Visual inspiration and/or who inspires you visually through photography

 January 23, 2023 

Visual Inspiration through Photography 

By: Connor Albaugh

            Photography was never something I thought I would be good at, nor take an interest in so much so that I have fallen in live with it. The first time that I ever picked up a camera was in high school for a yearbook class. My schedule was quite odd, and I needed one more class to fulfill my credits for the semester. Yearbook was my only option. At first, I thought the work was tedious, having to go to multiple sporting events to take pictures for the school and then make a page about the sports I photographed. Lame! This was my original thought, but when my dad lended me his camera, I feel in love. I like sports a lot, and as an athlete, being able to watch games while take pictures of certain moment in time in regards to the sporting event was quite fun. I started out with only one angle, and with experimentation and creativity, my photographs began to look well composed. They included multiple angles, different compositions, and a true representation of school sports for the yearbook. From this point on, I feel in love with photography and enjoy everything about it. 

            This love for photography turned into an obsession. Once I pick up the camera, my creative juices flow. Early on, I didn’t know what to photograph. My first thought was merely going out and photographing single things, because they have the most meaning although they may be small in nature. Having photographed a lot of different things being people, places, or objects, I developed a personal style. I really like nature, so landscape photography became a true passion of mind. With the landscapes that are here in Williamsport and places I travel to, being able to photograph a place and see its depth in the form of a landscape is truly remarkable. Not only am I accustomed to landscape photography, but I also fell in love with long exposure photography. Allowing the shutter to be open for different periods of time to capture the movement of people, car lights, or capture light drawings is truly fascinating. The number of compositions that can be created from this alone is so wide in variety and creativity. With a camera, you have the world in your hands. What you see, how you feel, and what you are drawn to translate to the capture of moments through the camera. We all like different things and this is what makes photography so unique because there are different topics, styles, and techniques people use that diversify photography and make it so interesting to study and learn about. With time to practice and learn what photography is all about, I knew this would be something I would greatly enjoy. 

            When it comes to determining my visual inspiration for taking photographs, I usually like to view photographers work, similar to my style or on the topic that I am assigned for a specific photography project or assignment. With various examples, compositions, and different photographers, they allow me to see their work and how they go about the photographic progress. For example, I would look at landscape photographers and long exposure photographers because those are the two styles that I not only enjoy, but can photograph well with good skill and precision. Ansel Adams is a great example of a landscape photographer, although most of his photographs are black and white and are mostly of the Western United States when I would prefer color photographs. I don’t have an exact example for long exposure photography because I researched images on google and took inspiration from specific images I found to be compositionally captivating. Ansel’s landscape photography, especially of Big Bend National Park, was incredible and well done technically. His images are so clear and full of detail along with having incredible depth  I had the opportunity to visit Big Bend National Park this summer, which is located in the southern part of Texas. I was able to capture images of his most iconic images which was of the Santa Elena Canyon. To witness this in person as well as emulate the work of an incredible photographer was a truly remarkable and emotional experience for me. The landscape of this canyon was momentous and made me feel small compared to how vast in nature it was. Being that the Rio Grande River was the only thing that separate me from Texas and Mexico was quite surreal. I have never been that close to Mexico before. But, having the chance to see such a beautiful landscape and see it through the lens of my camera was a once in a lifetime experience and one that I will never forget. On the other hand, for long exposure photography, I took inspiration from car lights on highways/streets and light drawings. Photographing at night while allowing a camera shutter to capture rich colors from the night life gave me chills. I saw this because I am a night owl, being born at night, and really enjoyed spending a lot of my nights during the semester improving my craft in regards to long exposure photography. I ended up taking great photos of car lights on the market street bridge, car lights from traveling on the highway, and captured color light drawings from the use of my iPhone flashlight. I had the honor of making a book for the light drawings I was able to create and it turned out flawless. My compositions allowed for the color from the flashlight I used to pop and became the main focal point of the image. My images were clear and crisp, shied away from distracting elements, had beautiful and comprehensive color, and were in perfect focus. The night life in some areas lacked a lot of light which allowed for the drawings I did at night to be more prominent in the images I took. The images on market street where light was quite omnipresent with the street lights and the color form the buildings on either side of the street help to couple with the color captured from the photos of the car lights during the shutter open period. My settings and my technique were well executed which allowed me to not only capture beautiful colors at night, but great background settings that helped to bring the photos together nicely. Long exposure offers so much on behalf of photography, and I am forever grateful for what I was able to capture during my nightly explorations.  

        When it comes to photographs, I look for several things. I want my photographs to be very clear. When I mean clear, the person, place, or thing being photographed is in focus and this allows you to see details that accompany your subject in the easiest fashion. If your images are blurry or out of focus, this is either poor practice or done on purpose because there are photographers who have this type of style. Having a blurry subject not only can make a picture ominous, but forces the viewer to ask questions and take in every possible detail in the form of clues to make sense of what they are looking at. Additionally, having a variety of angles in the images I take is very important. Angles are important because they challenge the viewer visually. People are used to seeing images straight on, but from a worm’s eye view, bird’s eye view, or sideways are angles that many aren’t used to seeing or bother taking the time to appreciate. Not only do different angles generate curiosity and thought, but they make images interesting and force the viewer to see something simple in a different manner which may give them a different thought or appreciation for such a thing or vise versa, for example. Lastly, having images that include a lot of detail and meaning is paramount to photography. No one wants to look at an photograph that is boring. This means that there is little going on, therefore visually uninteresting. Having detail, such as rock structure and shadows hiding some parts, or rich color of car lights at night in a city, are two great examples of pictures that will captivate viewers and force one to examine every part of the image for meaning and emotion. The more detail, the more attractive and gratifying your images will be. Not only will they attract more attention, but these images will show what is going on, the main subject, and potential pieces of meaning in the best way possible. 

            In conclusion, where one finds visual inspiration and who they see as visually captivating as artists is all up to the photographer. If everyone was the same, photography would be boring because everyone would produce the same images with the same detail and meaning behind it. We live in a world where there are so many different styles, inspirations, and artists who take beautiful images that are compositional exquisite and evoke pertinent meaning. Variety and diversity allow one to explore the realm of photography and allow them to develop interests that they can explore through the utilization of the camera. Not only does this invoke curiosity, but it makes each and every person unique and special in their own individual ways. With as many things there are in this world, each and every single thing has the potential and opportunity to make a great photograph whether it is small or large in nature.