pni's photostream  

I think of photography as a two part thing. There's the sampling or the recording of the image. And then there's the presentation, the publication.

The first one is a private process. It's the photographer in control of the equipment sampling minute particles of electromagnetic radiation in a fraction of time. Only the photographer has actually a sense of the image sampled. Sampling is important, because otherwise there's no material to communicate with.

The second one is communication. It's about conveying to others what the photographer had in mind, and it's also in a way a validation of the image and it's message. This by nature involves at least one person in addition to the photographer, often more.

What happens between the two parts is evaluation and refinement. The sampled image is evaluated to see if it has potential to communicate whatever it was the photographer wanted it to. Refinement is to prepare the image to communicate in the way the photographer sees fit, which in my case is very seldom what the camera has recorded.

I almost never publish images straight out of the camera, because I see and think and the camera is but a tool. I consider the pictures i take, the samples, to be sketches of and idea that need to be worked on before publishing. Not very unlike editing a text. Sometimes ideas work without much any refinement, but there are times the sketches are so rough that I have work a lot to find the original idea.

I don't think the sampling, evaluation or refinement parts belong in the communication part (unless striving for educational values) because the image has to be able stand on its own, in the same way as a good text (which rarely is published with such redundant technical details as what computer and software it was written on or how it was edited) has to. That's why I don't say "You have taken a good picture" but "You have presented a good picture", because I have no idea what you have shot, I only know what you present. And that's how I like it.

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More of my images from around the web collected in one place: Imagery by Pekka Nikrus at Netvibes, chek it out. Or you can also like my images on Facebook (and my ANIMAL shirts on Redbubble).



** Oh, and anyone who favorites my pics but who haven't got anything to show me (ie. hide all their content and favorites) will most likely be blocked **