Ed Schlotzhauer

An artists journey

Category: Creative Ideas

Ideas about creativity and the creative process.

  • A Road Less Traveled

    A Road Less Traveled

    (Apologies to Robert Frost for misrepresenting his great poem)

    If you shoot from your car, I believe the way you travel affects the results you get. Following a road less traveled can be as important as where you go.

    I was visiting with my friend Cole Thompson (a great black & white photographer; check out his web site and blog) and we discussed the way we like to travel and how it affects us. We agreed that freeways and main highways are something we avoid when possible.

    This is something I have long held as a personal belief, but I had never really tried to express why. I’m very intuitive and I trust my instinct, even when I don’t have a conscious, rational argument for it. In trying to get deeper into my belief I see that I relate driving an interstate highway to watching TV. You are in a brain dead state. You are switched off. For the driving, you react to what’s around you, but you don’t really see anything. Even if something interesting manages to catch your attention, you are unlikely to overcome the inertia of the highway and pull off to do some photography. Your mind set is to get on down the road, keep moving, rack up the miles, get to your destination on schedule.

    Smaller roads

    In most of the country there is a marvelous secondary network of roads. US highways (think Route 66 ☺), State highways, even county roads are often very good ways to explore more scenic and interesting places than you encounter along the freeway. Speeds are generally slower and you go through towns. Actual little towns with cafes and gas stations and people sitting on park benches visiting. Have you been there recently?

    But, this is SLOWER! Yes, and that’s a key. Slow down your pace. Take time to see new things. Don’t be in such a hurry that you hesitate to stop to explore someplace new or experiment with a photo that may (or may not) turn out interesting. If you are traveling on a smaller road it seems much easier to hit pause and take a detour.

    Dalhart discovery

    On a photo explore recently I was traveling back from Texas to Colorado. I took a back road out of Dalhart, just because I had never been that way. To my surprise I spent nearly 3 hours going from Dalhart to Texline, and it’s only 36 miles as the crow flies! I got caught up in the incredible beauty of this wide open high plains area on that particular cold morning with frost on everything. No regrets spending the time, even though it did put me later than I wanted getting home. I won’t remember or regret being late. I will remember this area. When you find something worthwhile, stop to explore it.

    And that, to me, is what it is all about. If we call ourselves an artist we should be working our art. Our brain should be engaged and our head should be swiveling every chance we get. If we are in a semi coma on the freeway we are not following our art. Slow down, look around, take the path less traveled.

    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

  • Be Uncomfortable

    Humans don’t naturally like to be uncomfortable. We want to retreat to safety and the familiar. Whether it is speaking in public or joining a new group or expressing an opinion or changing jobs or doing something different artistically, we resist the discomfort. It’s easier and safer to keep low, to not let people know our aspirations, to not reach for that prize. After all, then no one will tell us that’s silly and we can’t do that.

    Most of us have a little voice inside that tells us “Stop. Don’t do that. The risk isn’t worth it. Remember that time you did something like this and you were really embarrassed?” That voice is trying to help us do what it thinks is best for us, that is, staying on the safest path. That is a type of self-preservation. But that voice doesn’t look at the bigger picture. Sometimes discomfort is not bad. It may often be exactly what we need.

    If we stay in our comfort zone we never try anything new; we do not get out of our rut. We do not grow and develop. We do not experience all we should in life. We can get to the end of our days and look back with regret on the dreams we were never brave enough to pursue. Pursuing and accomplishing are different things. We may not write the next Great American Novel, but the attempt will teach us a lot and help us discover things about ourself. We may never become a celebrated musician, but the study brings us a lot of discipline and satisfaction. We may never become wealthy and famous as an artist, but the path expands our creativity and skill.

    Safety says to stay home and watch TV. Our creative urge tells us to get off the couch, pick up our camera (or whatever creative device you use) and get outside and make something. Sitting on the couch is easy. No risk. No failure. Going out to create something is hard. It requires thought and it risks “failure”. I believe there is no comparison, though. Long term, TV will rot your brain and your self-esteem. Making things will make you a better person. Not inspired? Get to work. Inspiration comes while you are working, not while you are sitting around thinking “creative thoughts.”

    Failing is not a bad thing. Failing is not trying. Failing may mean you reached for something you weren’t ready for yet. Keep growing, learning, developing your skills and your curiosity. Someday you may get there. Or maybe not. Either way, you satisfied that longing inside yourself and you became a better person.

  • Can a Photograph Lie?

    Yes. I’ll just state it categorically so we can move on. All photographs are lies in some fashion. Any image represents the point of view of the maker. How they choose to frame the subject, what they choose to include or exclude, where they are in relation to the subject, all these and many more determine how the image presents the subject. So even before we get to any issues of Photoshop manipulation, the image is a work of art, not “truth”.

    Even if you are a wildlife photographer who sets up a triggered blind where the animal will photograph themselves by moving through a certain area, it is still a lie, in the sense that the photographer determined the lens, the location, the foreground, the background, the shutter speed, the time of day, and many more elements. Every image ever made exhibits subjective bias. It has to.

    Should it Lie?

    Yes. Again, I’ll state the inevitable truth. You want it to lie. It would not be interesting unless it did. The “lie” is what makes my image different from yours. It is what makes you want to pause and look at the image.

    There are people, especially in the landscape or photojournalism arenas, who still feel a good photograph should be “exactly as it appeared to the eye”. I understand their POV. I used to feel the same way. This is a chimera, though. A camera does not see the world the way our eye does. The eye does not have a wide angle or telephoto view. It is not restricted to a narrow depth of field. It cannot freeze a very small sliver of time or blur a scene over minutes. The eye “paints” an image in the brain by moving and stopping. The camera does not work that way.

