Done planning...
"Chance favours the prepared mind", so said Louis Pasteur – though photographer Ansel Adams is sometimes misattributed as the author of this pithy phrase. The question for me is what kind of preparation is appropriate to the making of landscape photographs? Many take preparation to mean in-depth planning in one form or another; the setting of objectives (the prior choice of location and viewpoint) and strategies for achieving those objectives (time of day, time of year, kind of light, choice of lens, choice of film, choice of socks and so on). A photographer I know, who was also an ex-member of the British Army, often quoted the "Seven P's" rule as an essential prerequisite for making a good image: Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!
This is all well and good when trying to make sure that you have your tanks and men in the right place prior to a battle but does it really apply to photography? OK, some basic planning is necessary – but it is so basic that it only qualifies as planning in the same way that breathing qualifies as essential planning for life:
1) You need to make sure that you have the camera with you (despite Jacques Henri Lartigue's deepest wish, blinking three times is not sufficient when one wishes to freeze a moment for posterity)
2) A tripod is almost always a good idea (and I should know as I have had the dreadful experience of not realising that I have forgotten mine until I'd reached the summit of a lonely hill...)
and...
3) One needs a medium, be it film or a memory card, on which to inscribe the image.
Other than make sure that these three essential details are in place (I know, I forgot the tripod once and you're never going to let me forget it!) I do very little in the way of planning – one might say (in a derogatory way) that this is apparent in my photographs. And actually I hope my lack of planning is apparent, but as a positive rather than negative attribute.
Photographers fall into two camps (perhaps all humans do – after all sweeping generalisations are always good!): those who plan and those who don't; those who feel uneasy without a specific goal and those who feel that that the lack of a goal frees their creativity. I place myself in the latter group. When I travel out to make a photograph I do so without a specific goal in mind. I usually have a place in mind (silly not to or one might find oneself in the car park at Sainsbury's supermarket) but I rarely have any clear idea about what I'm going to make an image of when I get there. I travel in a receptive mood but not one of expectation.
There are a couple of benefits to this laissez faire attitude – and at least one downside too! I'll deal with this first. I can think of quite a few images that have definitely benefited from a good deal of planning, especially ones when the light only strikes your subject at a particular time of year or ones that rely upon a particular state of the tide. One could, of course, happen upon these circumstances and still make an outstanding image. In fact I'm fairly certain that one of my favourite images of Joe Cornish's, Contours in Blue, was achieved by luck, by happenstance, despite the window of opportunity for its making being almost impossible narrow. This image can only be made around sunset, between mid December and mid January when the tide is more than half way out. Given the vagaries of the British weather this probably means there are probably less than half a dozen days in a year when the image might be made.
But part of the discipline of making images on a large format camera is that you are forced to anticipate events. Once this attitude is imprinted it's difficult to switch it off. Everywhere you go you will look at things and wonder whether it would look better at a different time of the day or year or if the sky was different or if it was raining or if it was snowing... This attitude, of course, provides a useful quality control check: is this the best image that I can make here or should I come back another day?
So, travelling without planning would seem to be at worst counter-productive and at best not making the optimum use of one's time.
However, as I've already stated, I don't plan image making like a military campaign and I still manage to make images. In fact I've become increasingly aware that to plan too much can actually be bad for one's pictures. The first problem with being too focussed on a specific target is that one can dismiss other opportunities (or simply not see them at all). There have been many occasions when I have seen something that I thought would make a great image and walked past it because I had another in mind only to find that when I reached my goal the light was poor or some other factor made the proposed image unworkable.
I've now grown to realise that I should seize the first opportunity presented to me. Of course all of you using cameras other than a view camera will be muttering under you breath, "Why not make both?!" This might indeed be possible (even on a 5X4) in some circumstances. But why rush to make two? Better to take your time and make one image well. The light, or other transient factors, might force you to hurry but other than the pressure from those external variants I feel one should never place time constraints on one's work. Do you think that Michelangelo would have 'delivered' the Sistine Chapel a week earlier just because he wanted to move onto another commission? No! He worked until he was satisfied with the result.
