Key Takeaways From Sam Abell Workshop
Recently, I spent a week with esteemed National Geographic photographer Sam Abell. The workshop was held on Whidbey Island, Washington hosted by the Pacific NorthWest Art Center. Sam is very generous with his knowledge and passion for the medium, and through his years he has fine-tuned how he constructs a photograph. I wanted to share a few key takeaways that I am already incorporating into the way I structure my photographs.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
Photos that last are ones that cannot be memorized.
Being alone, but not lonely is a state of being. Pensive, poised, yet alive within oneself — that is how we arrive at creating a self portrait.
We’re constantly working on our craft. Most photographs can be categorized as “good;” the great ones are those that we keep coming back to.
Three things to remember when composing (building) a photograph:
Find and compose your background/setting
Find and compose the foreground and middleground
Subject, which includes some form of human element and/or gesture of the human existence.
AS PHOTOGRAPHERS WE ARE ATTRACTED TO “SHINY” OBJECTS. THAT INITIAL IMAGE IS A “SKETCH.” HOW WE DEVELOP THAT SCENE FROM THE INITIAL ATTRACTION IS THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY AND THE PURSUIT OF FINDING ONES POINT OF VIEW.
Below are some examples of my sketches (left) and the finalized photographs (right).
