Are you the best judge of your Photography? (The story of an image)
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- čas přidán 17. 06. 2022
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In this video I share the story of an image I took which was destined to become the cover of my latest book, but at the time of making the image I couldn't see its potential. We as 'makers' are only half of the equation. The other half are the responses we get from those who view our work and when we forget this we might miss the real potential in the things we make.
#photography #philosophy #themeaninginthemaking - Jak na to + styl
I remember commenting on that shot when you posted it on Instagram. I feel this every time I shoot a wedding. I literally have to wait a year before I feel I can be objective about the shots. I'm too emotionally caught up in the day before that to see the shots from the point of view of a stranger. I feel Roland Barthes touches on this in Camera Lucida when he talks about the difference between the 'studium' and the 'punctum'.
Thanks my friend. I do remember that:) I hope you're well buddy and enjoying Bath:)
Hello Jamie, you have been missed, hope you are doing well?
Hi Jamie, how’s it going ? Hope all is well and we might see something from you again. Love your work.
(psst - you couldn’t ask your mate Sean, to distribute his book from the UK as well could you ? The international shipping costs are outrageous 🤣)
Take care
Andy
@@acjones225 Hi Andy. All my books are also distributed from the UK. Which did you purchase internationally?
@@acjones225 Jamie's been uploading again too.
I am the best judge of my photography because I take photos for myself and don't care if others like them. The best and most innovative artists have always been those who have their own vision and don't worry about what others think. I'm a musician, like jazz, and enjoy playing it even though most people are too musically illiterate to understand it. BTW, I love the photo.
When I want to watch videos on technique and equipment, there are hundreds of choices on CZcams. When I need creative inspiration and reassurance, I watch yours.
I think it's wonderfully ironic that the cover image of your book on "The Meaning in the Making" is what you considered a "grab shot" taken with not much thought. It speaks of the potential of photography to surprise.
That's one of the things I love about photography, the delightful surprises. Often, my favorite shot of the day is not the one I went out the door to get.
Dang! Two Sean Tucker videos in the same month. I feel so spoiled!
But I almost always post two videos a month:)
@@seantuck I’m over worked this week. Sorry. I was a nice surprise that has table made my 60 hour work Week better
I always love and appreciate that you can push aside ego enough to give honest feedback of your photography. So many others would never admit that that image was a "grab" shot, instead would have insisted it was a deeply thought out, artistic choice, to show off their photographic prowess.
Coming in late, for the algorithm, but I just want to express thanks for making these videos. Great commentary as always, Sean.
Thank you for sharing the back story of the image on your book and again making me think deeper about my creative journey.
That describes why I joined a photo club and journeyed around until I found the one I am a member of today. It was the one I felt the most resistance to joining. And I love it there. Thanks for the words.
The piece also describes how I felt when shooting a bit of models and portraits. People wanted the shots so fast and I had not had time to shake off the emotions of the shoot. I could go for 2 months before I was ready to look at any image to start culling them. I needed distance. I have gotten better but now I shoot landscapes and they do not demand a fast turnaround.
Creating art is like raising a child. You do your best, but in the end you have to let it make its own way in the world. It seems we've come a long way from the arrogance of the 'artiste.' Thanks again for another thoughtful piece.
Something I need to work on- slowing down. It took you time and several looks to "see" it. I make quick decisions and move on. Love the reminder to come back to your work.
Beautiful! You always move me to tears and inspiration!! Thank you!
I love your videos - BIG FAN! You bring all things in photography to life! Thanks for all your inspiring stories. I am a photographer myself and love photographs that tell a story and can evoke so many emotions and feelings. Thanks for all the knowledge you share!!! 📸💚💚
I am the best judge of my work because I am the only one who knows what the potential was within the elements I had assembled. An editor or client does not need a clue to know if an image is engaging or successful for them, but to judge the work you have to have been there and know how well you rendered your vision -what's on the film- and what was missed.
Another wonderful essay, thank you! I think everything you have said in this essay is true. I think it is also worth mentioning that in many cases the photographer isn't 50 percent of the image, they are more like 2 percent because they don't realize what they are photographing until they see it later or someone else points it out to them. In my case, working with a creative team, I'm often 2 percent of the image because other members of the team suggest different approaches to lighting, different pose or expression, or one subtle change in pose that turns a really good image into a wonderful image.
