The most important tool a photographer has is his or her ability to visualize. How good a photographer is can be measured by how effectively they are at visualizing what they see. This may sound redundant but once a photographer sees what they are to photograph they must pick the best angle, the right light, what background, camera settings, and so on, and so on. For that matter a lot of us have to visualize what to photograph even before we see it. If a shooter is a working photographer he or she also has to be able to visualize what the client wants photographed as well as how the client envisions the end result to look. Let me tell you from experience what they want is not always what they say they want. With some of my clients it was more about mind reading than it was about visualization. I remember back when I was shooting glamour I learned a whole new meaning to what “Make me look beautiful” meant. I visualized them one way and they saw themselves a completely different way than what I did. To achieve what they were visualizing themselves looking like, I would have had to have been a plastic surgeon, not a photographer.
Good photographers visualize all the time. It makes no difference if they have a camera in their hand or not. For that matter really good photographers don’t have to even be in the shooting mood to visualize what would make a good photograph from what they are seeing or what they hear around them. They see something or hear someone say something and an image pops into their mind. That is what visualization is all about. Taking that image from the mind and recreating it for others to see is the mechanics of photography. I can and have taught budding photographers the mechanics of photography. Almost anyone can learn what makes a good picture. Then again that is why we have camera phones. A photographer creates a photograph from the image that is in his or her mind. That would be the image they visualized when they saw or heard something. Picture taking and camera phones are for taking a picture of what is in front of you.
I consider myself a good photographer. I have been at it for over 40 years. Photography kept a roof over my head for most of those years. Even before the first time I picked up a camera I had that ability to see things in my mind. When I looked at a scene I could focus in on that part of what I was looking at that would make a good picture. When someone said something to me I saw in my mind what he or she was saying. I am a visual person. I visualize all the time, with or without a camera.
I tell you all this so you may learn what went through my mind the other morning when my beautiful, slender wife came home from Curves. (For those of you who may not know, Curves is a workout center for women only.) Keep in mind Curves is not simply for women who may be a little over weight but also for women who what to tone up or just stay in the shape they are, like my wife. Curves is a great place because not only can you work out but they teach you about nutrition. Curves members find themselves in a safe social environment that they can achieve and/or maintain their health.
Having said all that, and I do believe it as well, I still have my photographers visual mind. I am sorry but I see overweight women when I hear the name Curves even though my slender wife is a member. I have looked in and seen that not all those women are overweight. Still I see in my mind what I see; as wrong as it may be. So when my lovely wife, who I might add has lost 45 lbs., came home and told me that a group of ladies from Curves was going to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory… I got this image in my mind that just wouldn’t go away. See what I mean?
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