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 p.6 #18 · Post Your 5 Favorite Images from 2025 | |
Jonas B wrote:
I'm sorry if the word arranged came out the wrong way. I wasn't thinking the images were staged. But image 2 and 4, perhaps also image 3, could, possibly, be the result of you asking your kids to repeat what they just did when the camera wasn't ready. I know I did sometimes as I often had to go get the camera. With film in the 80's and 90's I couldn't afford to take a lot of images. Digital came when the youngest were about to move out.
If you got these images in the right and singular short moment it existed - well, even better done than I firs thought!. I hope you get this right and I repeat I really enjoyed the serie....Show more →
No worries Jonas, I'm not offended at all. Actually I can understand why you might think this way. The idea is that these images came from 'singular short moment' is misleading because, for example, with the image 4 I had already been spending one and a half month photographing playground activities almost on a daily basis (approximately 2 hours a day). I had an idea how I want to photograph the playground activities, but I didn't have this particular picture in my mind. I wanted to fill the frame with kids hands, feets, shorts, etc. in a nonliteral way trying to put multiple kids in the same frame, preferably most of them being my own kids. So I had an idea of the picture, just not this particular one. After following the kids and scrawling with them at the different playgrounds - and taking many misses and some 'decent ones, but not quite there' - the situation eventually came where Aava was sliding at the slider while Meri wanted to show her 'walking with hands' tricks. As I had already trying to to get them both in the same picture for weeks, I was naturally at the right position already (but again, didn't have this picture in my mind). Meri did three rounds with her hands while Aava was sliding and climbing back. I shot them all with the burst mode, and then they moved to something else. I checked the pictures and could see it right away 'the shot' was there and probably could not top it even if I would continue another two months - I had no no previsualization of the picture, just some vague ideas and the end result surprised me also.
The bottom line is this: this is not a moment where I would have just walked to the playground and take the shot of some random singular short moment. Instead you need to have a some sort of process and the idea what you are searching for ('a vision') - and you need to have some luck as well. I was working for some kind non-literal layered playground shot for weeks. Process alone doesn't guarantee a shot, neither does the luck, but the 'luck favors the prepared'.
Picture 2 is a moment where we had just entered, after a long journey, to our room in a small island with no particular meaning to the rest of the world. I reacted to symmetry and graphical elements of the scene (stripes). Meri was tired and played with the bed (the way the kids do kids stuff), while Aava was fascinated by the curtains that she could see through. Again burst of images and this was one of them. I continued to work on this scene on different days, but couldn't top this particular image.
Picture 3 is under some train bridge which was painted in very bright colors. I had awesome light (and shadows!) and while kids were running through the gaps and playing I tried to make the best out of it. Again, reacted to graphical elements, wished to have multiple kids on single frame in good postures but never happened - but I was satisfied enough with this particular picture due to its strong graphical look. Had many other images from the same event, but none of them stood out like this (I didn't found the composition quick enough, the kids didn't move as I expected, made wrong choices regarding point of view, were at the wrong side of the gap, etc.).
So, none of these were the singular situations - they all required work more or less. One cannot presume to just 'walk' into photogenic situations - that's a 'snapshot' mental mode - you need to develop ideas of what kind of pictures you are going to take and how they might happen. It's the same with the good wildlife pictures (for example location, light, time of the day, etc.) and other genres.
ps. I totally get the 'could you do that again' part as I've done something similar with some pictures in the past (just not with these ones) and will do that in the future too. I'm a dad, I belong to the family; I speak to my kids, I play with them, etc. while I'm taking the pictures. I don't see nothing wrong with it. While travelling I might say, let's climb on that rock and see the views while I take the shot. It's our journey and our experiences. *Staging* shots, making things look unbelievable or something they are not, is definitely a another thing.
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