Sable River Lumber Compnay
Notes on Photography
One thing that I have done since the very beginning of my photography career has been to take notes, I make detailed notes on places or subjects I thought would make good images.
In the past, I used to use notebooks, and often I still carry a small Moleskin notepad with me and a pencil, but now I also carry my iPhone almost everywhere I go.
I got the idea about using the iPhone as a notebook when I thought back to a photographer I used to know who took along a Polaroid camera when we were out shooting. He used the polaroid like many of us use an electronic viewfinder now – he’d take a picture, and then judge the scene he wanted to create into a photograph based on the good things he’d find in the Polaroid print. Of course, today many folks do the same thing with their viewfinders – but one has to be careful of the urge to become a "spray and pray” type photographer, that is, one who simply takes a whole mass of photos, thinking “One of these might be OK”. It just doesn’t work that way, most times.
The iPhone becomes a great way to take a quick image of something you want to seriously shoot later, or even of a sign or a scene that tells you something so you’ll remember to come back later properly prepared to work on an image.
Note taking is also a great way to remember what you were thinking when you were shooting, and so when you get home it can remind you of your thought process, and if you return to a spot (The images in this set are new this week, but I have shot in these locations for over 35 years!) you can have your memory refreshed as to what was good or bad about the subject or scene earlier.
It’s great fun to go back to places you’ve been to many times and try to make something different. Notes help you keep track of the process.
Pond Behind Bessie Robart's
Hemeon's Head
Osborne Harbour
