Trying for Something Good

What's a good "hit rate"

How do you define “good”? Well, what are you trying to do?

In the sport of baseball, a batter who gets a hit 30% of the time is considered exceptional. They are “failing” 70% of the time, but are still exceptional. Further, even the most prolific sluggers hit zero home runs most days. Zero. That’s right, even elite hitters, the best of the best, get zero on the regular.

Photography is not baseball. But for fine art photography, Ansel Adams famously stated that if he could get 12 good images in a year, that was a very good year. I promise you he attempted more than 12, despite being as careful as he could be with that big view camera.

This weekend, for the first time in several months, I tried to make one or more memorable portraits. Whether getting a hit, half a hit (can you do that??) or a home run, I just wanted to get something that I’d consider to be good. I mentioned last week that portraiture was an area I felt I’d neglected, and it was time to start shooting again. I had reached out to Brock, who also wanted to shoot more.

This is an image from the last time we worked together, in case you don’t remember him:

This weekend Brock had a couple of objectives. He had one specific idea he wanted to explore, and additionally he wanted to be dressed formally. For the formal shot, he’s just turned 29 and wanted to remember how he feels when he dresses to the nines, at this stage in his life.

I’m going to share a few images. I’ll tell you up front, I also made quite a few images which I have not shared. For some photographers this is not ok. It’s not efficient, it’s devaluing their time, etc. They will spend time positioning a person until they get one hero image, and then be done. I definitely plan for specific shots in an effort to get a winner quickly, but if there is time I try to make additional things too. Even though they may amount to nothing.

The first image I made is like the “one shot” scenario. When I got it, I moved along.

The specific idea for the shot came from an image Brock had seen, which he wanted to recreate. It was this famous James Dean photograph by Phil Stern, made in 1955. Brock loves it, and I agree that the image is fun and cool.

This wasn’t the first time I’d made images that were inspired by other photographs or artwork. A few of my “inspired by others” shots are on my website, like this one, which reminded me of a Viet Nam image I’d seen once before. But I’m best when I only recreate some aspect of the image rather than an outright copy, and the James Dean photograph was no different. Brock’s eyes are amazing, they but don’t really resemble James Dean’s, nor do his other features, including the James Dean shock of hair which I feel “makes” the Phil Stern image. So I would need to riff off the base idea to make something worth viewing. After having Brock move around in various ways I settled on this next one.

This was not a magazine assignment, but when I get the chance I treat shoots as if they were. As if there was a creative director to satisfy, and a magazine story to tell. For these I imagined a style-centric, personal profile piece, as opposed to a storytelling documentary shoot.

Following the first image I could have been “done.” But I wanted to see what else we could create of interest, if anything. Brock had also brought a turtleneck, and we worked with that too. I found it challenging, and spent extra time hunting for things that would work with that sweater. I made a number of images that I just don’t like. I’m not sure how I feel about any of them, but following are a pair that seem more interesting than the rest.

And if my imaginary magazine were doing a larger piece, these images might fit that story. The one below emphasizes eyes again, but with a much different feeling to it. He’s a sensitive sympathetic person, in tune with the emotions of others. If we were profiling him as if he were a celebrity, this might support that part of the story.

And then, he’s got a playful side. The next is a bit of silliness, in high-key:

I’ll have to sleep on all of these for a bit. You’re seeing my raw editing and thought process as it happens. (I understand this might be an unwise experiment, allowing you to see my unpolished, in-progress thoughts, but c’est la vie).

Having completed the sweater images, we switched to formal shots. We played with a variety of poses, but I’ll just share one of them for now.

As stated, I haven’t had time to work through all the images or even decide if I like the way I’ve processed the ones above. But I’ll still ask my audience: Is there a memorable image here, in your opinion? Yes, no?

If there are any good ones, by the standards of Ansel and baseball, then it was probably a good day.

Your opinions are welcome. For now, I’m going back to holiday cards and wrapping. And final shopping. At least I got my 19 minutes of sitting still completed before I began my other tasks! It definitely helped me today, to get me ready for everything else. If the next few days mirror this one, I just might finish preparing for the holidays after all. Whew!

Until next time,

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Limited Edition Prints for Sale

This time I’m making an Extremely Limited Edition of prints for the series called Seas and Skies. I’ll make just five 16x24” archival, Numbered Prints (and two Artists Prints), each with associated certificate of authentication. The price is a bit higher, but with only five available and based on history I expect them to sell out.

These are selling out and *Closing Curtain is down to One Remaining*

If you’d like one or more for that special person, you still have time for the holidays.

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Visit: www.dobkinphoto.com