you will find yourself back at the position where you started, but at a higher level each time you climb up. Each step of the cycle of photography operates interactively with the others. For example, you’ll find learning to process will help you to improve your visualization skills. Also, by sharing with others, you’ll find out what they see and feel when looking at your images, and of course that helps you refine the whole process to better communicate your vision.
I’m happy to be here to help you with your lifelong journey of learning and improving your skills as a photographer.
“VISUALIZE THIS THING THAT YOU WANT, SEE IT, FEEL IT,
BELIEVE IN IT. MAKE YOUR MENTAL BLUEPRINT, AND
BEGIN TO BUILD.”
— ROBERT COLLIER, AUTHOR.
The first and most important part of the cycle of photography is “visualization.” This term dates from 1883 and means “the action or fact of visualizing; the power or process of forming a mental picture or vision of something not actually present to the sight; a picture thus formed.” Oxford Dictionary. It comes from a Latin word meaning “sight” and an earlier word meaning “to see.” It’s another way of saying “using your ability to imagine or get a mental view of something.”
Can you remember a time when you visualized a photograph before you pressed the shutter and then took the photograph? This is taking the photograph with definite purpose or intention, rather that just letting it happen and hoping you’ll get what you want or just taking snapshots.
With all of the steps of photography, why is visualization the central and most important part in the whole process? Because it guides every single step of the process, without which it would be like trying to build a house without plans, or make a movie with no script, or sail a boat without charts. In all of these activities, you would end up wandering around and never achieving your goals, which would be wasteful and very frustrating.
» Rainbow, Near Rifle, CO, Huntington Witherill
Before we look at the last century’s masters, let me introduce you to Huntington Witherill, a very creative and eclectic photographer who was named “Artist of the Year.” He told me, “What I try to do with visualization is to use my imagination, together with a variety of photographic tools – in order to take what is already out there in the world and to transform it into a composition that will render a given scene as being visually compelling beyond a strict literal translation.”
I can’t emphasize strongly enough that the fastest way to elevate the quality of your photography is to visualize the final photograph before you press the shutter. But before you go out and start practicing (I bet you’re ready), let’s take a further look at what some of the masters had to say about visualization in photography.
Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) was known as the “father of modern photography” and was one of the most respected photographers of his day. He emphasized that his process was to see in his “mind’s eye” the photograph that he intended to create, in order to convey what he saw and felt at that moment. He said, “I have a vision of life, and I try to find equivalents for it in the form of photographs.”
Equivalent here means “something that is considered to be equal to or have the same effect, value, or meaning as something else.” It comes from a Latin word meaning “be strong.” (Encarta College Dictionary) Thus, when you convey the equivalent of what you saw and felt, it can be very strong for the viewer. Having a “vision of life” of what you see and feel when you view a particular scene is what sparks the whole creative process. You are conveying a message including emotions to your viewers that they can connect with.
Another milestone photographer was Minor White (1908-1976), who taught the steps of visualization. Here’s what he said:
“Previsualization refers to the learnable power to look at a scene, person, place or situation and ‘see’ at the same time on the back of the eyelids, or ‘sense’ deep in the mind or body, the various ways photography can render the subject. Then out of all the potential renderings select one to photograph. Such selection makes up a large share of the photographer’s creativity.”
I agree, but I prefer the term visualization to “previsualization” as I want to emphasize that visualization carries through the entire cycle of photography, not just “pre-” or at the beginning. I also believe that the process occurs mentally and spiritually, not within the body.
The common point from these artists is that you as the photographer have a huge choice of tools to use for how to capture a photograph and how you render it from there. Think about just a few of your choices: Do you use your smartphone or DSLR? Do you intend it to be black and white, or color? Will you post it on social media or do you hope to eventually print and frame it? Then there are all the settings available to you to get the desired result you want. Later I’ll cover some examples of my images and tell you my story of visualization.
Minor White also said, “One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.”
That is another part of the visualization process: Look for what you see, but look more deeply for what else is in the image.
» Horseshoes, Canyonlands, Utah, Marc Silber
Some of the best examples of photographing “what else they are” are by Edward Weston (1886-1958), a contemporary of Minor White. Look at his images to see how he was able to photograph everyday objects to show what else they were, revealing the beauty all around us. As a note about Weston, he used a very simple printing process, so all of his attention was really centered on visualization and capturing the image.
He said this about his process: “Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.”
Again, I don’t want to lead you to believe that only the past masters talked about visualization. In my hundreds of interviews with leading photographers, most of them discussed it in some way as part of their process. As an example, Chase Jarvis, an award winning photographer and Founder & CEO of CreativeLive, told me about his process:
» Runner, Chase Jarvis
“The first thing I do is walk around and look at the scene without a camera, because when you put the camera to your face, you see a lot less than you do just walking around. So I walk the area I’m going to shoot and look for interesting things. When
