A Thought on Perspectives

A long time ago, I saw a National Geographic video that featured one of the company's main photographers.

He made some very good arguments about the importance of PERSPECTIVE.

One photo in particular struck me. I think he was in Scotland on assignment to shoot a picture of this river for a story about fishing. The perspective that most photographers would have taken would be to shoot some men fishing on the river in a angular or clever fashion. He was there well before dawn and there were men on the river. After taking a few shots, he still couldn't feel the magic.

He is National Geographic's leading photographer after all. For him, what everyone else could easily see isn't good enough. He wanted to share an experience only he could see. Only then would it be perfect, unique, and touch the people of the world.

He needed a different perspective.

He turned around, putting his back to the river.

The rising sun was making the most glorious image of pink hued light on the river bed. It was magical. It was perfect. The shot that made the magazine no longer showed the perspective of what strangers walking on the bank might view the fishermen doing. It now showed the perspective the FISHERMEN got to experience every morning.

This made the more compelling story.

Yesterday, I went to another lecture with a professional photographer. He openly admitted that camera phones in the right hands were now as capable of making brilliant shots as a $6,000 camera. As he was instructing us on style, positioning, and lighting and why these factors were important in photography I was impressed with the other story he was telling.

Photography is a dying art.

"Selfies" are now more interesting than a good art shot...supposedly...I still think they're sloppy but in  rebellious-not-exactly-bad-just-not-something-I'd-want-on-my-wall kind of way.

The instructor and his wife are both professional photographers. As I watched them through the night I couldn't see a hint of worry about the future. Didn't they know they needed to get another degree in order to survive this harsh cruel world? Photography is dying. Weren't they worried about getting a job? What job could they get? He himself had told us that even reporters were being instructed on how to use camera phones and that the news photographers were being fired left and right because of it.

How could he not worry? I realize that not everyone is like me and worrying about if their art can sustain them. I was curious about how he could seem so sure in his craft.

The photographer let us in on a secret. He was often bored.

He had started with wedding shoots and senior pictures. Those became mundane. He knew enough about his craft that he was able to take a new perspective. He invented something to give his photos a unique feel. Other photographers saw this and wanted him to make this item for them to use. That started production and more inventions. He eventually became a professionals professional by going around the country to instruct photographers about how to make their pictures stand out from the camera phones.

Most people would be satisfied for the rest of their lives with this level of notoriety.

But, as expected, he quickly got bored.

He still experiments with way to create that next new shot. He's currently playing with elements like fire and water in his own backyard. He's always looking for the next shot. The next unique element. The next experiment that will allow him to show people something new.

The point?

Anyone can buy and shoot a camera.

It takes someone with a drive to continually find a unique perspective that will make his craft soar.

This relates to all art including writing. We all know that there are cliches in every work. The more T.V. I see the more cliches there are. People were starting to get lazy in their writing. Then some crazy geeks took over the screen writing field and shows like Doctor Who and Once Upon a Time became the stars of the networks. Not because of their genre, but because those who loved the genre decided to take a risk and deliver a new perspective on something everyone has seen before.

These new writers risked new turns of phrases, new plot endings, while destroying preconceived notions left and right to make room for their own unique story. My favorite? The bad guys actually WIN a couple of times to make a good guy win seem earned.

New clever plots and/or worlds are good.

Exploring the depths of the human experience is better.

Discovering those depths while learning about a new plot and/or world is the best kind of writing there is.