The Way of the Photographer

I took my son to his first Kum Do class last night. Kum Do is Korean swordplay. It translates to "the way of the sword." Its roots come from Taoist philosophies, bringing "the art of the sword" together with the spiritual "way of righteousness."

My boy has been attending Tae Kwan Do classes for nearly six months and he wanted to add Kum Do to his martial arts training. Japanese swordplay, BTW, is called Ken Do. These two martial arts, Kum Do and Ken Do, are almost identical and they derive from similar roots. As I watched his first Kum Do class, I was again reminded of the wonderful way martial arts incorporates mind and body and discipline and respect with fighting skills. This got me to thinking about photography, which I often do, and how some of these same ideals might be incorporated into the way photographers approach their art.

Maybe a comparison of martial arts and photography seems like a bit of a reach but, like martial arts, photography requires a lot of discipline. And just as my son was told his sword is an extension of his body, for photographers the camera should become the same. It must become an extension of your eye, working in a very disciplined manner with your mind, in order to capture good images.

I suppose I could make corny, Kung Fu statements like, "Become one with your camera, grasshopper," but this isn't far from the truth. Good photography requires much attention to details while, at the same time, the creative process is often about freeing oneself from those details and letting your creative juices go where they will. I guess the trick is to find balance and harmony between the two. Hmmm... I think there's some Yin and Yang going on with this concept, i.e., attention to detail and freeing oneself creatively might seem like forces in opposition to each other but, in actuality, they compliment each other. Yep, that's the way Yin and Yang works.

Like martial arts, photography requires that you practice your art and do so often. It's all about getting to the point where the things you do, the decisions you make, your reactions to situations, become second-nature and automatic and instinctive and immediate. This only happens through practice and repetition.

Photographers who spend too much time thinking their way through their shots are going to miss the best opportunities to capture good images. They're going to spend far too much time consciously considering every photographic aspect of the shot and, with genres like fashion and glamour, probably forget that the model needs to be included in that process. The surest route to lackluster photographs of people is to become so consumed with all the technical details that you neglect to communicate with the subject. When the technical stuff becomes automatic or, at least, semi-automatic, you'll spend more time focusing on the subject and less on things you should already know.

Okay, like I said, maybe I'm reaching with this photography and martial arts stuff. It was just a thought. The gratuitious eye-candy accompanying this bit of photo-philosophy is Rebecca. I've posted some images of her before but not these particular images and she's certainly easy enough on the eyes to look at a few more pics of her again. MUA was Michelle.