The Soul of Photography

Recently, due to a major family crisis and several other issues that came rushing in on me all at once, I was pulled away from "my own" photography. I phrase it that way because as those in the business know, you can be contracted / paid to do photography; but it might not be the work that you will later gauge your progress as an artist with.
In that time 'away' I was able to step back and take an honest look at my work. To see it more objectively than I had in the past. To realize that some things worked - and some things did not. Some ideas needed to be refined; to metamorphose to their next logical form. And others simply needed to be pruned away. Such realizations are not easy when we are so closely "married" to our creative vision.
I think it is important for all who aspire to be photographers to reach this stage - perhaps many times. We need to step back every now and then and really, honestly look at what we are doing and ask ourselves "Am I really saying what I want to say with my images?"
What I am talking about is not whether our images are technically correct. They should always be technically correct. I am talking about whether our images affect our viewers (or even us) in the way we really want them to. Someone can learn to play blues on a guitar, and do it technically perfect; note for note they nail the song. But a real blues musician puts "soul" into it. Gives it depth and resonance that transcend merely hitting all of the right notes in correct order. Does our photography have "soul" in it, or are we just hitting the notes and then seeing what we want to see because we are so closely connected to them? The answer might be - should be - different for each person. But the ability to step back and make hard decisions is something that we all need to do at some point. I am glad that I have had the chance.
So.... Stay tuned for some new refinements and some notable changes at C. M. Franke Photography in the days ahead!

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Playing With Dramatic Light

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Be 'Practical' With Lighting

In Hollywood cinematography, there has been a sea-change over the last thirty years or so, away from "Studio style" lighting setups, to scenes and shots motivated by practical lighting. Gone are the days when a cowboy enters a barn, turns on one single lantern, and is blasted with pure white light coming from 12 different sources. But what does that sentence mean? "Motivating light using practical sources?" It sounds confusing and jargon-esque to the uninitiated. And how does it apply to still photography..? To boil it down, "Practial lights" are any light sources that appear in the shot. A lamp. A streetlight. Car headlights. The idea being that if you have a person sitting next to a fireplace, or at a table lit by a lamp, that light source wants to predominate in the shot. So most of the light should look like firelight, or lamplight. And that [lighting] element should be clearly in frame. This does NOT mean that you should always rely solely on t...

C. M. Franke | Photography

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