One of my favourite quotes relating to what I do has to be:
If you want to photograph a man spinning, give some thought to why he spins. Understanding for a photographer is as important as the equipment he uses. – Margaret Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself by Margaret Bourke-White
This comment resonated with me before I really understood it.
The more I look and try to understand truely great photographs and how they were created, the more I see that the level of understanding in your subject is key.
The difference between a ‘Portrait’ and a simple picture is that a Portrait captures an essence of character and in so doing stimulates an emotional response in the viewer – whether it’s an empathy or a more negative reaction.
Generating that response, creating a rappor and engaging your subject creating a Portrait requires more than just camera skills. In fact many of the greats of portraiture weren’t great camera operators but their personalities and creative vision allowed them to create some astonishing portraits.
And I don’t think that this is limited to portraiture. Looking at Landscape work and stuff like Thom Hogan’s wildlife courses and many other fields it’s clear that a fundamental understanding of your subject and how it tends to behave gives you an advantage in being in the right place at the right time in good light to capture that decisive moment.
So, I’ll add a more recent quote from Thom: ‘Frankly, planning, preparation, and patience tend to gain me more than what the camera makers are gaining in their latest tweaks.’