The other great benefit of not planning a particular image is that one becomes more spontaneous. Wandering with a receptive mind makes one open to new and different opportunities from one's normal repertoire. Planning can make one stick to tried and tested methods of achieving a satisfying result; using warm light, using a wide angle lens, using a familiar composition and so on. I'm also, as I think I've written in previous posts, a fan of anonymous places. An image such as Blue Snow is a good example of one made in just such a place and one that simply could not have been planned.
It seems to me that the most important "forces" photographers have to muster are garrisoned inside our heads, and that we carry them with us always. All we have to do is rouse them from their barracks, placing them in a state of readiness and alerting them to the possibility of some creative action. The one essential preparation that we always need to carry out is to make ourselves receptive to new possibilities for images. Rather than Pasteur's famous phrase, it might be better for photographer's to say, "The prepared mind finds possibilities in chance."
Highlight this Comment Sandy Wilson03/04/2008, 18:40
David, This is a very interesting article. Having just retired as a civilian working for the MOD. I can relate to your ex-military friend's way of thinking. However I must agree with your viewpoint on this matter.
Here is my philosophy when making images as quoted by Master American photographer Wynn Bullock
"My pictures are never pre-visualised or planned. I feel strongly that pictures must come from contact with things at the time and place of taking. At such times, I rely on intuitive, perceptual responses to guide me, using reason only after the final print is made to accept or reject the results of my work. Although both reason and intuition are equally important tools that help me grow visually, the creative act itself come from an intense, direct, one-to-one relationship between myself and whatever I photograph".
David you could also look at the following book, for a different way of thinking.
"The TAO of Photography (Seeing Beyond Seeing)" ISBN 1 58008-194-0
Highlight this Comment Peter Roworth04/04/2008, 08:50
David:
First of all can I please add my rather belated 'well done' in providing a great working web site. I say working because your thought provoking articles, supported by equally superb photographs, have encouraged others to take part in discussion, which is good for photography, the photographer and at times begins to stretch the brain cells!!
There are all manor of different approaches to photography ranging from the hobbyist to the professional and everyone has their own style to achieve their goals. The pace of the world we live in never seems to be slowing down and in photography there is almost the expectation to see the final image on the viewing area of a digital camera before the shutter has been pressed - where is the thought behind that? I'm all for trying to slow things down, and no I don't use large format but 35mm film. However, I do use DSLR for some of my work in nature conservation but I still treat the approach in taking a digi photograph the same as if I am using a film camera.
I'm in danger of now slipping into ramble mode but I did want to comment on the Schultz cartoon of 20th March; great, the idea is keep it simple!! and the end result should be just as good. I also think, being all individuals what works for us will not work for others but when it ALL comes together there should be some adrenalin flow which says 'yes' that's the image I've been wanting. ALL is Attitude, Light and Luck.
During a walk along a farm track some weeks ago when we had some very severe frosts I was casually looking around and then saw in a puddle of frozen water the different greys, bubbles of air and ice which gave the absolute perfect likeness to the head of a mouse.
This was a blip in the landscape just shared by one person, within days he had gone but luckily I had a camera, light okay, but my attitude felt great.
Peter Roworth
Highlight this Comment Adam P04/04/2008, 23:32
Hello David
It’s interesting how this topic returns to various fora, be it web based, photo magazines or real face-to-face discussion and I think that there is no simple rule to follow. I suppose that when we go out to take pictures, we go with either specific pictures in mind that we know we want to take, or we are open to whatever opportunities we come across. Sometimes both. Neither approach is absolutely right or wrong – it’s whatever is right for us at the time.
I wonder whether the intention of taking a pre-planned picture is a sign of some photo-artistic maturity. We need a measure of experience to pre-plan: perhaps we hope to improve on an image which we recognise has failed in a previous attempt. If it’s one we’ve been chasing for weeks-months-years, and the conditions are now perfect, then nothing will deflect us from that goal.
