo butt around somewhere.