Nature Photographer Chuck Veatch Offers Insights from His Feb. 16 Presentation

It is our job as serious nature photographers and producers of nature photography publications and exhibitions to bring the wonders of nature to the rest of the world. These wonders come in all shapes and sizes from the grandeur of a majestic mountain range to the smallest insect in a backyard garden.

Under these and all the possible circumstances in between, whether shooting 35mm, panoramic or large format we need to decide what to include in each image. In effect, every image involves abstracting from a broad universe of possibilities. By what thought process do we determine what to include in our images? Our first thought should always be to eliminate all that is not necessary. An image is complete not when you have added everything that needs to be added but when you have eliminated everything that should be eliminated. Deciding what to include in an image comes down to basic math. Anything in it that does not add, subtracts.

As photographers we are communicators and we mean for each image to speak volumes to our viewers. With good craftsmanship and equipment, we can take good pictures, reproducing in a technically proficient manner a form of straight-forward visual prose. There is certainly a role for the good “record shot.”But, as poetry moves prose to a more eloquent form of written communication, so opening your mind and imagination to new ways of seeing can lead to an expansion of your power to communicate through your images.

The images we view today were all made with what I call a visual design approach to composition. The subject matter is secondary to the importance of line, shape, color, texture, tone and perspective. The resulting images may have no clues of scale; no center of interest. Above all, the compositions are simple; they are a reflection of how the photographer sees things, and how they wish to express their experience with nature and communicate that experience to others.

Develop your personal vision. Search for the essence in every subject. Isolate those elements that tell the story. Set your mind free to express your feelings. “See”the world in different terms. French philosopher Marcel Proust put it this way, “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

The following short statements of philosophy cut to the heart of the discussion. The books listed at the end are great resources to further your understanding of expressive visual communication.

“Both grand and intimate aspects of nature can be revealed in the expressive photograph.  Both can stir enduring affirmations and discoveries and can surely help the spectator in his search for identification with the vast world of natural beauty and the wonder surrounding him.”
–photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams

“All that is not useful in the picture is detrimental.”
–artist Henri Matisse

“You do not see with the lens of the eye. You see through that and by means of that, but you see with the soul of the eye.”
–art critic and social thinker John Ruskin

“I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”
–artist Joan Miró

“A picture is nothing but a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the spectator.”
–artist Edgar Degas

“Creativity takes courage.”
–Henri Matisse

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
–novelist and essayist Marcel Proust

“The camera always points both ways.  In expressing the subject, you also express yourself. “
–photographer and author Freeman Patterson

“Less is more.”
–architect Mies van der Rohe

“The truth is that photography is limited only by the photographers.”
–Ansel Adams

“Simplify, simplify, simplify.”
–photographer Joseph Miller

“Isolate, isolate, isolate.”
–Joseph Miller

“To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.”
–poet, essayist and philosopher Paul Valerý

“You can’t say more than you see.”
–author, poet and naturalist Henry David Thoreau

“No matter what lens you use, no matter what speed your film is, no matter how you develop it, no matter how you print it, you cannot say more than you “see”, that’s what that means and that’s the truth.”
–photographer and filmmaker Paul Strand

“People discuss my art and pretend to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.”
–artist Claude Monet

“Imagination grows by exercise and contrary to common belief is more powerful in the mature than in the young.”
–playwright, novelist and short story writer Somerset Maugham

“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.”
–John Ruskin

“Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”
–Ansel Adams

“There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs.”
–Ansel Adams

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”
–Ansel Adams

“The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.”
–philosopher Francis Bacon

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary can speak.”
–artist Hans Hofmann

“Painting is easy when you don’t know how, but very difficult when you do.”
–artist Edgar Degas

“Art is the triumph over chaos.”
–author John Cheever

Suggested reading:

Adams, Steven

“The Barbizon School & The Origins of Impressionism”Phaidon Press Ltd, London, 1994

Cravens, R. H.

“Photography Past Forward: Aperture at 50”Aperture

Franck, Frederick

“The Zen of Seeing: Seeing/Drawing as Meditation”Vintage Books, New York, 1973

Lepp, George

“Beyond the Basics: Innovative Techniques for Outdoor/Nature Photography”Lepp and Associates, Los Osos, CA 1993

Newhall, Beaumont

“The History of Photography”The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Patterson, Freeman

“Photography for the Joy of It”

“Photography and the Art of Seeing”

“Photographing the World Around You”

Key Porter Books, Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Patterson, Freeman Gallant, Andre

“Photo Impressionism and the Subjective Image”Key Porter Books, Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Waite, Charlie

“Seeing Landscapes: The Creative Process Behind Great Photographs”Amphoto, New York, 1999

Wilton, Andrew;  Barringer, Tim

“American Sublime, Landscape Painting in the United States 1820-1880”