Or perhaps we were inspired by an image we have seen published and have planned to emulate it with our own “take” on that subject or idea. But this one is less likely to be so important that we will pass by a super but unexpected opportunity.
On the other hand the open minded approach should allow us to shoot the unexpected and should allow us to shoot outside our normal comfort zone. (Which probably takes us back to some of the discussions in Developing Vision & Style).
I’m off to Eigg in a few weeks and have some ideas of the sort of picture I would like to take (or hopefully make). I have never been to Eigg but I imagine that certain scenes will be there for the taking: coastal views and details, flowers, mountains etc. That is a sort of pre-visualisation, albeit woolly, based on experience elsewhere. On the other hand, because the locations are new to me I should be prepared to shoot whatever else attracts me. Each day will be new and I expect to take things as they come. But because I have never been there, what I cannot do is pre-visualise very specific images. And that adds to the fun!
Highlight this Comment Julian05/04/2008, 10:01
Hi David,
I was pondering this myself as I set out on my most recent photo 'safari'. I was going to a broadly familiar locale but I had used Google Earth to research some byways I had missed on previous trips.
I was worried that I'd over-planned things and left too little room for inspiration but, as it turned out, I arrived at these places with no specific images in mind - just a feeling that these were locations which I might find inspiring. Indeed my best images came from wandering, largely at random, and just seeing what was there.
Robert Louis Stevenson famously wrote, 'to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive' and I find that letting the landscape reveal itself to you in this way is akin to 'travelling hopefully'. It's certainly a deeply satisfying way of approaching landscape photography.
Highlight this Comment Tim Parkin05/04/2008, 11:12
I think perhaps that there are different types of planning. In a new location, you can't plan particular photographs but you can plan to be their at a particular time to add to the portfolio of opportunity you take with you. When you get to a location, you add to your portfolio. But we always take a set of 'compositional templates/styles' with us wherever we go and I feel that this is the sort of pre-planning that David does (either consciously or unconsciously). The 'Hourglass' pattern that has manifested in at least a couple of David's pictures is one of these possibly. This pattern may have become imprinted whilst composing a particularly interesting picture and is now overlaid on David's view, ready to trigger recognition should something match.
Other photographers pre-plan subject matter or topic; I've been trying to represent flow and erosion in some of my trips to Whitby and Ingleton - not enough to be happy with the results yet though. This means that when I wander aimlessly, my mind does have a filter that helps me recognise subjects that say 'erosion/flow' but it doesn't mean I'm closed to everything else.
As usual in most either-or considerations, this isn't a boolean characterisation that we can apply and most people will be at some point in the continuum and probably will move up and down it over short and long time periods.
I do have a fairly strong opinion that if you want to consciously represent a subjective idea, it is often best done over multiple photographs and that to do this, you need to have a consistent goal whilst taking those photographs, whether it be over the course of a single 'shoot' or over a much longer period. This doesn't mean that the initiator for the subjective idea needs to be pre planned though, it can evolve as a theme still but is less likely to be representative of an internal idea if it's evolution is completely random.
Highlight this Comment David Ward05/04/2008, 16:33
Hi Julian,
They say that great minds think alike, but fools seldom differ (not sure which group you and I fall into!), so perhaps it's not so strange that you should quote the same passage by Robert Louis Stevenson as I did in the introduction to Landscape Beyond – I can't even accuse you of copying me as the book isn't available yet!
David
Highlight this Comment Chris A11/04/2008, 11:03
I would place myself firmly in the "no pre-planning" group after my experience in Tuscany a couple of years ago. We went to a dawn location one morning, but there was too much cloud cover. The plan was to come back the next day, so I scouted round for a potential viewpoint and found one I thought would work. When we returned the next day the light was much better, but my selected viewpoint didn't really work. So, somewhat frustrated, I desperately tried to find another image. After setting this up and taking it, I then realised I hadn't spotted some cranes (the building variety - not the birds) on the skyline. Not really what you want in the Tuscan landscape! If I had arrived with an open mind I'm sure I'd have not made the same mistake.
