March 15, 2013
Five Great Locations for Great Images
If I were to ask you to list five great locations for creating great images, what would you list? Here’s my list that might be typical:
- Yosemite
- Iceland
- Big Sur
- Japan
- The African Plains
These beautiful locations would almost guarantee a great image! Think of the great work done here: Yosemite and the iconic images of Ansel Adams. When I think of Iceland will I forever see the incredible iceberg images of Camile Seaman in my head. Or how about the work of Edward Weston in the Big Sur area or Michael Kenna’s incredible minimalistic work from Japan. And Africa…could anything be more definitive than the work of Nick Brandt?
But do you know what would happen if I were to visit these locations, say Yosemite for example? I’d be looking for the spots where Ansel created those famous images so that I could recreate them for myself. And while I might be able to create a pretty nice image, it would neither be original or be as good as Ansel’s. Remember, Ansel has already done Ansel and I’m not going to do him better!
And so it begs the question; do I need to photograph at places such as Yosemite, Big Sur or Africa in order to create great images? Can’t great images also be found in ordinary places?
Yes they can. I believe that ordinary places have just as many image opportunities as the exotic places we all dream of visiting. So let me suggest another list of locations where you can create great images:
- Your neighbor’s yard
- Your bedroom
- A greenhouse
- A hotel
- In your car
They don’t sound very exciting when compared to that first list, so let’s take a look at why I’ve chosen these ordinary and even mundane locations. First, they are very accessible: no passport needed, no time off from work and no travel expenses.
But there’s another more important advantage: Ansel and Seaman and Weston and Kenna and Brandt have not photographed there and so you don’t have their images floating around in your head. You are free to see these locations in a fresh and unique way, and you are free to be the first to create great images there!
Here are some examples of my images from those very “ordinary” locations:
My neighbor’s yard.
My bedroom.
A greenhouse.
A hotel.
In my car.
~
Great images do not need great locations…or perhaps better said; great images can come from everyday and ordinary great locations!
Yes, I have traveled to many exciting locations around the world and and I’ve created images there that I’m proud of, but I’m just as proud of my images from these “ordinary” locations.
Here are a few more examples of images from ordinary locations:
At my feet.
A friend.
Something my daughter made.
At a flea market.
Before my son’s senior prom.
The river in my town.
On the way to work.
My backyard.
At a local tree nursery.
On the side of the road.
At a family get together.
Along the railroad tracks.
At my kitchen table.
In my home office.
Along the river in my hometown.
~
The “key” to a great image is not location, but your Vision and your ability to see differently than those who have gone before you.
It’s a hard thing to do, but it is the key.
Cole
This is brilliant Cole, that is so true. We always think that we need to find these epic locations when sometimes they are right there in front of us…
I’m still going to Japan in 3 weeks… wink wink…
Great post! It’s good to see a post dealing with stuff around your home. Especially since I have no plans to visit Timbuktu anytime soon.
Hi Cole! I read some time ago somewhere (and by the way I think it was one of your posts) something like “I prefer to be inspired in a uninspiring place than to be uninspired in a inspiring place” That is actually the most important thing, right? I think this may be a complement of this post.
It is always great reading your stuff! All the best!
Truer words were never written. There are pictures everywhere,,, YOUR pictures.
Jan
PS: Love the child in the car window. And of course the three photographers!
Students of Canadian photographer and teacher Freeman Patterson are assigned to find the best photo possible in a 3-square-foot area of lawn or forest. Not in Yosemite or Japan, but at their feet in Patterson’s yard. Many of those images are amazing. You’ve begun a fine discussion on this subject, Cole. Much thanks.
Enjoyed reading this, you are amazing!!
Great images Cole, the perfect antidote to my current “miserable weather, don’t feel inspired” attitude
A timeless post! Cole, I think you have, in your few words and small collection of beautiful images, captured the essence of the struggle many photographers have. Many feel compelled that the only way to capture a magnificent image is to travel to iconic locations. We need to be reminded, as you have done, that there are photographs waiting to be be taken wherever we are standing. We just need to learn how to see differently. Thanks for such a great post!
Oh my word Mr Cole- freekin speechless.
Very insightful. I appreciate your message about finding your own vision, repeated over and over. It is partly about what you shoot, a dash of place, a small amount of processing style but mostly it is a challenge to explore what captures the imagination of each of us.
Cole,
Awesomsational reminder. I’ve said this before, but your work personifies the Edward Weston quote of “seeing ordinary things in extraordinary ways”.
I’d like to think the photographic Good Life would be having it both ways; also seeing extraordinary things, but in your own unique way.
Didn’t someone write a song about this? If you can’t be with the one you love…….
Excellent reminder that the best place to photograph is wherever you are.
Sam, Stephen Stills wrote the song but it was Billy Preston who would say:
“If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”
Great connection!
