shutterhack

_DSC4776, originally uploaded by shutterhack.
Taken with a Nikon D50 and AF Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G lens

"A subject never organizes itself in a photograph or drawing or painting. The artist consciously or subconsciously organizes it."

It organizes itself in terms of human vision...I'm feigning that the subject is animate here in order to distinguish between seeing it through an overlay of rules, desires, and requirements -- speaking in terms of the non-professional photographer who doesn't have an obligation to fulfill with a photograph, or who is not creating the subject and frame on a stage in a studio (including on location) -- and seeing it as it is presenting itself to the photographer.

This "presenting" has to have some value in terms of photography if it has captured the photographer's attention and caused him to release the shutter. What the subject can't do is organize itself in terms of the camera's "vision". The photographer has to do that consciously -- the classic example of the tree seemingly growing out of someone's head.

The camera can "see" things normalizing human vision may not. I photographed a house down the street. It wasn't until I saw the photo that I could see that the house was definitely not plumb, that it leaned strongly one way. Unlike a tree growing out of someone's head, it made for a stronger photograph although I never saw it through the viewfinder.

I've been limited to photographing nearby and easy to get to things that normally wouldn't have interested me. I've had to overcome frustration and anger and to relax and let photography happen to me in the mundane, banal, obvious, commonplace universe of houses, streets, and lawns, or whatever is available from the roadside.

Letting go of my preconceptions, moods, and attitudes, by letting the subject/frame appear without my forcing it, has made me a better photographer, better able to continue my "real" photography when I can, and grateful, rather than frustrated and angry, over circumstances.