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The Thinking Photographer
By Ron Colbroth
www.roncolbroth.com
At the end of the last century when film was the prevailing medium for photographers, I was given a choice assignment
by a Japanese film company for their company magazine. I was
sent ten rolls of film unavailable in the US and told I could shoot anything I wanted, which is always wonderful news. Being able to shoot without art direction or any set assignment is
always such great news to a photographer since it gives one total freedom.
Since I was accompanying my wife on a trip to Portugal in November, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to shoot these ten rolls of film. Sometimes in your own backyard you
can be a little jaded and not see as much as you can in a new location, plus I knew that Portugal would inspire me.
My first day in Portugal I did what I usually do in a new place: I carried my cameras around but took very few pictures. Sometimes tight assignment deadlines don’t give a photographer
that flexibility, but since I would be in Portugal for a while, I was able to not just rush into shooting. I like to just observe my surroundings and think about what I am going to be
photographing. However it is good to carry your cameras and lenses or even just one camera and lens, so that if a once in a lifetime situation arises, you are prepared.
After the first day I had a couple of ideas for a photo essay for the magazine. I selected the Algarve region of Portugal (along the southern coast). Since it is driveable in one day, it seemed
the perfect way to do things. Also it was November, so the crowds of tourists had left, I pretty much got Portugal as it is normally, plus the weather held out. I was told that November
could be a rainy month, so the surprise perfect days made my job easier.
The next day I dropped my wife off with her colleague, and I headed out to begin my little essay. I kept to the town where were staying (Faro) for the first day of shooting. As I started, I
did my usual type of shooting. If I saw a scene or occurence that I liked , I would start shooting and bracketing. After roll 1 I started to thinki that I was making a big mistake. The big
mistake was bracketing.It dawned on me that if I kept using film like I usually did, I would be sending the editor only about ten to twenty transparencies for the photo essay.Then I had this
vision of the editor looking at these few photos and wondering how to make an essay out of them.
At that point I realized that I really needed to think about my photography. Sometimes when there is a lot of film, shooting a scene that might seem just okay is easy. Now, with only ten
rolls of film, I was limited, so thinking about each shot was imperative. I had make sure that the composition was perfect, the light was just right, and the shot was something really special.
I did bracket some after this revelation but only in scenes that I thought would have a high probability of being in the magazine and had an aspect that might throw the meter off. Even
then when I bracketed, I only bracketed for one f-stop to either side of the meter reading. The photograph of the red bougainvillea on the yellow wall is an example. When I saw the simple
elements, I knew it would be in the magazine, but I also knew that the yellow wall would throw off the camera’s meter. So I bracketed, lined up the camera (handheld) with edge of the
yellow paint, but left a little of the other colors of paint so that the greenery and vine of the bougainvillea would flow and have a nice shape. Keeping the edges of the yellow paint straight
was a key factor. Although I handheld the camera, I would actually recommend a tripod for such a shot. I was right about the editor choosing the photo.
At one point in the assignment there was a bit of a panic. I was thinking too much about the limited film, and that I wasn’t getting the right shots. In the town of Olhao I was at one end of
the quay, and nothing was happening. Then thinking I saw something at the other end of the quay, I would rush there, but then nothing was happening where I was, because it was
happening at the spot I had just left. At that point I took a deep breath and just decided to sit. I knew something would happen if I just sat and patiently waited. The out of focus boatsman
with the hovering seagulls is what happened. I focused on the seagulls as they followed the rowing boatsman coming into the frame and going out to sea. Just one shot, but good enough to
be published.
Near Sagres where I shot the rugged cliffs, I used a 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm to shorten the depth of field. It was late afternoon and the light was magnificent. From my vantage point I
shot so that the near cliff seemed to loom in the frame leaving the outer cliffs to trail off into the distance. At the time I was only thinking about getting a good photograph, but as luck
would have it, that shot became the front cover of the magazine.
Although I wasn’t perfect every time I took a shot, I feel that being limited in the number of rolls of film I had actually helped to make me a better photographer. Even after I edited the
photographs I was able to send the editor 60 to 70 transparencies from the ten rolls. I ended up with the front and back covers and five pages inside the magazine. A very good percentage.
Then when I again got ten rolls of film, I only managed to shoot six (bad Scottish weather), but I got the front cover and four pages inside.
Nowadays digital is de rigeur, but the same lesson can be applied. With film you don’t really know what you have until you have everything processed, but with digital it is pretty much
instantaneous: a photographer just looks at the back of camera and sees if he has the shot. It seems that photographers usually think that they will shoot everything and delete later, plus
Photoshop will fix their mistakes. The mistake is not thinking about their photographs.
Here is the exercise that I propose to help you get better and it will take a lot of self-discipline. Take a Lexar card(or a few cards) that will only hold 350 to 400 digital images, (JPEG or
RAW) in your camera. Give yourself an assignment of your own choosing. Here is where the self-discipline comes in. You must shoot the assignment without looking at your digital
camera monitor. Try to imagine that Lexar has given you this card (or cards) with the knowledge that you are only going to get 350 to 400 images, but from these images, Lexar is going to
publish your complete photo essay. Take an idea, take your time, and only use these few cards for your chosen photo essay: the only time you want to see the photographs is when you
download them into the computer at the end of the assignment.
In this digital age this may be one of the toughest assignments that you will ever have. When most people shot film, it would have been pretty easy to complete this assignment. It still
required self-discipline, but nothing like the self-discipline needed while shooting digitally and not looking at the camera’s monitor. What you will be doing is relying on your ability to
think about composition and think about light, while not relying on the camera monitor or Photoshop to bail you out. I think in the end you will find that you will become a better
Ron Colbroth's Bio
View Ron Colbroth's Wesite: www.roncolbroth.com
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