Visual Sense
I’ve been busy writing an eBook about ‘visualisation’, to compliment my existing ebooks, which I am pleased to let you all know that I’ve currently finished the first draft of. It is now in the hands of some reviewers to proof read it and also, to get back to me on what they feel may be missing.
Writing about what you’re passionate about is an enjoyable endeavour. But like anything creative, it takes time to distill ideas, to put things in the right order, to let it be born correctly.
Over the past few years that I’ve been doing my workshops, I’ve found it immensely helpful to myself to ‘understand’ why I choose certain compositions over others, or why I’m drawn to one subject over another. It’s helped me become a stronger photographer. I understand that there is a relationship between vision and your own style (or ‘voice’ as others like to call it).
Take this contact sheet for instance.
This is a collection of images I made whilst in Bolivia in 2009. One thing I’ve learned about visualisation is to be able to visualise my imagery in a style that suits what I do. That *is* what I do. We should not be only striving to create good images through visualisation, but we should also be striving to create a body of work that has a cohesive feel to it. Everything must sit together as part of a whole. I like the idea that the final collection is greater than the sum of its parts.
Having a strong sense of your own style helps you form your vision, helps you visualise just what it is you want to do, and where you need to go with your own photography. We only reach that by being able to interrogate ourselves, analyse our previous efforts and find out what our style is.
Often I hear participants on my workshops tell me they don’t know what their style is, or if they even have one. I think this is down to looking at your own work and filtering it down to what matters. What you are left with should indicate your style, what you’re drawn to, and also, where you are probably heading too. Just don’t forget that visualisation and style are interlinked.
I’ll let you know when my new eBook is out. I hope to have it out end of this month, depending on any amendments or further things come my way that I’d like to add :-)
I think photographers manage to develop a ’style’ which evolves over the years. And visualisation I think manifests itself from their inner subconscious and experience, for example, (my favorite photographer) Don McCullin’s landscapes are very dark, brooding, and are so, possibly because of his experience as a war photographer – seeing all that death, darkness, smoke, and because of his life and sensory experience as a child and young man.
Normal joe public such as myself, I reckon our photographs develop and attain a certain ‘look’, whether it’s in the colour, the compositions, or the way in which subjects are portrayed – and these things happen without us noticing, unless we really go and look for what makes our work our own. Sometimes it is not possible to pinpoint exactly what makes our work unique to us, but again I think our subconscious, our likes, dislikes, experience and wants play a part in shaping what we photograph and how they look rather than how we would like them to look.
Also depending upon the equipment we have with us, I suppose we have to visualise different things and adjust our thoughts accordingly.
:) I can spot a Bruce Percy print, you have your own unique (and may I say brilliant) style which makes you stand out from other’s.
Comment by Ibraar Hussain — 17 May, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
Yes, style is developed over the years, as is visualisation but the point is that they are interlinked. How your style develops is based on your visualisation and how you visualise is based on your style. They are reciprocal and re-inforce each other.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 17 May, 2010 @ 1:30 pm
Hi Bruce,
I bought your e-book about Composition and I’d just like to pass my compliments on to you for such a clear, decisive piece of work. It has given me much to think about regarding composition.
It is a very beautiful book with lots of excellent pictures in it. You are a very talented photographer and writer. Thank you so much for writing this e-Book.
I also bought your other technique e-books, which are good also.
Keep up the good work!
Comment by williambwiseman — 17 May, 2010 @ 4:59 pm
Hi William,
Well, thanks so much for that. It’s very kind of you. I’ve had a lot of really nice feedback from people but they seem to prefer to email me, rather than post it on my blog, so this is very nice :-)
take care, Bruce.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 17 May, 2010 @ 8:15 pm
Bruce,
I came across your website through Ken Rockwell’s site. Thank you for the time and effort you put into teaching photography. I have purchased Taj Mahal, Nocturne and Simplifying Composition. Anxiously awaiting The Visual Sense. I enjoyed each book but Simplifying Composition is far and away my favorite. I am young (new) to photography but not in age. As a computer programmer I like logic. Creativity is hard. After taking a few online photography classes I was getting quite discouraged. All those rules. Before I knew what was happening I was literally placing everything on thirds with no thought as to why other than I was told to. Flow, symmetry, balance…what is that?
However, when I read the part of Simplifying Composition about “flow” I suddenly realized why so many of my images were still horrible even by my standards. A few days after reading that chapter I went out to take some shots of a local building late in the evening. The building is well lit and quite attractive. I decided to take a picture of it looking across the golf course associated with the building. There was a pond in the foreground which reflected the building in part. The instance I put my eye to the view finder I saw the flow and balance as mentioned in your book. I had not seen it before as I have not established my lens vision. I saw what I see but not what the camera saw until I looked through it. Definitely need to work on that. The actor analogy in your book is very helpful. You helped me move past the discouragement I was suffering from and am continuing as time allows.
Again, thanks for your work. I have enjoyed it very much and anxiously await the release of The Visual Sense. Hopefully this little note encourages you some.
Gary
Comment by grj — 20 May, 2010 @ 11:52 pm
Hi Gary,
Many thanks for sharing this with me – I’m so pleased.
I get a lot of good feedback from my workshops and felt it was time to put these books out. So I’m very happy that you have enjoyed them and got something from them. I feel, that a lot of books are badly written and don’t explain things well. So I spent a bit of time trying to make sure I could convey what I convey on my workshops.
Thanks for the very kind feedback.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 21 May, 2010 @ 8:36 am