    There are many excellent photojournalists in the world. They try to bring us “truth”. But the only way they can do their job is through interpreting events for us. Do not trust the image; trust the journalist. When you see images on the news or the internet showing you the “truth” about something, be skeptical.

    I have seen people try to recreate views exactly the way a human would see. They only use a 50mm lens (or whatever the equivalent for their format), held at the (average) height of human eyes, with a shutter speed of about 1/60th of a second and no camera movement. The results are usually unbelievably boring, and still a subjective interpretation.

    The restriction that an image should be “exactly as it appeared to the eye’” is an artificial rule. The people who believe strongly in this philosophy can shoot their images the way that pleases their artistic notion of perfection. We won’t tell them that the result is a lie.

    Does the Question Even Make Sense?

    A photographer is an artist. Their purpose is to create unique and pleasing images. They use all the tools available to them — technology, technique, composition, post processing, compositing, etc. — to achieve their end. The image is not reality. It was never intended to be. It is a work of fiction. Most people these days recognize that. if you don’t, it would be like reading “The Lord of the Rings” and saying “hey, wait; this is a lie; it didn’t really happen”.

    If you really need images to document something, the best you can do is to get sufficiently close to accomplish your goals. Realize, though, that it is only an approximation to reality. Realize what those limitations are so you can see if you can live with the reality of the unreality.

    Wilderness?

    Take the above image for instance. Remote, untracked wilderness? A place you will never reach? Actually it is at a rest stop on I-70 in Utah (the restrooms are just off to the right). This is in the median between the lanes of the freeway. Nothing was edited out in Photoshop, but the framing and cropping of this made it look like wilderness. Is it a lie?

    Does it Matter?

    What matters is that it is what it is. Accept any image as art or at least as an interpretation by the maker. That’s what artists do. Does this mean “anything goes?” Well, yes. There should be no limit or restriction on art.

    When you look at my images, assume anything you see is created as art. I hope the result is interesting to you. To see some of my lies, visit photos.schlotzcreate.com.

    Online Exhibit

    Here is a link to an online exhibit I am in. It will be up during February of 2019. I would appreciate your comments. By coincidence, the 3 images I have in this exhibit are “almost not lying”. That is, they are minimally manipulated. All 3 are exactly as found. But the above comments apply as to the manipulation of composition, lens, etc.

    http://www.envisionartshow.com/black-white

  • Walk slow

    These are words from the great Jay Maisel, one of the finest photographers around. It’s a simple phrase, even kind of silly. But it partially describes a philosophy that I think has a lot of merit.

    One of the tenants of Jay’s approach is to “go out empty”. That is, do not bring any preconceived plan or expectations. Just wander. Actually look at what is there. Let yourself engage with what you find rather than being disappointed because what you expected was not there or it didn’t work out. The “walk slow” builds on that by forcing us to take our time and look more and closer. Notice things you have never taken the time to really see. See details in target scenes. In some cases, wait for a scene to develop. Be patient.

    This is exciting and energizing. You are in the moment, alive, fully engaged with the environment around you. You have given up trying to manage the world to make it be what you want. Instead you react to it and find beauty where it is.

    This is a very meaningful approach for me. I try to go out empty nearly every day. Explore the familiar area you live. You don’t have to go to an exotic location to find inspiration. I find I can go by something I’ve seen 50 times and this time say “oh, I’ve never noticed that before” or “wow, this light changes everything”. And when you develop the habit of approaching the world around you this way, you can use the technique equally well when you do go to the exotic destination.

    Jay also suggests it can be beneficial to get lost. Being lost implies you are off your normal path and encountering new territory, new sights, seeing fresh. You can probably “get lost” in your home town. The other day I was walking along a bike path going around an ugly industrial area. But with the low winter sun and some nice lenticular clouds in the sky, the bare trees were beautiful silhouetted against the sky. I enjoyed it a lot. I wouldn’t have seen that if I rejected the area because it was not pretty.

    “It’s always around, you just don’t see it” is another quote from Jay. This makes me sad. It is human nature to only see what you are looking for. Taking this “go out empty” and “walk slow” approach helps us to overcome that. We will be the ones who are really seeing what is around us. And making great pictures!

  • Finding Your “Style”

    Do you have a “style”? (spoiler – yes, you do)

    How do your know? How do you find it? Does it matter if you develop one?

    At some point, most people who wish to shoot “seriously” (whatever that means) wrestle with these questions. But if you’ve gotten to the point where you care, you probably already have one. You should have a deep enough body of work that you have intuitively developed your style and have enough examples to look at to discover what it is.

    You have a point of view, the way you see the world around you that is different from anyone else. This determines your style. It comes naturally. When you select the lens to use and where to stand and how to compose and light your subject you are doing it based on your style. When you select the subject you want to shoot, it is guided by your style. These decisions make your image uniquely yours. Other people will make different decisions for the same subject.

    To develop your style, though, you have to have the courage to make the decisions that guide your result. If you feel the subject should be shot from a certain location and the people with you or a workshop leader disagrees, listen to their opinion, but then do what feels best to you. You may not be “right”, that is, you may not like the result, but you made that image based on your beliefs at the time. That is letting your style develop. More often than not, listening to your gut is the best thing to do.

    Look back through your images. I hope you grade and categorize them to let the best ones emerge. Be brutal in doing that. Examine the ones you feel best about – feel best about, not the ones that may be technically sharpest or follow the “rules”. Then decide what they are telling you about yourself. You should see patterns: of subject, of lens, of composition, of lighting, of color. There are many variables, but you should see themes. If these are the ones that you feel best about, learn from them and learn what your style is.

    So, does it matter if you develop a style? Don’t worry about it. You have one already. Your preferences and likes and experiences lead you to approach an image a certain way. That is your style.