I came across this
photographer and his blog via a forum post on the OCA student website:
As part of a
discussion about workflow, Nigel Monckton provides the link:
At the time I read
this I was researching workflow and image editing as part of the early
exercises in DPP. The piece hit a particular nerve with me because of this.
Most other writing I had come across in reference to workflow I found quite
dull and uninspiring as they deal with the 'nuts and bolts' of the process.
Martin Evening discusses various strategies in 'Lightroom 3 for Photographers'
and hints at his own workflow but eventually arrives at few conclusions - an
indication that there is not a 'one size fits all' approach.
What I like about
Arias' blog post is that he is unapologetically personal in his tone and
extremely open and honest. Procrastination and self doubt (something I am
extremely familiar with) are themes he repeatedly touches on. He talks about "kick[ing] the demons out of your head and
get[ting] to work" ,because, "It’s
never going to be perfect. It’s never going to be finished. It’s never going to
be ready. If you wait until you are ready you’ll never accomplish a thing.
Ever." I find the knowledge that a successful professional
photographer has the same feelings of the work not being good enough that I do
extremely reassuring.
I also like the way
he discusses editing and photographic skills and the need to continually
revisit your work: "You not only grow as a
photographer but you grow as a photo editor in your life." This is
a feeling echoed by OCA tutor Clive White in the forum discussion: "I still come across images that I shot and
discarded 30 years ago that make a different sense to me now." This
is very much my view and it is good to see it reaffirmed - simply, storing
digital images takes up very little physical space and extra storage is
extremely cheap nowadays so why would you not want to keep everything? Of
course, the trick is being able to access this again - hundreds of MBs worth of
image files that are not labelled in any way are just as unwieldy as piles of
boxes of random prints.
At the point Arias
culls his original 'big edit' down to the final 10% he makes prints so he can
view them physically and most importantly explore their relationship with each
other. This is a process I also find extremely beneficial and it can be surprising
how much your opinions can change when faced with a physical print rather than
an image on a screen.
I will leave the
last word with Leopin, the OCA student who originated the discussion, as he
ponders why there is so little written material on workflow since this is such
an important part of the photographic process: "What
shall I conclude? That it is a process too subjective, too intimate, too
private to be disclosed openly?" I think he could be right in many
ways and again I applaud the bravery of Arias to publish his ways of working in
such an honest way. I think the majority of photographers would struggle with
being this honest fearing self doubt shows some sort of weakness. Maybe there
is also an element of not wanting to be challenged as well - OCA tutor Jose
Navarro discusses his workflow in very practical terms on the forum, and while
I very much respect his views and appreciate his ways of working would be
highly tried and tested, his is not a system I would employ myself…..knowing
about how he works does help me however.
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