Where do I start? That’s a question several folks have asked me this week…
How to Start…
Without Photoshop I would say… Start in your body and mind… FEEL. And I say “feel” for a reason. When I first started, I spent so much time focusing on being technical—thinking about composition, light, shadows, style… but eventually, I tied myself in knots. You know what happened? I hit a photographic “writer’s block.”
What do I do now?
I feel my images. Not just internally, but externally too. When I’m in a location, I take mental notes—or even physical ones, whether that’s recording the scene with my phone (sound on), or jotting a few words down on my notepad or phone. I want to capture not just the scene, but the sensation in the final image. Because when you download your photos, they rarely feel the same way as they did in the moment. And how could they? They’re 2D!
That’s where it all begins for me… with feeling. What was the sensation in that place? Was it quiet, or was there noise? The rustling of wind, soft breezes, distant voices, music playing? Was it peaceful or chaotic? Did you enjoy it, or did you wish it would stop? What about the colours—did the scene feel muted or saturated? Maybe it felt like a symphony of complimentary colours, or perhaps they felt mismatched, strange… but in their own way, beautiful?
How was the environment interacting with your skin? Was it the cool caress of a breeze, or the biting sting of cold air? Or maybe the sun was warm on your face, making you tilt your head toward it?
Can you feel those sensations? See where I’m going with this?
The colours, their hues and saturations, say something about the scene—the moment of the day, whether it was warm or cool.
And then there’s the mismatch… Take this image of the ocean. It was a bitterly cold day in January, with the sea roaring so loud I thought I might go deaf. And yet, the sun was setting, casting golden light over everything. Madness, right? If I left the image golden, it would misrepresent the true feeling of that moment. Plus, I couldn’t capture a good shot of the surfer riding the waves—of course, they kept falling off just when the waves were perfect for it.
So, now I’ve got something to work with. I’ll take two images—one of the waves, and another of the surfer. I’ll mute the golden light from the sun because, in that moment, the sun was fleeting, and it didn’t align with the coolness I felt.
That’s where I start—by taking myself back there in my imagination, feeling the way my body interacted with the environment. For me, it’s a four-way interaction: my body, my mind, the camera, and the place. And that’s what I want to try to recreate for the viewer.
