Fundamentals of Photography pt. 2 Finding Your Subject

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As photographers how do we Find our subject?

There are thousands of things in the world to take photos of, why choose one? I think it’s important to understand that this is something that you need to use your own intuition for. This post is just my experience and you can take what you want from it. 

Look For Joy!

Wavelord and Asftwillz performing at the Hub in Halifax.

Think about what brings you the most joy. If you have a camera with you then take lots of photographs! I think finding your subject is intrinsically linked with figuring out what story you want to tell. It’s a way of communicating. I think the more you enjoy your life the more you’re going to want to make photographs.

Planning and Finding

There’s two ways I think about the process of finding your subject. The first is knowing what you want to show and trying to preserve that through photography. It can be a person, a place, or a feeling. The second is you go out into the world and make images while trying to find something to preserve. Both ways have their advantages and disadvantages. It’s good to have an idea in mind if you’re the type of person that likes to have a goal and something to work towards. But it’s also good to be able to make something from any situation. I feel the best photographers are those that can do both. To complete an image based on an idea, and to make something with no preconceived ideas of what they’re going to see.

Sometimes the universe provides something completely unexpected that looks good in the form of a photograph.

Some examples are going to a concert where you don’t know what the performers are going to do, or portraits where you have lots of control and the ability to plan things in advance. In every genre there are people that exist at both ends of the spectrum. Some landscape photographers plan their images weeks or months in advance, and some simply go out and walk.

You may not know exactly what’s going to happen, but if you understand composition and look for shapes it’s possible to predict when an image is going to come together.
We can control the location and time of day to create an image with a desired outcome. In this case a non-distracting background and warm afternoon light.

Working the Subject

Once you’ve recorded your subject and made something that’s true to your idea, what do you do afterwards? If your goal has to do with simply recording your subject why keep on pushing yourself one you’ve achieved that? I think the difference between becoming a great photographer and becoming an okay photographer is what you do once you’ve realized you’ve made a good image. Do you say that your job is done, or do you say to yourself now it’s time for the next one? Once you’ve found your subject and made a good photograph of it/them then your mindset should turn into “Now how do I see the subject in a different way, and make another good photograph?”  There are infinite possibilities in photography. Why stick with your first idea? How many good photographs can you make of one place? Of one person? Of one color? Of one shape? Etc.

I’ve made hundreds of photos of these little plants, but none of them turned put good until the light provided for silhouettes, turning the ordinary objects into pure shapes.

I think finding your subject has more to do with how much you work you put into your ideas. The more time you put into each little game of making an image the closer you are to understanding what it is that attracts you to that subject. Over a long period of time the work will build and you’ll know what it is you’ve been doing the whole time.

Life can only be understood backwards but must be lived forwards. So the more we live the more we’ll know.

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Planning and Finding

People like me that photograph everything tend to find it hard to have any kind of continuity in their work. People that spend a lot of time planning their work can fall into the habit of making images that look too similar. There’s a weakness to every strength and a strength to every weakness.

The more you practice planning things the more accurate you become at realizing the idea in your head. The more you practice finding photographs the faster you become at seeing things that look interesting in the form of a photograph.

Perseverance

I think even if you’re not good at something you should still try it. If your initial attempts at photography don’t turn out the way you want then you can always think of it as a learning experience. Nobody really knows what a good photograph looks like, but the greatest photographers have found more bad ones than others. What makes a good photograph first requires realizing what makes a bad one fifty thousand times.

Sometimes the process of figuring out what to photograph can be difficult.
Finding your subject is a lot like climbing a mountain. You need to make lots of small steps.

Conclusion

To recap I think photographers should just photograph what brings them joy. Once you’ve figured that out think about if you want to plan your images or if you want to find them. Then the process just becomes practice practice practice, persevere, then practice some more. I think photography is mostly a numbers game and an attitude game. You need to work a lot and have a good attitude about yourself and the world around you.

Photography can be a record of what’s in front of you, and it can be an expression of yourself. One thing most great photographs have in common is they combine these two facts at once. Every photograph is a record of the creator and the outside world.

You can plan a lot of things in a portrait session, and you can choose to walk somewhere with nice scenery, but the greatest successes are always the unexpected details. If you have an open mind and enough patience, the camera can provide miracles.

That’s all for today. Thank you for your time.

-Jeremy Brake.