Peter Truman Photography

[Updated 29th September 2009, see below]

Until April 2009 I had never heard of him and never knowingly seen his photographs. He has been a professional photographer for only a few years and his work has obviously stirred up a good few people to think more about the pictures being created. David DuChemin's work and writing have completely resonated with me and, it would appear, a good few more. I've mentioned him already in this blog and make no apology for mentioning him again as he quite unapologetic about discussing vision - what you see and try to capture with your camera. His words explain this so much better than I can so check his website and blog. I just love his strapline - "Gear is good. Vision is better" and wish I had thought of it.

He is essentially a travel photographer, although that label does him little justice and I'm sure he wouldn't like to read that description. The photographs that are highlighted on his website and blog (and his excellent book) have a quality that shows he has that little extra in his head that many of us just don't have. His images express themselves and do not need much narrative to say or tell something. In much the same way that some guitarists are technically brilliant, but musically just OK, where some manage to make the guitar "sing". You can hear how some guitarists "feel" the music - I personally think Carlos Santana, David Gilmour and Jimi Hendrix made their guitars sing, others merely play. In photography, some manage to repeatedly convey their vision through great pictures, others merely click.

His views on vision are completely relevant to other subjects though, not just travel. Imagine capturing the feeling you get when you are surrounded within a sensuous garden. Or the feeling of wonder as you see the most sensational borders stretching out in front of you. The way light is reflected off rain drops in a small flower. The effect of the last rays on sunshine on the herbaceous border and how the tallest plants are lit up by the low angled sunlight. All difficult stuff to capture with any camera.

To create great photographs it is first important to get that feel, that vision and to see the image. It would be disingenuous to suggest that the technical things about creating great garden images are easy. They aren't, but without that vision, no amount of technology is going to make that photograph work. As he says, gear is good - having the right gear makes it easier. But vision is better. Without it we will be very lucky to capture that great image and the machine gun approach to taking a photograph by taking lots of shots and deleting all those that are no good often results in no decent shots at all. I've tried.

I also believe that it is very rare to just capture a great photograph. Great photographs are normally created. That involves much more than pointing a camera at something, fiddling with a few dials and buttons and pressing the shutter release. It involves thought about the composition, working with the light to make the picture, being part of the scene and not just a viewer.

The reason for writing this is to highlight DuChemin's short ebook "Ten" that covers ten areas to consider to improve your photographs. These are applicable to just about any subject and I highly recommend the read, if only to get you annoyed that the latest whizz bang lens is not mentioned at all. Its about thinking about the photograph, feeling the photograph. The ebook is charged for but for a few dollars is worthwhile, I think. It is available here.

The tenth section in this ebook struck a particular note and is about having good foregrounds in front of great backgrounds (and vice versa). I cannot help but thinking of the number of times I have read a description of a landscape where it says something along the lines of "the rock in the foreground adds foreground interest..."? Umm, if it needed foreground interest then maybe the background is dull? What about seeing the background in a way that doesn't need artificially added "interest"? How about using the foreground to lead the eyes into the picture, not just place something there to cover up something that's otherwise boring? Better still, move so that you don't have a crap foreground. Or move on to find an interesting background.

Worth a read.

Update, 29th September 2009

DuChemin has added a further 10 tips in a second ebook "Ten More" (imaginative...) that is also available through Lulu. I personally do not think it is a strong as the first ten, but is still a worthwhile read. Go for it.