Touche’ Cole, I have photographers ask me all the time to take them with me to the places I find and photograph wild horses. I have to politely till them that they would love their work better if they find their own niche. It took me 40 years to find mine.
Cole, I knew the Crosby Stills Nash connection, but not Billy Preston’s. I always thought the line was a great metaphor for life as well as photography.
As you demonstrate, great images are everywhere, if we learn to see them. Someone wrote about Freeman Patterson, and I agree that his work, like yours, proves the point. What great fun!
Robert, this mistaken idea that if someone can come to your location, they can create images like yours is related to the theory that if someone knows what equipment and settings that I use, they can create images like mine.
This is all so true… equally important, is coming to the realization that you don’t need extraordinary equipment to achieve extraordinary images.
…should have added, that even knowing all the above… I’m still jealous of my photography friends in Tuscany…
Thought-provoking and a timely reminder for me, thanks Cole!
Cole, you scared me. Thought your list was serious. I cried a little. Glad I kept reading through the tears, though.
Nicely done.
Absolutely true and the images are wonderful.
Mundane images of mundane places, way to go…
Sorry Cole I couldn’t resist. Beautiful and inspirational as always.
Of course there’s no way to pick a favorite of your images, they all elicit an emotional response in different ways, each one just a powerful as the next. But there’s something about the one from the tree nursery that just stands out. And I’m not sure I’ve seen the sunflower before.
Wonderful post, thanks for sharing.
I’m afraid of your office.
Cheers!
Lizz, this was at my home office!
The title of that image is “Wiggles Roaring.”
What Wiggles was really doing was yawning, but that didn’t sound nearly as good.
Dear Cole:
I love your blog and advice, not just technical.
It makes us believe that the essence of photography is in black and white.
Congratulations
Mário
Really wonderfully said; I have long believed that our own “backyards,” as they are, offer as many wonderful opportunities for images as the icons. It’s all about our ability to see, and I fear sometimes that the culture of landscape photography today has put blinders on photographers to the point that they cannot see past that once-a-year trip to their iconic location of choice.
Great photographs–the best photography–comes out of a relationship with the subject, Wallace Stegner among others called this a ‘sense of place,’ and I agree completely. I’d rather have an intimate relationship with my subject than bounce from location to location and never really know a place.
I have had a few (less eloquent) essays on this subject published on my own blog (by myself and others). You might enjoy reading them:
http://www.alpenglowimagesphotography.com/blog/2011/12/make-your-own-tripod-tracks/
http://www.alpenglowimagesphotography.com/blog/2013/01/creativity-crossroads/
Cheers,
Greg Russell
Beautiful story.
Beautiful images.
Beautiful reminder.
Amen, brother! I’ve been to Japan a few times now but treat it the same as my neighborhood. However, I think I have mentioned to you before that I need a change of scenery to recharge. Still waiting for the next opportunity. Thanks for this post, Cole. It is indeed a great reminder.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have to admit though that up until now 95% of my photography was on vacations to coll places like Yosemite. Starting to find great ideas in my own “backyard”
I’m a traveler and a medical missionary – my camera and I have been to places most will never see. It took months of recovery from a knee operation to learn that photographically there are universes within universes in my own house. and those universes change at least three times a day – morning noon and night. I enjoy shooting abroad, but evn then you run the risk of missing “the good shots” unless you train your eye to see them. Home is a great and rich place to start!
I love it! Great points made and “finding” the images in less obvious places adds to the creative process. Thanks, as always!
This post really resonates! 98% of my shooting is within about a 10 mile radius of home, on well-trodden, oft-revisited trails and paths. A return to home grounds after a trip to an iconic location (most recently, the Grand Canyon) always requires a couple of days to “recalibrate my expectations,” but then I’m back to relishing the challenge of seeing new things in old places, or seeing the same old sights in new ways.
Cole,
Your post is good therapy. After recently spending a week photographing in Death Valley I started to wonder if location was the missing ingredient in my own work. But, deep down I know it isnt. Most often, the missing ingredient is to discipline myself to never stop looking – even at the mundane.
You know it already…
‘There are so many things on your blog, I’d love everybody to read and think about, not necessarily to do the same but to understand that there are also some other ways for doing, seeing, feeling things. Thank you for sharing Cole!’
Take very good care of you, please!
I can relate- most of my favorite photos that I feel are done well are either taken around my worksite or within walking distance of my home. I have 4 kids and go to work and school full time, so shooting where I am is vital to my development as an artist. I think that is why I’m drawn to abstract or minimalist compositions- to capture the ordinary in an extraordinary way.
After submitting this response, I thought of another advantage of shooting in familiar territory- we have the privilege to experience our surroundings in every concieveable light and weather condition and see the effect it has on our subjects. I think of the tales of adventure photographers who hike out to remote locales and camp for days (in snowstorms and the like) just to wait for that “decisive moment’ of light. I would surely enjoy that as well, but in the interim I’ll stick with passing the seasons by here in Fairbanks.