In all honesty the best thing about having ADHD and a photographer, I forget about the connotation of a shot I took. It really is a gift and a curse. It is which one you give the most power. Thank you Sean.
Sean makes a very profound point. The image we make isn’t complete until it’s viewed and taken in by another. Another point the message is serenely and excellently filmed as always.
What a delight that art can surprise not only the viewer but the artist as well.
This is exactly the role of a film editor - to have the outsider's perspective. That the planning, rigour, pain, effort taken to get a shot or even a whole sequence - is immaterial. The editor wasn't there - what they care about is their reaction. What counts is Does It Tell The Story? Does it aid in the vision? They will see things and feel things those producing the images never will. They will be the audience - the audience the director is making the film for. And that perspective, free of agenda and emotional/logitical baggage, is exactly the gift that your designer gave you with your cover image.
That my friends is the Sean Tucker we love to listen to.
Thanks so much for your honesty and insights. It’s all about the emotional impact and storytelling and you nailed it with that shot. Inspired me to go back through my images I never felt had potential.
I always love this type of content from you. Thanks for the video and the inspiration
Excellent video, Sean! And definitely some food for thought. Sharing the story behind that image really drove the point home.
Really thoughtful content as always Mr Tucker. Thanks so much for putting pen to paper in your book. I’ve got a great deal out of it, and I’m sure will revisit it many times in the future.
Thank you for this excellent video, Sean! So much insights, so much to be thought about.
Great video. Thank you. For me, it's moments like this--when you just have to take a shot even though there are many reasons not to, but you take it anyway. The eye and the subconscious working together often make the best photos in my humble opinion.
What an example of this topic. I really admire your videos Sean. Show so much of your vision and so much about Photography.
I'm always curious to see what others notice and see, feel or are responding to when they view an image. How does it gift them? Sometimes their gift to them, comes back to me as a greater unanticipated gift. The image you've talked about, I absolutely love - it is just right for the book. I've been enjoying that too! I've scrawled and underlined, and dialogued with it all the way through. I love its stories, insights, thoughts, and connections. A few little ah moments as my own thinking has found something of a treasure for the journey. Thanks for gifting the world with your creative activity. I love the depth it holds.
Sean, just want to say... You are so worth it as a human being. Investing in your videos and your content is so soul refreshing for me. Thank you for creating what you create from your heart space
Sean you are so gifted both visually and verbally. Love your images but even more your words. Keep it up we need you.
Thanks so much Bernie:)
Great video, great photo on a great book! Thanks Sean
My wife always says I'm to critical of my one stuff and she's right...I do wonder if that's the norm with us photographer's
Thank you Sir or another very true and insightful video Sean
Thank you Sean for making such a great video.
Just loved this video …relevant, soothing and profound. Thankyou. 🙂
Great video. Always the surprises with photography. Go out with intention and something better comes along.
Superb, thank you for reminding us.
Getting out your own way helps! Another insightful piece. 🙌
This has come up for me recently and is important to remember. Thanks as always!
I had no idea this was the picture on the books cover initially and I carry it with me every day.
Wow ! Cool to know the cover Photo story, half way through your Book, great read !
Great thoughts, thank you! And the picture is amazing.
great perspective! love it
Thank you...words I needed to hear!
Thanks you for documenting XR, it is really appreciated. More please, it's History being made.
It can be a strange feeling as a photographer. I remember taking a photo I personally really really liked, but most of the feedback I got was pretty neutral, or indifferent. Then there was that other shot I took that I personally almost disliked as an image and I got amazing positive feedback on it.. To this day, I still dislike that photo, but I try to understand why others like it. At the end of the day, art is always subjective.. Thanks for the video Sean 👍
Well speaking for myself I certainly haven't been the best judge of my work and it's only in recent year or two that view for me has changed for me and I see others in the same place... Just thought I'd also say, I always enjoy this sort of philosophical - even psychological - insights & commentary and is what originally had me interested in your CZcams in the first place, it's refreshing to see such work as opposed to so much on here.
