Digital Camera World (2019-06)

here’s a saying that if you

look through your camera’s

viewfinder and you’ve already

seen the picture, you

shouldn’t take it. It’s already

been done! It’s a sentiment

I agree with to some extent. However,

there is a danger that you might never

take another image. Perhaps by taking the

picture that has been ‘done before’, you

can get the creative juices flowing. Perhaps

it can act as a catalyst to evolve an idea

and take it into new territory. Who knows?

Taking the shot has got to be better

than hanging your camera up.

Recently I found myself at sea – for

a long time. I was mesmerised by the

ever-changing light conditions, the colour

of the sea and the texture of the water’s

surface. However, every time I looked

through the viewfinder, all I could see were

images that reminded me of the work of

some of the photographers I most admire,

such as Hiroshi Sugimoto, Shomei

Tomatsu and Garry Fabian Miller. They’ve

photographed the sea in much the same

way, with a dead straight horizon in the

exact middle of the frame. Perhaps it’s a

natural creative instinct – one I could

not resist, even if I had seen it before, so

I started taking and collecting seascapes.

I used the same focal length for every

image and found the individual images

worked well as a grid, drawing attention

to the diversity of the conditions. I may

not have not added anything to the canon

of ocean images, but I have enjoyed the

process and the results. I have many more

days at sea scheduled, so perhaps this will

be the creative springboard I need to

evolve the project further.

Benedict Brain meditates on the ocean

ƏȇƳژȒȸǣǕǣȇƏǼǣɎɵƏɀǝƺǔǣȇƳɀǝǣȅɀƺǼǔƏǼǼƏɎɀƺƏ

The art

of seeing

T

Benedict Brain

Photographer

Camera: Nikon D850

Lens: Nikkor 50mm f/1.4

Exposure: A variety of exposures

(roughly 1/300 sec) at f/5.6, ISO 250

http://www.benedictbrain.com

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com JUNE 2019 DIGITAL CAMERA^39