Previsualization

[jtk]

.... in other words, most of my prints, B&W or color, are renditions of what I imagined (saw) when I came across the potential, in the walking-around-world that I more-or-less visualized when I chose to make an exposure. Neither Ansel nor Minor had the opportunity to work with that sort of approach to print making. My work, like theirs, begins with a set of decisions.

They did not "capture" anything when they clicked their shutters, nor do I.

 

[faberryman]

They did not "capture" anything when they clicked their shutters, nor do I.

I use the word "capture" as synonymous with "make an exposure". What additional criteria do you layer on the word "capture"?

 

[Chan Tran]

I use the word "capture" as synonymous with "make an exposure". What additional criteria do you layer on the word "capture"?

Time. In their time nobody used the word "capture".

 

[MattKing]

It seems to me "capture" came into prominence when digital was novel but on the rise. People were trying to find terms that were medium independent but still described the process of "capturing" images, but were of the opinion the "photography" meant film.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Capture was used with film before digital. The camera captures photons of reality at the time of exposure on film or in a digital sensor and memory.

Chemical or digital edits afterwards may impose our vision in creating a "score".

 

[Bill Burk]

What happens if you take a picture of your footprint and leave it?

I’m pondering overdeveloping a roll of Panatomic-X to really emphasize the black asphalt mounds in the background of a few pictures I took on the roll. I would do that because I think they will be the most interesting pictures on the roll, the rest are “average” and uninspired.

 

[Vaughn]

I am pretty sure the concept of "Capturing the moment" came long before digital. I tend to just work with the light reflecting off the landscape...it moves way too fast for me grab it. I just let it do its thing as it hits my film like it hits my retinas.

I can imagine how to make my pictures turn out the way I want with out every reading a photography book and using a fancy made up term.

Agreed -- but such terms come in handy for those who teach, when discussing image-making, and for those who are able to profit from the information and ideas of others by taking them further. YMMD

Being 'self-taught' also has its advantages -- taught myself carbon printing from a magazine article (so had some help), but never seeing a print, I had no idea of what a carbon print should look like -- so I was not swayed by others and ended up pushing the process in my own direction. But difficult to say to say what would have happen if I had taken a workshop. It might not have taken two years of experimenting to get what I wanted...

I am glad I started photographing the landscape before I knew much of Ansel Adams, though I was influenced by the two Watkins mammoth plate prints in our hallway growing up.

 

[250swb]

My influence in landscape photography and visiting lecturer while I was at college studying photography (1975- 1978) was Thomas Joshua Cooper, and he made a point not to invoke aggressive nouns for pressing the shutter, so don't 'take', don't 'capture', don't 'shoot', don't 'grab', and don't 'snap'.

 

[Vaughn]

Brett Weston stopped by the university to see our instructor and gave an informal talk, Brett used the world "shoot" in the photographical sense -- to which our instructor (and an ex-assistant to Brett) mentioned that he preferred the word, 'shoot', not be used for the creative process (or whatever reason was so long ago). But we all chuckled when Brett made the effort to say it a few more times. Hard time remembering the year, but some years after TJC was a lecturer there. Could be 1990, give or take.

While Brett showed his work to us, there was no talking.

 

[jtk]

Brett Weston stopped by the university to see our instructor and gave an informal talk, Brett used the world "shoot" in the photographical sense -- to which our instructor (and an ex-assistant to Brett) mentioned that he preferred the word, 'shoot', not be used for the creative process (or whatever reason was so long ago). But we all chuckled when Brett made the effort to say it a few more times. Hard time remembering the year, but some years after TJC was a lecturer there. Could be 1990, give or take.

While Brett showed his work to us, there was no talking.

Minor's students sometimes began print viewing sessions with instructions to sit straight...as well as muscle relaxing. In other words they taught a fundamental and of course positive zen discipline. My only important instructor was Conrad Forbes, a Minor White direct student. He was shooting Kodachrome exclusively. Conrad taught students to begin viewing with zen discipline...and he used zen practice when he still shot with a camera on a tripod (before he switched to 35mm Nikon). I did get to shoot with him on a couple of occasions and could not see his viewing practice, though I personally never did grab shots (same as my DSLR practice).

Obviously, most skilled photographers today manage their files in order to print what they've visualized using Photoshop (or lesser clones), even if they still shoot B&W film. The original file is not something they/we want to duplicate when we print, though original slides often were. And few of us produce slides anymore, due mostly to the sharp decline in photolab quality.