Always thought provoking, its very hard to detach yourself from the images we take so getting honest feedback is invaluable, I have had what I would consider throwaway images being the ones people I trust like the most. Always great to get your thoughts and beautifully filmed, thanks Sean.
I love that picture of the girl on the bridge, the individual versus the world with the individual winning. I love the book too Sean. It's very grounding and beautifully thought out out. Thank you.
Thanks David:)
Thanks for another wonderful video.
Beautifully said. Thank you ! So many times I have deleted photos because I thought they were ‘no good’. Then a year later wished I had kept. Many times I’ve agonized on posting a photo because I thought it was ‘just eh’ when it turns out to be a photo others love and engage with. We or at least I need to believe in myself more often.
Maybe there are no accidents. Maybe every time before this that you’ve clicked the shutter informed that “instinctive” (grab??) shot. Maybe even a day before that, you would have just kept running, and not seen that. What is that instinct that said “capture this now?” Think on that…how often we hear/feel that slight tug and just stay “on task.”
Thank you for this-it's something I needed to hear as I look to start publishing my own work. Most of it was taken as "something interesting at the time" and not pre-conceived. Now being very removed from much of it, I'm looking back with fresh eyes to find the stories I didn't know I was creating with the images.
Great video Sean
I can’t help but think I prefer the unedited (color?) version you showed here first. It had a softness to it that I think was lost in the black and white edit? A beautiful shot either way, but the almost pastels of that unedited color version are immediately relaxing, and do indeed sit at the opposite end of the spectrum from the chaos that must have been everywhere else that day…
I wonder if that girl will ever see your book and realise that it was her on the cover ?
I am enjoying your book very much by the way 👍
I was recently given your book as a present and have yet to start it. It sits on my desk where I edit my photographs so I look at the cover every day. I was sure that the image of the girl with the wings, being so quiet and lyrical, was a posed shot you had set up I’d assumed with a friend modelling for you. Just goes to prove your point about sending v receiving. It is a lovely image and I’m looking forward to reading your book even more now.
It is a good book to read... took me a long time to finish.
Good luck to you
Fantastic video.
Best advice ever
What a great video Sean. That intro, the story behind that photo and the overall message. I wonder if that girl has any idea she's featured on the cover of your book...
Wow…
Sean, I so enjoy your videos. But occasionally you post something that really brings things home for me. This is one of those videos
I love it, thanks:)
I always love your videos, even though I don’t always comment!
Your video and opinions are always very inspiring. Even for amateur/hobbyists like me.
I agree with you very much. sometimes we are the worst judges of our own work.
I believe that one should only show their best work however, with this in mind selecting or "curating" my work is possibly the hardest part of my photography, so I recently submitted, what I consider to be two of my best to be judged in two online photo competitions to gauge the response and to see how far off I am. The first I submitted came 5th out of 100 photographers who could submit one image, The second image which I consider to be my best came 49th out of 2200 images that were submitted which gave me a lot of confidence in my own selection process. My mentor always maintained "Make sure they stand the test of time."
Bull's eye, Tucker.
Thanks my friend.
An important video!
Us photographers have one vision of an image while the world has a million visions.
I think that’s a perfect image for the book Sean, unfortunately it’s one I’m yet to read but it’s on my list of books to buy, at the top too. I actually won one of your books last August but he forgot to send it, I got in touch and he sent me “Collection iv” and I’m nearly positive it should have been the one in question, now though I have 3 copies of Collection iv as I asked my Daughter for a book at Christmas and believing she was doing the right thing she bought me Collection iv, which was very kind of her but I already owned it along with Collection iii.
Hope you’re still enjoying being up North, see we’re not all bad🤣
I'm a hobbyist photog, and mostly shoot people. I tend to over deliver when it comes to quantity of proofs for people to view and select favorites from. It's mostly because I continue to be surprised that their favorites are always my favorites.
You make a good point.👀🌹
I have taken pictures that I didn't really like, but others really liked. And also the other way around.
Thank you
So true
Thank you liked winged angel 💝
My ears were burning during this one. I took up photography as a serious hobby when I retired 3+ years ago and live, shoot, and edit in a bubble. Retirement removes one from a large body of others that in some instances, I have known for 40 years. It is not easy to find someone whose opinions you value to give honest opinions of your own work. Thank you for the impetus to add that to my to-do list.
