Previsualization

The concept of previsualization in photography is where the photographer can see the final print before the image has been captured. Ansel Adams dedicates the beginning of his first book to previsualization, and is often quoted as saying “Visualization is the single most important factor in photography” - From Graham Clark Photography

I have been driving past this scene for years.  The tree has been there, slowly growing taller and fuller.  Many times I would wish I had my camera with me so I could capture the scene I had in my mind.  Today, June and I were heading that way and I remembered before getting too far from the house.

I really like minimalist photography where a photo will have a single subject with lots of empty space in the photo.  They are very simple photos that can be beautiful.   I imagined the photo with this tree on the top of the hill with lots of sky behind it being the empty space.  

When I made the shot today, the sky wasn't empty but had some pretty interesting clouds, which were not in my imaginary photo.   I took several shot from two different locations.  Some in portrait orientation and others in the landscape orientation.  In the end, I liked this composition best because I could use the clouds on the right to balance the tree on the left.  I cropped off much of the hill below the tree because it didn't really add that much to the photo.  This is a graphic image that seemed to me to be a good candidate for black and white.

Lone Tree

The end photo is not exactly what I had previsualized in my mind.   With the clouds in the background, it doesn't have the minimalist feel I was hoping for.  I still have something else in mind.  I'll just have to keep driving that road and remembering to bring my camera along for the ride.

Previsualization

I went to Hungry Mother State Park for the first time several weeks ago.  While I was there I took this shot.   It's not very interesting but I thought, hey this will look great if I had a picnic basket and some picnic food laid out on a colorful table cloth on that table.    I had previsualized in my mind exactly what the photo would look like.  


A couple weeks later I was back.   June had gotten our picnic basket, a colorful quilt to use as a table cloth, some fruit and classes to put on the table.  I brought my long lens so I could compress the apparent distance between the table and the bridge in the distance.  This is going to be a great photo.

When I got there I found the table had been moved and was being used by a father and son as their fishing station.   Plus, a group of shirtless men were on a pontoon boat right in front of the bridge I wanted to include in the photo.   Neither group of fishermen were moving.   I was not going to get that shot this day.

I really liked that bridge with the setting sun shining on it.   We found our way down to the bridge and crossed over to try and find a good angle to shoot.   I was able to get this shot.   It's not the shot I came to get but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I hope to get back there before all the leaves drop off the trees and try the shot again.   Maybe conditions will be better than I even imagined.

A couple months ago I heard Bob Krist say "The key to making more interesting photos is to stand in front of interesting stuff."   Sometimes we have to go multiple times to stand in front of interesting stuff before the conditions come together to get a good shot.   Fortunately for me I live in a place with interesting stuff all around.  I have the camera.  I have the subject material.   All I need is enough time to get out there and shoot.  

Come back and visit this blog again and you may see the next attempt at this photo