Looking for Paul
When I got to the dunes, such a different environment, it took me a while to find me. That is, I had looked at a few pictures of the dunes on other sites and some of those images were stuck in my head. I started out with mimicry and then slowly started the transition to shooting the way that I favor shooting.
I guess that the idea was already stuck in my head from viewing those other images, which the great majority were shot horizontally and were pretty much straight shots of the dunes. Contrast this with my tendency to shoot vertically for both long and close shots and to lapse into abstract mode quite readily. It was just the opposite of the way that I normally shoot.
Lost, then found
This very reason is why I don’t view a whole lot of other landscape photography. I guess that I’m impressionable. Fortunately, I can rid myself of this mimicry in short order. It took about an hour to shake it loose and then start seeing the way that I normally see and portray. Most landscape photography that I have seen does not incorporate people into the landscape. Well, IMHO, we are there, like it or not, and I love to include ‘us’. I think that it makes the shot so much more interesting by adding known scale. Also, I am a HUGE fan of big skies. 
Clouds, skies, and height fascinate me so it seems natural to shoot vertically.
Another love of mine is subtle light, which I am trying to master. Subtle light, in my opinion, is easy to capture, but sometimes difficult to portray in print or on the screen. There is no one right way to take a picture and we are all driven by our internal motivations, experiences, and personal tastes. There are those who will tell us ‘the right way’ to do things, but in the end, you have to go with your gut, or intuition. I am not opposed to new ideas about approaching a subject: High, low, left, right, abstract, literal, spending more time, thinking a bit more, etc. I’ve garnered many good ideas from the comments received in this blog. However, I don’t get swayed very easily when someone says that they would do it a different way. This doesn’t make my way wrong and I feel no compunction to change to shot to accommodate some else’s vision.
The opinion of others
During my “Better Photo: How to make money with your photography”, my instructor told me that I shouldn’t include people in my landscape photography because it would: a) confuse clients, b) make them think that I’m not serious about landscape photography. Well, everyone has their own opinion, as do I.
The final analysis
Earlier last week, Colin Jago had a great post about this entitled: Do you live in a high contrast world? It certainly is worth a read. It’s about people telling him what he needed to do to ‘improve’ his photos, even though he posted just what he wanted. Colin’s photos aren’t very contrasty, but he lives in a part of the world that, by nature, is not full of contrast. There, it’s cloudy most of the time and his images reflect this. It’s his chosen style to portray what he sees around him. I, on the other hand, live in a very sunny part of the world and therefore, love contrast. Crank it up, baby!
In the final analysis: U B U (you be you) and let others be themselves.
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9 Responses to “U B U”
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Glad to be able to add some perspective for you
…and there I was worrying about getting in your vision line. Silly me. 
I agree, having a person there adds scale and makes the perspective become real.
Spent this evening looking through my shots too, Paul. What a great trip.
Kate
I know what you mean about trying to resist looking at other shots of a place you are going to. Though I do find that sometimes it helps me organize myself a little better in knowing what to expect – what I like or don’t like. Great shots here Paul. I like them both.
I like the last image, best, it really does give a sense of place and perspective to have someone in the shot.
On the business/ sellability aspect, one way to carve out your own niche is to do what everyone else isn’t doing. So if serious, sellable landscape photography shouldn’t have people in it and that’s what everyone does, do the opposite.
I’m loving this series, Paul. And as far as saleability (is that a word?) as long as you shoot from your heart, I don’t see how one can go wrong. U B U….I like that!!
Without Kate the shot would be dead boring.
Wish I was there.
cheers
afx
A person in the right place can put everything into perspective.
I like both shots very much.
I agree. I don’t want to sell out to anyone, and never have. If you stay true to yourself, you can’t lose.
I’m glad someone else is brave enough to say “yes, I shot it that way because that’s how I wanted to” when people give the inevitable “you could shoot it horizontally/in black and white/with a different lens/with more contrast” feedback…!
I also have trouble approaching a subject differently, sometimes. When there are already a large amount of images of that thing/place it’s very difficult to get that image out of your head – sometimes I simply go ahead and shoot that cliche, so that I get it out of my system and can get on with my own stuff!
@Julie: Thanks for chiming in, Julie. It’s nice to know that you are still around.
I think that people, basically, are well meaning, but don’t quite realize that what they are saying is: “Do it my way and I’ll approve of it!”.