Drawing and photographing: a humbling lesson
About fifteen years ago, I borrowed a digital camera and went on one of my hikes. I had only shot film before, and was merrily snapping away, as you do with a digital camera: landscapes, insects, birds, whatever struck me.
Near a bridge over the river Dinkel, I saw a man painting. I was curious, and as I got closer I saw he was drawing using black ink and a brush, which he held vertically, Chinese-calligraphy style. He painted with quick, strong strokes, pausing as if thinking between movements. What I could see from a distance over his shoulder looked beautiful.
When he noticed my presence, he motioned me to come over and showed me his drawing. We got to talking (it turned out he was a Chinese martial arts teacher relaxing by the river) and at some point he asked if he could have a look at my photos. I showed him a few on the camera's screen and he nodded without comment. What came next was a bit unexpected: he asked me to sit down and gave me his brush and sketchbook.
He pointed and asked "do you see that tall bird?". I said "yes, I do", and he said: "draw it for me". I had done some drawing with a Chinese brush before, so I complied, and produced this:
He looked at it, and nodded approvingly. "Not bad, not bad at all", he said, "So you can convey everything that struck you about this scene in just three strokes of a brush?". I responded, rather proudly: "Yes, I suppose so". As he tore my drawing out of his sketchbook and gave it to me, he asked:
"Then why is there so much extra crap in your photos?"
Perhaps he was an art teacher as well. :)
He should have been 8-). It was a strong reminder; it was stunning how easily you can forget to compose well and look carefully at everything in the frame when going from film to shooting digitally.
Absolutely, since you no longer have to worry about how many pictures you take, it can be easy to get careless with the other aspects of photography. Digital darkrooms like Lightroom or Photoshop can fix some of those errors, but there are limits; it's always best to do all or almost all of the work in camera.
@great story - is dat een rijger?
waarom zo veel crap of je foto?
daz gemeen :D
Een reiger ja. Leuk dat je dat herkent in die drie vegen 8-).
Crap: te veel dingen die er niet toe doen of zelfs afleiden van wat je goed op de foto wilt hebben.
@ocrdu ik zie ze heel vaak voor ons huis
in het meer
ik probeerde fotos te maken maar die vliegen heel heel snel
soms heb ook mijn fotos te veel crap hahahha -
ik ken geen fotoshop
nooit gedaan en mischien kan fon fotos niet fotoshoppen? :D
mischien kan je tutorial hebben - how tos
maar dan lastig om een beeld van de comp fotos te maken
maar dan kan ook mischien fotoshoppen hahaha
Reigers in het wild zijn schichtig, ik krijg ze alleen met een lange lens op de foto.
@ocrdu - The willow tree - tegenover ons huiz - zij hangen daar altijd - gek heh? maar ik kan geen fotos maken heb vaker geprobeerd en zo dichtbij gekomen maar ze vliegen zo snel weg - een arm lenght afstand maar toen ik een shot probeer te maken vloeg de beest ineens weg - balen hahahaha
Is this your way of announcing that you will be drawing all your images from now on? I'm looking forward to your mushroom images. ; )
=D
No. I used to draw a lot, to get better at photographing, but I haven't much lately.
Maybe you will get inspired. Your bird is beautiful. And with only three strokes, that's amazing.
Thank you. I think mushrooms drawn in three strokes would be hard to identify for you 8-)
I wonder.... There's a Chinese calligraphy master test, or would that be a mushroom forager master test? : )
There should be. I don't mind calling you "master forager" as long as you don't call me "grashopper".