Highlight this Comment Nigel Simmonds12/04/2008, 16:29
Hi David,
I'm still trying to understand how your paraphrased version of Pasteur's aphorism (which by the way, seems to make sense to me) relates to 'done with planning'. Is the equation between 'prepared' and 'planning versus spontaneity' one and the same thing? The latter seems to be important in being free to express oneself. Do you have any thoughts as to how to achieve the balance?
Highlight this Comment David Ward13/04/2008, 09:37
Hi Nigel,
Good to see you posting!
The original point I was trying, imperfectly, to make was that preparation and planning for photography were related but not one and the same thing. It seems to me that for many, because of a general and understandable emphasis on location, they are thought of as being synonymous. Mental preparation, which is I feel what Pasteur was referring to, is far more important that physical planning. You can plan a photographic sortie to the nth degree but if you are not mentally prepared for the opportunities that arise by chance (and focussing on a particular planned goal can blind you to these) then you will be missing out on so many possible alternate (and often 'better') images.
So, to recap, for me preparation is largely a question of making myself available to what chance may offer rather than being a slave to a predetermined plan. Personal experience has led me to believe, like Chris, that a plan often stifles spontaneity. For this often results in me finding myself feeling completely without direction, almost as if lost in fog. Possibilities are no doubt all around me but I have been blinded by too heavy a reliance upon a plan to achieve a certain goal. Whereas if I set out in an open frame of mind I find that I can seize whatever opportunities arise.
As to how a balance is achieved, I think that this is very much down to individuals as it will depend upon their personality and how confident they feel about working without any structure.
David
Highlight this Comment Adam P14/04/2008, 22:58
Hello all,
So here I am in my local woods, searching for that interesting angle and trying to go beyond a photo of a tree. After a few visits in different lighting conditions I realise that actually I am gravitating to abstractions - colours, textures, alien shapes - all showing little context, so that it is not very clear what the image is. My early visits to the woods were unplanned and serendipitous but then I began to go back with a specific purpose.
So, the relatively limited subject matter I have within easy reach of home (at least, that’s my excuse for being a slow developer) has forced me to evolve in my approach. Colours, textures and lighting effects are now the basis of my exploration in the woods and I remain open-minded to these while at the same time having a reasonably clear idea of what I want to achieve. I find myself simply fascinated by what nature has created and yet relatively few people see.
I am also quite content in my belief that there is no right or wrong answer: planned and unplanned approaches are equally valid, according to circumstances and your own goals.
Highlight this Comment Sheila18/04/2008, 10:15
Hi David,
I'm not sure which camp you would place me in (one half way up a mountain, if I get a preference), but I have to disagree with your statement that we are all in one or the other camp. Much too sweeping a generalisation, in my view.
Wedding or still life photographers would be the extreme planners, but every keen photographer plans their photography to some extent. You mention picking a location and remembering to take your equipment with you, but also your choice of time of day, time of year, checking the weather forecast are all types of planning.
I suppose you mean that having a specific picture in mind before you arrive at the location is stifling to creativity. I doubt you'd find many photographers who do this all the time. Occasionally I do, mostly I don't. Call me inconsistent, well I might be.
I have planned some pictures but almost always failed to achieve my plan. However, I have found that the failure can be quite inspiring. It might inspire me to come again (sometimes repeatedly until I get what I want) or it might inspire me to find something else. One time I went to Curbar edge to photograph mist in the valley only to find the mist enveloping the edge. Instead I found some crane flies covered in dew and photographed them instead. In this case if I hadn't gone out at all I'd never have found the crane flies.
I definitely do less planning when I visit a new area, as I don't know what's there. Whereas on my local patch, I have to choose which place to go based on my knowledge and past experiences, so inevitably I tend to imagine the sort of picture I might be able to take given the state of the weather or heather (or other vegetation).
