I went down to authorville today to find a quote for this Sunday. John Steinbeck. You may have heard of him. He wrote over twenty-five books. Some of them pretty well known! He also penned this quote and I think it speaks volumes to something we photographers need to spend time thinking upon.
“In art the subject upon which you concentrate is unimportant; it is only the quality of your concentration that counts.” John Steinbeck
Spend some time with this thought.
OK. Welcome back and here are some ideas from me.
We photographers take a shit-pot (please excuse my french) of images and find ourselves disappointed that we don’t have a really strong body of work. I feel it has to do with the ease of being able to make a picture these days and the ease of being able to share them, And, the lack of time and energy we spend on creating any single image. I see many photos posted receiving comments like ‘Fantastic!’ ‘Beautiful!’ And one of my favorites, ‘Amazing!!’
When in reality the image is nothing more than an OK snapshot.
I feel the best images I have been able to create are the ones that have involved planning, thinking, and yes, some serious concentration. I hadn’t realized it quite so clearly before. Thanks Mr Steinbeck for bringing a little clarity to my thinking and my art!
What do you think? How’s your concentration??
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
