uncommons

An American Diner, West Palm Beach, Florida

As photographers our visual “blades” becomes dull and edgeless over time. Compositions become lazy and we justify average photographs.  In the field we’re not focused as precisely on elevating the style. We’re either stretched in multiple ways to develop new content with new mediums and deliver it at breathtaking speed or we’re distracted by a variety of challenges, obstacles, and requests by editors and clients. It’s remarkably easy to lose concentration behind the lens.

Sometimes that knife needs honing. Attend a workshop, register for an online tutorial (NewsU is good), practice a non-photographic hobby, or set aside time to study the photography of fellow photographers.

Yesterday several coworkers and I went to a dark conference room at the paper and judged the VNPA monthly clip contest. We judged photography from large and small circulation newspapers in separate categories. We discussed images for hours, pouring over the subtle details and making discussion points back and forth on the various merits. I might as well have spent four hours sharpening my knife on a stone bench. Mental frustration and tension slipped away. For those precious minutes I breathed the pure air of inspiration, and oh was it sweet.

While there was an equal mix of good and bad photography, each image emoted a unique quality upon itself — that of the photographer’s vision and storytelling quality.  It was hard to assign winners because each photographer’s creativity and vision illuminated the selects. Some images lost only because they were categorized incorrectly. Others were a technical failure. Most were bread-and-butter newspaper work. The main theme stressed was the need to push these images further. A small crop, a slight move to the right — little things that we need to be actively processing on assignment — can turn the work from average to outstanding. Nevertheless, the judging further strengthened my belief that the power of the still photograph has a lasting and tangible beauty that can hardly be equaled. Congratulations to those that lost. It’s time to reanalyze that image and take that wisdom to the next assignment.