PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNEY.com

One of my favorite things to do in photographic composition is to play with angles and lines. Our eyes have a natural fascination with patterns that can work exceptionally well as the basis for a photographic composition.

But it’s even better for me when I can find a way to incorporate actual human beings into the composition. I made this image here near the end of a day of largely unsuccessful shooting. I never get too hung up on defeat after days like this. I figure some days it’s just harder than others to make the compositions you want.

On this particular day I joined my son, Adam, for a camera tour of Annapolis, Maryland. Not an organized tour - just the two of us bumming around.

I found it difficult to photograph Annapolis. For me, it was so geared toward tourism - so geared toward the “cute” - that I found it a bit tough to escape making photographs that felt like cliches. It was one beautifully colored door and charming street after another. Know what I mean? As helpful as it is to escape now and then and photograph in new places, it isn’t a guarantee of great photography by any means.

I’m sure other more talented photographers might have found more pictures than I, but again, I try not to get too hung up on that sort of thing. As a boy, my father used to take me fishing and he always told me it never really mattered to him whether he caught anything. It was just the process - sitting there and enjoying life - the process of fishing that he enjoyed most. And for me, using my camera is a lot like that. Sure it’s nice to bag a 20-pounder every now and then (metaphorically, that is) but a day out with nothing to show for it but happiness isn’t all that bad, either.

But like most things, when you stop searching for something hard and just accept what comes your way, that is when fate can sometimes surprise you. I’d nearly given up taking pictures that day in Annapolis when I stumbled up to the dock upon which this old man was seated. I knew immediately that I was interested in the lines of the dock and the perpendicular lines of his shirt. I also liked his red hat which I thought worked well against the blue water. I wondered what he was thinking.

A wide-angle lens was my only choice for composition - but to do that I could not isolate the man effectively. I tried a vertical orientation, but it just lost all its punch that way. So I included the couple on the right and in the end I think it adds even a bit more drama to the scene. Now I wonder what all of them were thinking (although I’m pretty sure I know what was on the couple’s mind!)

But I think it’s fascinating that just when I lowered my guard - just when I gave up trying to “make” a photograph - the photograph essentially came to me all by itself. There’s probably a good life lesson here for wiser minds than my own and I’m pretty sure it would have something to do with Zen. But simply as a photographer, it’s good to know that just being there is sometimes enough.

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