Chapter 15 | Feeling
Chapter 15 | Feeling
In the Chapter before last (Chapter 14 | Seeing) we spoke about ‘Seeing’ and some of the things that allow us to improve the work we do. These included…patience, long suffering, picking out what doesn’t belong by working to remove what’s wrong within an image by telling yourself to stop looking at what’s right with it - rather concentrate and focus on what’s wrong with it (look to see what does not belong and then work to get rid of it), but most of all it is about being ‘present’ in the moment.
Being present means looking at everything and making sure what you see is really being conveyed, it is not about thinking where should you be next. Finally, ‘seeing’ is mostly an issue of you and how it makes you feel. Because isn’t that truly what you want shared? And so we begin…putting in the feeling.
While these previously mentioned elements, and others, can play a role in crafting an image none of them are the real reason why amazing images are amazing. In a way, when people ask me ‘what kind of camera do you have’, they are really asking because they think that if they had that camera then they too could craft images that have feeling as well.
That is sort of like asking Stephen King, having just finished reading The Shining, what sort of typewriter he uses – because if ‘I’ had that typewriter then ‘I’ could write a novel like that! Here’s the thing though, I have pots and pans from Emeril Lagasse but I don’t have a cooking show! Why Not!?
It is sort of funny when you step back from some things and take a look at them from a different perspective. I don’t have a cooking show because ever fiber in my being doesn’t scream with joy from every bite I take from something I’ve cooked with those pots and pans – that’s why. If you do, then maybe you should be reading up on Gordon Ramsey.
So what does it mean to see an image? After all aren’t we looking through the lens at an image? Aren’t we seeing that image right then and there? Well of course it means that but it means much more as well. Believe it or not, it really means to feel an image. I know that sort of sounds like a copout. But if what you are looking at, which hopefully stopped you dead in your tracks, evokes an emotion at a base level of your being – then for YOU, you are viewing something truly special. Since every fiber of your being is telling you it’s special, then it is special!
I’m not sure about you but I have an affinity for old movies, black and white especially. And growing up with GI Joe I’m drawn to classic war movies where John Wayne is always the hero. What’s my point? It’s that we each see beauty in different ways, but somethings are collectively timeless – like old B&W movies. Other people will appreciate and see the same beauty you do – because even though we all like to think about how unique we all are, we really are not all that different one from another. That is why…
Beauty is beauty. Ugly is ugly. We all know it when we see it. Though the person standing next to you might see it completely opposite. I guess Margaret Wolfe Hungerford was right “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”