A friendly donkey on Bonaire, with a question on his mind... in this case, I believe it is "do you have any food?"
I have received a number of emails about photo contests lately, and it brought to mind a problem I have with judging and critique of photographs. That problem is one of The Missing Question. Now of course contests aren’t meant to be constructive, but many photographs are judged in a similar fashion. The basic premise of a critique is an attempt to guide people on what they can improve upon. Others may just want some affirmation that they created something worthwhile the effort.
More often than not, the photograph is examined at face value and the judge offers their opinion of it based upon whatever background and experiences they may (or may not!) have. They may even apply some type of numerical score to an image if it is in some type of competition. This very process can be completely useless to the photographer on the other end. Why? Because of The Missing Question.
The Missing Question is one that asks “What was your goal with this image?” Note this is a different question than “what are you attempting to communicate” or “what’s your subject?” because those things often come through without explanation in a well composed image. However, it is impossible to know the goal of the photographer without asking first. The goal offers vital information that would help frame feedback in a constructive way. Were they out to improve on their use of backgrounds? Did they aim to imitate the work of a more well known photographer they admire? Were they simply trying to show what they found interesting about a special place? Is there a theme or project of other images involved? Were they simply trying to make a better image than their last?
Read MoreAs much as I cherish photos from Bonaire that did turn out the way I expected, there are some that simply serve as great memories. Recently reading Richard Wong’s post on the Pictures you don’t take brought to mind this particular experience. except I did take one picture. The picture is forgettable, perhaps not even necessary, but the events that unfolded will be cherished as one of the more memorable dives I have had.
This particular site was one of the most northern dive sites on Bonaire, one that requires you to drive through Washington-Slagbaai National Park. In our prior trips to Bonaire, we have never dove the sites in the park, and were determined to change that this time. Forget about paved roads, RV’s, and touron traffic jams here, and you better have a high clearance 4WD vehicle. It requires navigating what some might loosely call roads with many pits, boulders, and steep grades, surrounded by thorny brush and cacti on both sides. When we arrived at the first site, it was in an isolated cove with fairly heavy surge. A dive boat was moored off in the distance.
Passing dolphin pod
While we were evaluating whether we wanted to enter from shore here, or move on – we suddenly saw dolphins approach the dive boat. A dolphin sighting meant the surge was suddenly classified as a MINOR obstacle. :-) However, by the time we geared up and were ready to enter, the boat started to leave, and the dolphins along with it. Such is life. With a sigh of disappointment, we entered anyway.
If there is one significant Achilles heel of underwater photography (particularly with SLRs), it is deciding which lens you are going to be shooting with since you obviously cannot change them underwater. Murphy’s Law of Underwater Photography states that “no matter what lens you select, there will be subjects that require the other lens.” Of course I was outfitted for macro for this dive having shot wide for the past 2 days.
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Brown bear cub photo, Katmai National Park, Alaska
Lately it seems like I have had a bit of attention deficit disorder in my posts and in my photography as well. In between working some orders for clients, I would pick a few images, work on them, get a bit bored, and move on to something new. I have probably started and stopped a half dozen posts of so of ideas that started, but never quite came to clear conclusions. I have have a few projects in the works, but not enough material to formulate where I am headed with them yet.
It is a situation that reminded me of this moment with this bear cub. While waiting around for some fish to be brought to shore by Mom, the cub would wander around, sniff rocks, and gnaw on this branch. The cub would again wander off, and then wander back, gnaw on the stick some more. He (she?) really didn’t seem to know what to do until that fish was on shore, but just kept returning to that stick. It was coming back to something familiar. Is it just a way to pass the time, or does it serve some purpose?
In a lot of ways, I see similarities in this little story to how I have been working on photography . Sometimes there is a nice juicy fish to dig into (like a new lens , new project, client order or idea) and stay with for awhile. Food that nourishes, food that replenishes body and soul. However, when its done, it is back to where I was. I am just wandering around gnawing on familiar sticks. I am not sure how much nutrition that is providing other than just keeping my teeth clean. I am certainly fishing for myself, but the meals are leaving me hungry. Perhaps this is part of the process of discovering new and different nourishment?
Whatever it is, bear with me. Sometimes you will see splinters from the stick, other times maybe some leftovers of the fish. And if I should find a new delicacy, I will certainly be writing about it here. :-)
p.s.
I have had some comment spam get through lately and have implemented a new control. One of these yahoos really hit the blog hard last night. There is a checkbox in the comments section that you need to mark stating you are NOT a spammer. It is a small extra step, but from what I have read it is effective for now. There is nothing I hate worse than to think someone checked the box to be notified of new comments and then some spammer ends up sending something to a reader through my site. So sorry if any of that got through to you.
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Shelkiof sea lion colony with rough seas
Believe it or not, but I am still processing quite a few Alaska images. I wonder if I will ever finish. This one was from a boat trip we took from Geographic Harbor in Katmai National Park out into the Shelikof Straits. The water was quite rough, making it quite difficult to compose much of anything. You just see the horizon going from the top of the frame to the bottom of the frame in your viewfinder. Fortunately I had VR working for me here and a high ISO, shot with a 70-200 f2.8 at ISO2500. I absolutely love marine mammals, so I was happy a few of these ended up being keepers.
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Neighborhood Egret Roost
This shot is from this evening where I finally had some time to sit by a pond that is about a 5 minute walk from my backyard. Normally this pond has an assortment of very skittish wood ducks, Canada geese, and mallards. I have never been able to do much wildlife photography here despite it being so close. In the 11 years or so we have lived here, I have never seen many egrets in this pond, let alone a large group.
Over the past month or so on my morning walks with our dog, I have been noticing Great Egrets flying overhead. First it started with just one or two, then the numbers began increasing. When I started counting 9, 10, 12 egrets flying overhead, I really became intrigued at where the heck they were going. Flying off towards the east in the morning, and flying back Northwest in the afternoons almost like clockwork. Little did I know how close their overnight roosting spot really was.
Well, I finally noticed them driving by this pond one day – one of those “Ah ha!” moments. Tonight was the first chance I had to just go out there, sit, and wait for them to arrive. Just as the sun fell below the treeline, one by one they began to fly in.
I packed up and left shortly after getting this image – it was essentially what I was after. The light was getting really low. This image was shot at ISO6400 on my D700, 500 mm f4 with a 1.7X converter, and my shutter speed was still only 1/100 sec.
I am hoping this becomes a regular roosting spot for them year after year. If not, I was happy for the opportunity to spend this short time with them.
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