The Joy Of Image Making

William Lulow

 

The Joy Of Image Making

By William Lulow

It is interesting how much I enjoy looking at my own images! Sounds like a conceited thing to say, but when you have put in all the time and effort to learn a craft, to make sure you have studied every aspect of what it is you do on a daily basis, to study thoroughly the various practitioners who have come before you and to understand what they have gone through to arrive at the places they’ve experienced in their own interpretations of photography, then, and only then can you truly appreciate the nuances of your own work as well. When you have mastered the techniques so that they work for you on a consistent basis, you are then a “professional,” even though some say that the definition of a “professional photographer” is one who derives all his income from photography. Such an appreciation is independent of what others may think. One has to realize the inherent value of his or her own art work in order to be really creative. It shouldn’t be dependent on what others think. How many good artists were not commercially successful in their own lifetimes?  When you work in any kind of commercial art field, you of course, have clients to please. And if they are not pleased, it may mean that you will not derive any commercial success. But the act of creating art in and of itself should not rely on any commercial success. It has only to do with how the artist feels about his or her own creations.

There are many practitioners today who have achieved a modicum of commercial success without really studying photography in its totality. They are not aware of the great masters, the great themes and the endless techniques that have been developed over the decades since the 1820’s when photography was actually invented. There are those who know a few techniques and have worked them consistently enough to have made some money, but they are not really students of the craft. The process of gaining the kind of knowledge to be considered a “master photographer” is a long one. It’s a fairly steep learning curve that, in my case, has included re-inventing myself in today’s digital world. It was almost like starting over completely with learning a new and revolutionary technology. Many high school courses in photography still begin with traditional darkroom and film techniques precisely because they believe in offering a real foundation in photography’s beginnings as well as how it is practiced today. But having the knowledge of what went before was a tremendous help to my continual learning of the new methods and workflow solutions.

Because, in photography, the basics will always be basic! You have to have a knowledge of light and how it behaves. You have to learn what exposures are and how to manipulate them to achieve the results you want. And, you have to develop an ease with using the various kinds of equipment at your disposal for whatever kind of “art” you wish to create. Once you have done that, you too, can really be proud of your creations.

Discover more from William Lulow Photography

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Related posts