Blog Post #74

Waiting for The Magic

A few months ago, one of my favourite photography YouTubers, Sean Tucker, posted a video entitled “What Makes a Great Street Photograph?”. I wish I had a pound for every time I have seen guides and advice appear online on how to take street photographs but I found Sean’s interpretation interesting. It talked about layers in the photograph and pitched these layers as things that make the photograph a keeper. It also talks about hit rate of keepers to mundane and that’s where the layers come in. I always understood layers to be features in the photo that provide depth, a lead-in or improved its appeal. This is not what Sean talks about when he discusses layers. He sees the fundamental building blocks of a great picture to contain;

• An Aesthetics Layer - creative exposure, light and shadow, interesting composition and if applicable good colour theory.

• A Subject Layer - a person or object out there in the world, which you believe is worthy of our attention

• A Moment Layer - something occurring, some action that is worthy of our attention.

• An Alchemy Layer - the secret sauce, that little bit of magic, that ephemeral “something special”.

I think the first three layers come with experience and if we are working hard out on the streets with our camera we should be able to know when these aspects of the photograph have come together. It is the last one however, The Alchemy Layer, that is the hardest to capture in our photos. Very often this is what makes it a keeper. Its not something that can be taught as such but it can be the element of the photo that creates an emotional bond or sets it apart from the mundane or near misses.

It reminds me of something I learned reading about and looking at the work of the late Oscar Marzaroli. Oscar used to say that to capture a good photo you had to wait for the magic to happen. In fact it is the title of one of his excellent books, “Waiting For The Magic”. If the magic element of the photo is missing it is just another photo, possibly like many that have been taken in that spot before. In fact, the Alchemy Layer can even supersede the other three layers and stand on its own. If you have captured a never to be repeated moment in history for example, do the other three layers matter?

In my photography I always strive to try and capture the “magic”. It very rarely happens but when it does it is a good feeling.

If you want to view Sean’s YouTube video on this topic you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFASULzj6pc

On-line competitions

Now this might upset a few people but Blog Rule No.1 applies, “It’s my blog and I can write what I want”.

In the past I have made my feelings clear on photography competitions, particularly on-line competitions. I don’t like them. I don’t think photography is something that lends itself to competition as every photo is unique. What criteria gives a photography “judge” the authority to be god? I used to do it many many years ago and ended up having a word with myself asking ”what gives you the right to decide?” I stopped it immediately.

But what if there isn’t a designated judge so to speak? What if you are tasked with being the judge but voting on-line for the shot you want to win? I have seen more and more of this recently and it concerns me. I never enter them of course but I know people that do. I also see messages saying “ I have entered this shot in Competition XYZ, can you please go on-line and vote for my photo”. This is often followed by numerous replies saying “Done”. I also see messages saying, ”I have voted for yours, can you please go on and vote for mine?” Eh?

I have never seen a response that says “ Had a good look at your photo and sorry I can’t vote for it there are better shots than yours”. Also never seen “ Thanks for the vote, I cant reciprocate, as in doing so would effectively be voting against myself”.

Maybe I just don’t understand these games, I don’t know, but it all seems a bit dodgy to me. I wouldn’t want someone to vote for my photo entry based on our relationship. It then becomes a competition to see who can find the greatest number of people to blindly vote for them. Ask yourself, “Who is the winner?”

One more thing. I have added a new section on my website entitled “Videos”. This section will host any videos involving my photography such as the review I did at the end of 2023.

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and thank you for reading it. If you want to comment on this blog post please do so below or you can contact me by using the “Contact Me” facility in the website header.

Pete