Through the Looking Glass...

Scrutinizing photos is the latest fascination, which may soon become a valid means to learn how to take better pictures, for our 'photography group'. Yesterday, a bunch of us got together to do precisely this. Getting bored at work being my latest syndrome, made me pull along other photographers for a discussion, so we could do this most fascinating activity.

Having gone for several photo-shoots as a group, we have accumulated a number of photos taken in our individual styles. After shoots, we share the photos with the rest of the group and 'critique' them. Over time, the act of sharing photos (with the exception of a select few extremist post-processors ;)) has led to a lot of learning. Some photographers get impressed and eventually influenced by other photographer's individual styles. Sometimes interesting and amusing discussions crop up when we meet at lunch. When we do meet for lunch, we end up discussing photography 70% of the time. It is most interesting to hear individual photographers personal views on what kind of photos they like taking. Often, we end up with some conflicting views which make the conversation even more interesting. Putting it simply brainstorming and looking at a technique from a totally skewed and funny perspective often ends up in an entirely new idea and point of view. But.....

Sometimes this act of thinking out-of-the-box, leads to a situation where everyone loses track of the 'original box' entirely. This can be positive or negative. For one thing, a good discussion is only as good or beneficial as the participants make it. Oftentimes, in such discussions there are always 'those' who in spite of knowing the technicalities right, apply them too mechanically. They get so caught up in taking the perfect picture completely in their imagination, that they lose track of the big picture. Agreed that photography is about knowing the technique and tools right, and applying them spontaneously and at that precise moment. But what if individuals get stuck on debating the technicality so much in theory, that it takes a real photo to prove the point. This photo of my wooden bangle, is the one I ended up taking with my mobile camera, to try and prove a point being made by one of our dear photographer friends. This person insisted that tilting your camera when required to align it to the object in focus, does not affect the outcome. It was quite a discussion with the person working out the geometry involved in taking such a shot on pen and paper. Finally we did not conclude, as we did not have the right camera the prove the point.

Overall, it was a great discussion, where we discussed photos of people we knew, our own photos and photos taken by professionals. The goal was to critique the good and bad, and think of possibilities of taking the same shots and framing them differently; in other words really introspect and scrutinize photos through a looking glass. The activity really triggered a lot of thoughts and ideas and proved to be a great exercise. We will plan more such sessions in future and next time, have one camera as well, so we can prove points when such debates crop up. Till then... ciao!