The Making Of A Photograph; What I Saw Versus What I Felt

This is the scene as I saw it when I arrived. Very blue, very bright, made at 1:50 p.m. with some moderate highlights and shadows. Before setting up my camera, I just looked at what was before me and created a vision as to how I wanted the final image to look.  Only then did I set up my camera, choose a focal length, aperture, added 10X ND and polarizing filters to create the image as my mind imagined the final image to be. (click to enlarge)

"When I'm ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I'm interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without."

                                                                                                                   Ansel Adams

We have all heard the term "pre-visualization" or "visualization" when it comes to making images.  The term and practice was popularized by Ansel Adams, considered by some as the greatest landscape photographer ever.  Briefly, visualization is the process of a photographer creating a vision of what his or her final photograph will look like even before the shutter button is pushed.  For some, this process comes easy, for others it is difficult.  For me, it comes second nature.  I tend to "see" my final image innately when sizing up a scene to photograph.

The image at the top of this post reflects what I saw when I first encountered these cypress trees.  I saw a bright blue sky, bluish water from the reflection of the sky and grayish bark on the trees.  I saw brightly sunlit areas and areas in moderate shadow.  A brightly lit and colorful scene appeared before me. Very ordinary.  But as soon as I exited my vehicle I realized this large cypress tree, about 8 ft. from the shoreline, would be the subject of an image and in my mind I saw an entirely different image.  That image is the one just below.

This is not what I saw but his is how I felt when I encountered the scene.  A much warmer, darker, more dramatic image.  I visualized very dark shadows, not quite black, and an early winter morning/late afternoon appearance. (click to enlarge)

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

                                                    Ansel Adams

This is how I visualized my final image before I pressed my shutter button.  I saw deep shadows, almost black, and very warm highlights.  The gray back was uninteresting but a warm, brown bark conveyed what I wanted.  I envisioned an image that was much more dramatic than what reality presented itself at first glance.  What I saw when first seeing this scene was much different from what I felt.  I knew that my final image would not reflect reality.  Visualization.

I love winter sun.  I love the color of winter sun late in the day.  The moisture is lacking from the cold, clear air.  The colors are more pure due to lack of humidity. The sunlight is not nearly as intense as in the summer.  I love how the shadows grow in length and how much darker they are than in summer sun.  I love the warmth one feels late on a winter's day because of that low, crisp sunlight even with all of the leaves gone and the greens that have long turned to browns.  That is how I feel about winter sun and that is how I felt about this scene.


If I were a documentary photographer or photojournalist, everything I have just written would be out of bounds.  But I'm not.  Most all of my photographs don't reflect reality in the sense that I visualize what I think the scene should look like, then go about crafting the image, both in camera and in my editing software, to reflect my vision.  Photojournalists and documentarians can't do that.  Luckily, we can and should create what our mind's eye sees and not just record a literal translation in two dimensions.

I like this image.  To me it is timeless.  This image could have been made 500 years ago or sometime in the future.  There is nothing about it that places it anywhere in history.  I like that.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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