The Photographer's Mind

I have been asked a question once. What makes a good photographer? I am sure there are a lot of varied answers out there, but here is my take on it.

By studying other photographers out there and from my own humble experience. I noticed that before I even look at the viewfinder of the camera, I have a sense of what the photo would look like already. I would study the scene first, check my subject, foreground and background then take the picture. Or I would place myself in a place such that if a scene happens I will be in a best position for a shot.

A lot of new photographers would look at a scene and take a snapshot and hope they do get a good shot and delete it if they don’t and take another one. They did not have a sense of purpose in their shots. They just hope they get lucky and tell themselves "That's good enough".

Ansel Adams would look at the mountain on a dull gray day and say to himself "this would be better if there are a bit of clouds in the sky and an orange sunset would illuminate it from the side". He would wait for that moment, kept on coming back to that same spot when all the conditions are right, then take the picture.

Adams advocated the idea of visualization (which he often called ‘previsualization’, though he later acknowledged that term to be a redundancy) whereby the final image is “seen” in the mind’s eye before taking the photo - Wikipedia

But how about if its photojournalism where everything is happening so fast and you do not have time to study your subject or location. Well there is something that is faster than thought, and that is intuition. That is the secret of the Photographers Mind.

What is intuition? To me, it is a fraction of a second where mind and body become one. As Bruce Lee stated it "If a punch comes at you, you don’t have time to think what block you will use, by the time you decide the punch would hit you already, instead don't think just react".

There is a photographer who took a picture of a man jumping a puddle. At first there was no man, just the puddle. How did he take that picture? He waited until a man passed over the puddle and in a moment he took the picture. He called that the "Decisive moment". That photographer was the great Henri Cartier-Bresson the father of modern photojournalism. Take note he used the term "Decisive" it means that there is some sort of thought process involved not just luck but visualizing a scene and reacting to the moment.

Here is a quote from him

"There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever."

Tip: Take time to study the subject and the scene before you shoot. Like a great painter visualize how the photo would look like in your minds eye before you take the picture. Once you master that then your instincts will be honed and you can take the next step. Let go of your thought and grab the "Decisive Moment".

Master the Rules, before you break it.