ragman

6 Capture:

A fellow Redbubbler in response to one of my posted images asked ~ How do you do it? How, do you manage to weave such amazing images from the most unpromising and mundane ingredients? My reply ~ I simply use my eyes, and always strive to be creative with what I am given.

This is why I was given the tag / name by a fellow photographic artist; a Dutch woman; and why I now use the name Ragman; with the idea of one who picks up the rags, those things which others have overlooked, disgarded, or find no use for; and hopefully use my creativity to produce some riches.

Capturing or creating, which? ~ was a question recently asked in Amateur Photography magazine I was most interested in some of the responses:-

‘For me it is create. Photography, obviously, in itself is to capture that perfect light at that perfect moment. But for me, it’s creating an image out of an idea’

‘Both, but capturing a moment is better. Creating one can be done anytime’

‘I voted capture. A “capture” in my eyes is more special. You can capture something/someone special which will always be there as a memory (wedding day, sports events and achievements etc). It’s nice to “create” an image but I don’t’ feel it has the special edge over a capture. Depending on how you look at it, if you “created” an image (set it up like a flower portrait or something similar) then you can easily reproduce this but with slight variation etc. Something like getting married would be very easy to replicate’

‘It’s the same thing. Even if you think you are just capturing ‘the moment’, you are still creating the image in your head, you have to see it and imagine what you want to capture but you are still creating the image. It wouldn’t exist in the way you saw it if you didn’t create it’

’It’s why point and click photography results in boring images’

‘Not just creating an image but creating reactions in the people that see them’

‘For me, capturing means to record something that’s already occurring, creating would mean starting from scratch or at least raw materials’

‘Create for me. Often when I’m photographing motor races, I still choose a position to stand, check out the surroundings and (sometimes) pan to blur the background as the car passes. I see that as creating’

’Capturing would suggest to me whacking the shutter speed up as high as possible to catch that split second in time’

‘For me creatively capture’

‘Capture something that creates an emotional response’

‘I aim to capture all and make an effort to creating something emotive each time’

‘Capturing really is sort of just like seeing something and acquiring it’

Well as for me Ragman ‘I’m going with create on this one’. To capture a scene is to see it and convey it no different to how other people see it; you see the trick is to create a scene (which doesn’t mean starting from scratch or over-doing the post-pro) but instead will captivate the viewers imagination, to create something out of the ordinary around it’.

The answer I most concur with was the response. ”It’s the same thing. Even if you think you are just capturing ‘the moment’, you are still creating the image in your head, you have to see it and imagine what you want to capture but you are still creating the image. It wouldn’t exist in the way you saw it if you didn’t create it”.

I also liked and understood this one. ”Capture something that creates an emotional response” I was once in the realm of ‘click and shoot’, but thankfully only for the first couple of rolls of my life; when I discovered that photography was more than just a pursuit, but it was an art form.

Indeed an art form that could replace my previous art ~ poetry ~ with a new verve and drive. I knew that I was never a painter, but pretty soon figured out that I could learn a lot from painters and other artists.

In fact I must admit I learnt more from fashion magazines than I did from camera magazines, but even more from art books. The most recent book I have purchased combines both. It is High Fashion by Edward Steichen; and I am learning a lot from it.

In the good old days BD (before digital) ~ when cameras had film in them, we used to talk about shooting. Now in the enlightened age, digitally we talk about capture.

To me capture sums it all up better. Capture has two main roots, to imprison, or to encapsulate. The artist is engaged in the latter ~ to encapsulate. Encapsulate is to summarise, sum up, portray, describe, depict. The view is what is before us, we don’t imprison it instead we encapsulate or depict it. Hence in order to depict it or describe it we need vision.

I must confess Ragman is not a techie, but rather I am a thinker. The efficiency and completeness of our eyes and brain is unparalleled in comparison with any piece of apparatus or instrumentation ever invented. We know this amazing function of the eyes and brain as the sense of vision.

