While I was in Oregon attending photography classes at Kando, one of the instructors said something that stuck with me. He said, as photographers, we don’t take photos. We make photos. That kind of stuck with me. Photographers take deliberate actions to create a great photo. That might mean investing in gear, learning how to control and use light, interacting with people, or knowing where to be at the right place and at the right time. It involves some effort, some thinking, and I hope, some joy.
For example, I might look at the lunch I just ordered and thought, that actually looks great. I take out my phone and snap a photo. That seems more like “taking a photo” than making one. But if I started to arrange it differently, and started deliberating angles, lights, background, composition and such, we’re now moving into the realm of “making a photo”. I don’t think one needs to be a professional to make a photo, just a keen desire to creating a great image.
And what of a portrait?
Taking portraits presents an intriguing challenge to making a portrait. This is because a critical element in the foreground is a complex human being. If I picked a subject to sit for his or her portrait at random and asked two photographers to take a portrait, I’m quite sure that the two versions could not be more different than say, if I asked the same photographers to shoot interior design or a still object.
The topic of “making a portrait” continues to intrigue me every day. It’s a path, a bridge to knowing new and interesting people. And an invitation to interpret their personality into a series of images that speak something of them. In a way, a photographer would find it hard to make a portrait without enlisting the consent, if not the cooperation (and enthusiasm) of his subject. It’s a collaboration of sorts, jointly putting something in to create that finished product (for example, this portrait of Enrique who is a DJ who’s dropping a new awesome sounding EDM album soon would not be the same without him bringing his enthusiasm to the shoot. I spent some time getting to know him over coffee before I pulled out my camera and i that time I realize now that I was thinking of a great many things of how I wanted to make Enrique’s portrait before I even took out my camera.
And so, I shall continue to improve my ability to make portraits in small steps. I hope you think of the idea of making a photo the next time you are so stirred to create an image.