Many people think of a wide lens as a way to get farther away from a subject, but I think of a wide lens as a way for us to get closer… a wide lens is really a close-up lens, allowing us to create a dominant subject in the frame by emphasizing the difference in distance from near to far.
Short OrangeFortezza di Radicofani – Tuscany A wide-angle lens was used here, allowing me to emphasize the difference in distance from the nearby bricks to the doorway.
San Biagio, Montepulciano, Tuscany A longer lens was used here, as I didn’t want to emphasize any difference in distance between objects in this subject.
Podcast listener Tracy wrote:
“Photography comes from the depths of who we are. It is not only an exploration of our world, it is also an exploration of ourselves.”
This episode is a “part 2” of self-exploration and its relationship to our photography, utilizing a worksheet that you can download called “Passion and Mission” to help you think through not only what you care about, but how you can take those things and transform them into a body of photographic work.
What is your story? What are you curious about? What do you care about? How can your photographs express those interests? Making stronger photographs often depends on digging deep to determine your passion and then translating those passions into images.
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes and art is knowing which mistakes to keep. Instead of living in fear of “getting it wrong,” a better, more useful strategy is to keep moving – plowing through the things that don’t work and slowly refining the process to get to the things that resonate for you and with viewers of your work.
“Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.” ~Neil Gaiman