Again I perceive this as two-fold, the viewing and the visualising, and the connection between the two ~ vision.

View ~ vista is what you see; but vision is not simply the bodily sight, but from the Greek ~ Visio; something that appears to be seen otherwise than by ordinary sight, seeing something not present to the eye.

This leads nicely into visualization. Visualization: or in effect pre-visualization of the scene or subject prior to capture ~ is the process of prior preparation, of planning and influence, of having insight or gathering information pertaining to input.

To me the above-mentioned quote “It’s the same thing. Even if you think you are just capturing ‘the moment’, you are still creating the image in your head, you have to see it and imagine what you want to capture but you are still creating the image.

It wouldn’t exist in the way you saw it if you didn’t create it.” summed up again the two-fold dimensions of which this discourse is taking ~ you cannot separate capture from create, they are the flipsides of the artistic photographic process. You have to see and imagine what you want to capture pretty much sums up simply what pre-visualization is all about.

So just what are we capturing? I believe we are capturing a moment, and at the same time capturing an atmosphere. It is also a thought of capturing a tadpole (also known as a pollywog or polliwog) is the wholly aquatic larval stage in the life cycle of an amphibian, and being involved in its development. We raise the smicker or tadpole and then later we release it. Isn’t that what we do with our images on Redbubble?

In terms of capture, I know of no better example than HCB Henri Cartier Bresson famous for defining “The Decisive Moment” Credited with the accolade – “The Decisive Moment” Henri Cartier-Bresson’s style can be described as visual discrimination. Several words can be used to define this talent:

- Perspicacity
- Acuity (Kairos)
- Harmony (Summetria)
- Synchronicity

Perspicacity is defined as the clear sightedness of a person. My thesaurus refers to this as discernment, sharpness, perceptiveness, acuity, insightfulness and wisdom. It is an apt description for the person who has a good eye for photography.

Kairos is simply defined as the right time and comes from the Greek – Kairos which refers to the nerve centre of the body – a crucial point. It is to do with the correct decision – the exact incision ~ akin to the surgeon’s skill in first-time making the correct cut. (It should not be confused with Kallos – beauty).

Summetria is defined as harmony but not just harmony; it is a system of perspective and harmony. My thesaurus refers to this as agreement, accord, concord, and synchronisation.

Vision is to do with the decisive moment – a sense of time and place, but clear sightedness combined with perspective and harmony; consequently the right moment, synchronicity.

As always I close with the thoughts and experiences of my favourite photographers to reiterate.

When I’m ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I’m interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without. ~ Ansel Adams

I love the medium of photography, for with its unique realism it gives me the power to go beyond conventional ways of seeing and understanding and say, “This is real, too.” ~ Wynn Bullock

What you see is real – but only on the particular level to which you’ve developed your sense of seeing. You can expand your reality by developing new ways of perceiving. ~ Wynn Bullock

The medium of photography can record not only what the eyes see, but that which the mind’s eye sees as well. The camera is not only an extension of the eye, but of the brain. It can see sharper, farther, nearer, slower, faster than the eye. It can see by invisible light. It can see in the past, present, and future. Instead of using the camera only to reproduce objects, I wanted to use it to make what is invisible to the eye, visible. ~ Wynn Bullock

As I became aware that all things have unique spatial and temporal qualities which visually define and relate them, I began to perceive the things I was photographing not as objects but as events. Working to develop my skills of perceiving and symbolizing these event qualities, I discovered the principle of opposites. When, for example, I photographed the smooth, luminous body of a woman behind a dirty cobwebbed window, I found that the qualities of each event were enhanced and the universal forces which they manifested were more powerfully evoked. ~ Wynn Bullock

My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera’s eye may entirely change my idea. ~ Edward Weston

through this photographic eye you will be able to look out on a new light-world, a world for the most part uncharted and unexplored, a world that lies waiting to be discovered and revealed. ~ Edward Weston