I suspect that there is a progression from the novice photographer, who wanders around looking for things to photograph. Through the more advanced togs, who have started to plan to catch the sunrise or low tide or the buffalo migration. Further still they might pre-visualise an actual composition on some occasions. Eventually for the lucky few, they come out the other end as artists and revert to wandering around looking for things to photograph again :) Not sure I’ll ever get there, I do sometimes revert to ‘holiday snapper’ mode, but I blame digital for that!
Sheila
Hi to Nigel, too. I hope you are well and happy.
Highlight this Comment Paul19/04/2008, 19:10
Hi David - seems to me that as your (i.e. my) experience accumulates you (i.e. I) need to plan less. When I started in landscape photography I was inspired to make copies of the iconic images I'd seen by the famous landscape photographers. That required a lot of planning and preparation - where was the location, the exact location, the tripod holes!, where did the sun rise, when will the tide be out, etc. etc. etc. For a virgoan control freak it was heaven!. Slowly it occurred to me that my best images were the accidents, the ones I made on the way back to the car, or as the result of being deflected by an unexpected opportunity. On a recent commission to Hadrian's Wall I spent a considerable amount of time planning for each days photography. I knew the locations I wanted to go to, the images I wanted to make, and the lighting conditions I wanted. In addition to these 'pre-planed' images, of which there were many, I made several images of a more spontaneous, and less cliched, nature. On a personal level these images were the most successful and satisfying. To my surprise the client purchased several of these within the final portfolio.
With the benefit of hindsight would I have planned any less? Most likely no. I think the important point you make is to be receptive to the possibilities, after all, if an image can be so planned in advance, presumably it will always be there in the future should you be distracted by the unexpected.
Having said all that, it occurs to me that with much of your style of photography pre-planning wouldn't really work: e.g
"what image are you planning to make today David?",
"Oh there's a great piece of decaying window frame I know, it should look great at this time of year with the tide out and the sun over there. What about you?"
"Bamburgh Castle. I know exactly the image I want, I'll place the castle on intersecting thirds, sidelit by the setting sun. I'll use the foreground rocks, gently washed by the receding tide, as a lovely lead-in line - I may even use a really slow exposure".
Nice to see the blog back in business. Cheers and hopefully see you next week. Paul.
Highlight this Comment David Ward20/04/2008, 08:40
Hi Paul,
You've managed to be much more succinct than I, damn you! You're spot on in saying that the issue is not planning per se but rather that the type of images that I want to make depend upon spontaneity, they depend upon serendipity.
As an interesting aside, not all images that appear to be spontaneous really are. I recently came across an image by Andre Kertesz of a man walking up a street in Parisian suburb. At first glance it appears to be in the mould of Cartier Bresson, a chance encounter beautifully captured. However Kertesz had visited this spot at least once before – and he even made some images so we have concrete proof. The earlier visit seems to have served as a dress rehearsal for the final image. There is even some suggestion that the figure carrying the painting is either a friend or was directed to do so. Not that this should affect the power of the image, after all nobody has ever complained that painters planned their work or that composers spent years on a score rather than just ad libbing...
Perhaps the salient point is that I'm just too simple to plan something as complicated as this!
Highlight this Comment Sandy Wilson17/05/2008, 15:53
Hi All,
Let me quote TAO theory, Wu-wei.
The philosopher Roger Ames describes the concept of wu-wei as responding with an awareness that enables one to maximize the creative possibilities of himself in his environment
Let me also quote a famous photographer, "I never look for a photograph, the photograph finds me and says, I'm here! and I say , Yes I see you, I hear you". Ruth Bernhard.
Also let me quote another famous photographer:
"My pictures are never pre-visualised or planned . I feel strongly that pictures must come from contact with things at the time and place of taking. at such times, I rely on intuitive, perceptual responses to guide me, using reason only after the final print is made to accept or reject the results of my work" Wynn Bulock.
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