Have you ever been contacted to the girl on the bridge?
Thanks man...just wanna say thanks...
Your book designer did a great job. I thought the typesetting was very fine indeed.
Vla is a ninja:)
If I do not like my own images, then there are no point for me to photograph, so no matter what others think of my images, when I like my images then there are good for ME and THAT is what matters, not what others like !
I remember a shot by Dirck Halstead when he got a grab shop of then President Clinton greeting a crowd. The shot was of Clinton giving Monica Lewinsky a hug. She, at the time, was just a face in the crowd. Halstead did not think much about it but the image was on film so he just filed it away.
When the scandal broke, Halstead made a fortune with that image as he was the only one that got it.
Agreed. I would also add that the photographer needs to be careful how to name the image as well. Although the image belongs to the photographer, interpretation of the image belongs to the viewer. I think 3:2 is an unfortunate aspect ratio in portrait mode. In the notable absence of 5:4 (4x5) I find myself shooting 1:1 quite often.
I remember you saying opting out of google ad revenue but now I see so many ads on your channel.. what changed ?
True
I’m never keen on the dinners I cook when eating them straight after I’ve slaved away in the kitchen. The day after though, I taste them in a whole different way.
Usually when you go back 6 months later you discover the things you missed in the initial edit.
I hate my own photographs but it does seem to give a lot of people pleasure.
I am always surprised by pictures that I take and think “ well this is an ok pic “ and they get the most positive comments from friends .
❤️❤️❤️
Got it.
Recently I exposed an old slide film in a Canon A1 in manual mode, it is 30 years ago that I last used that camera, so the slides came, what a surprise, out all wrong. But people like it, blurry, under exposed, weird colors, auto of focus. So no, sometimes one is not the best judge of one's own work.
Mentalisation
no we are NOT!!! I have images that I believe that "average" that some people say "WOW!!!" and we just forget that normal for us could be soooo great for others... So now I try to share as much as possible,
Did you ever find out who the girl is? Does she know she is on the cover of your book? Interesting.🤔
I have a theory that sometimes our subconscious recognizes a good shot and we take what we think is a "grab shot", when actually the mind knew just what it was doing. It just wasn't apparent at the time.
Oh I am a firm believer in the fact that I am the worst judge when it comes to my own work. Especially being that I do a lot of self portraits. I am the worst person to judge my work. It sucks that constructive criticism is so hard to find.
I'm not sure the influences on me. Take photography, a hobby with a phone, probably more mental health than skilled production. But I look forward to the feedback, ive left photos with no likes on Instagram as it gives a grounding that, what you might like doesn't have to be anyone's taste, just your own. Feedback can be a killer for an amateur mindset, if you're looking to be pro it is a gift, or I hope it is. Though never let feedback define you as well.
What camera do you use?
You mix 2 completely, and vastly different subjects: photography and photojournalism.
Photojournalism is journalism. That the image is beautiful or that it pleases you is completely irrelevant. It's not its purpose.
As for art, yes, you are the best (and only) judge of your photography. Why? Because you create it for you.
That is the absolute key and the most misunderstood aspect of what being an artist is.
True artsts work in the shadows, to solve a very inner subject. They may work to create something of absolute beauty, they may try to heal, they may want to explose from something they find utterly revolting but the key is that they work for themselves. And then and only then it may work for others too.
It will truly speak to someone else if it's an authentic work for yourself. The rest is complete fluffware.
I've had this very phenomenon happen to me. I shot a scene outside of a tobacco/vape shop that I've never really thought was one of my better shots. However, others see it in a different light. It's been on the cover of two magazines now and I had to learn to read it from a different point of view with a different expectation of the image. My question for you is this... how do we view ourselves when we look at our own work? In a way, could our point of view be a bit of arrogance or is it something else? Being inside the associative bubble? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic of artists view of their own work and mind set. I've been humbled and had to expand the way I view my own work from different aspects to appreciate what other people do. Sometimes it's difficult. What are your thoughts? I could spend hours discussing this with you I think. LOL
Does it mean We need validation for our Art?
You have been one this earth before