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Being Prepared v. the "Luck Effect" in Your Most Impressive Photography!

Ken Tanaka

pro member
<...>
There is very few "luck" effect here, this is one of the reasons I fight the -imho- false concept of shoot wide and crop later.

One have to choose the right tool (in this case focal length) to emphasis one's vision…

I have, however, encountered situations where luck has landed nicely in my lap. I'm sure you (and many readers) have, too.

Last spring I was out shooting with a Leica M8 and a 28mm, 50mm, and 90mm lens set. While out I got a call from a client asking me, as a favor, if I could possibly shoot something for them that day. There was no time for me to change kits; I would have to use whatever I had. Of course I agreed to give it a go. I knew I would be shooting a sculpture but I really didn't know what to expect.

To shorten the saga, the sculpture turned out to be my friend Jaume Plensa's "SHO", which is an enormous stainless steel mesh head. It was on display outdoors and (as I discovered) was most photogenic in the few moments after complete sunset when its lights first come on.

If I had been given a day or two to prepare myself I would probably have taken my 1DsIII kit and several primes (and probably my low-light-trusty 24-70mm f/2.8 zoom). I certainly would also have taken a tripod. But while this would probably have enabled me to capture usable images I'm not at all confident that I would have captured anything better than this.

M820080423_1947_000558.jpg


Shooting a mesh sculpture in low light with a rangefinder is an activity best suited to induce throbbing eye strain headaches quickly, particularly shooting hand-held! I use a my 50mm f/1.4 Leica Summilux, probably at around f/5.6 to record this image with the M8 set to ISO 640. While it is not obvious from this little 72 dpi thumbnail image, that camera/lens combination created an astonishingly sharp, vivid image which was exactly what was needed for this subject. I'm not certain that a bigger rig, or a more preparation would have produced a better result. IN FACT, the constraints of the setting would have prohibited me from capturing this image with a mounted camera. It could only be grabbed quickly with a handheld camera.

Apparently others liked it too, as it appears on the cover of this month's (October, 2008) Sculpture Magazine.

So the old folk wisdom about luck favoring the prepared is as valid as ever. Get the best lenses you can get (not necessarily the most expensive), study their characteristics closely in all kinds of conditions, and be confident of your most important lenses: your own eyes.
 

NC Iphone

New Member
So the old folk wisdom about luck favoring the prepared is as valid as ever. Get the best lenses you can get (not necessarily the most expensive), study their characteristics closely in all kinds of conditions, and be confident of your most important lenses: your own eyes.

Couln't be a better advice! I fully agree.

But one may not confuse luck and fate...
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
M820080423_1947_000558.jpg


Shooting a mesh sculpture in low light with a rangefinder is an activity best suited to induce throbbing eye strain headaches quickly, particularly shooting hand-held! I use a my 50mm f/1.4 Leica Summilux, probably at around f/5.6 to record this image with the M8 set to ISO 640.

So the old folk wisdom about luck favoring the prepared is as valid as ever. Get the best lenses you can get (not necessarily the most expensive), study their characteristics closely in all kinds of conditions, and be confident of your most important lenses: your own eyes.

Ken,

Brilliant ideas are really common but physical execution is rare. So much of the wonder of this sculpture will be felt in a like way by tens of thousands of people every day. However, few can engrave this in a single photograph. Your picture has a presence and is made as a unity and does not call for anything else to appreciate it. Yes, you have a fine Leica M8 and the great 50mm Lux, but really, these tools did not make the picture!

This, Ken, shows that photographs like all art are really made in the head. I believe you would have made this image different with any other lens but your brain would have forced your feet to move, you might have gotten on your knees or on your stomach or else stitched 8 adjacent shots to get that picture.

"Art is a dialog and negotiation between 3 things: mind, physics and skill. Of them all, mind is the most important."

With a plastic lens or a pinhole camera, the picture would be different but I have no doubt that the creative photograph would still deliver an impressive photograph from this subject.

I love being opportunistic. This is a great example of doing this well. There are many opportunities available but how many of us take advantage of those that come to us?

Yes the "Luck Effect" occurred here but getting that into a picture independent of what lens you have is the real test.

Asher
 

Daniel Buck

New member
I think that's the fun thing about photography. Sometimes you get lucky and capture something completely different than what you thought you had captured. I heard a quote somewhere (and I don't know who said it) goes something like this: "I never get the photo i wanted, it always turns out better or worse than I had hoped for". I find this to be quite true. Regardless of how much time I spend prepairing, or what equipment I use.

However, I do not agree with people who think that once they have the _____ camera and lens, they will magically be able to take better photos. I agree with statements that I've heard, "A good photographer can take good photos with cheap bargain equipment". I think it's true, that if you have a good eye you will be fairly consistant with capturing good photos. But I personally think that the 'great photos' often have at least some element of luck involved. Be it luck in having good lighting, luck with an accidental composition or any number of other things.

But the luck, I also agree that when you have a good eye and know what you are doing, you have a better chance of using that good luck towards a great photo :)
 

Jim Galli

Member
The luck is all about when the planets align and you've got a great subject with excellent light. The equipment can be most unforgiving. Visiting the wine country in Oregon I had really gorgeous late afternoon light lighting a grain elevator and I was excited as I hussled over with the 5X12. I picked my perfect spot, had the lens picked out in my mind and pulled the antique camera from the wood case to set on the Gitzo. No mounting screw. I may never know where it got lost but after panic search while the light was holding, holding, waning......I finally had to let it go. I went the following morning and bought a suitable screw at the hardware store and never had another opportunity the rest of the trip.

Excellent shot Ken.
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
So the old folk wisdom about luck favoring the prepared is as valid as ever.

Off course, this is valid. You've been prepared by knowing the artist, studing the light... and by your previous shots of sculptures.

In my book, beeing prepared enhances the possibilities to integrate luck; to use it with confidence, lightness and joy.
 

Kathy Rappaport

pro member
Skill and luck

Sometimes you just happen onto the right light, background and subjects. Sometimes they just don't cooperate and no matter how good the gear and your eye, you just can't get the image because all the factors aren't there.

I just came out of my studio (will post later) and within 10 minutes had all I needed. Other times, I have ventured out in bad light and missed it all with no other choices and totally out of my control. And when I was new to digital and forgot the batteries in the charger and bought a disposable had the best photos of the trip I was on.

All the factors must come together.
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Sometimes chance favors the prepared photographer, other times it favors a bystander that just wanted to get into the picture.

Yesterday, while shooting this autumn harbor scene...
104923002.jpg


...I suddenly had this scene.
104922983.jpg


As the late Jimmy Durante was fond of saying, "Everybody wants to get into the act!".
 

doug anderson

New member
Chance favors the prepared mind. (Louis Pasteur)

The more one practices, the more chance of doing something remarkable.

I am a professional writer and a serious amateur photographer. I tell my writing students that the more you write, the better you get. I tell them I throw out a lot of what I write. And yet, if I didn't write the stuff that I throw out, I'd never reach the point of having something worth keeping.

Waiting for inspiration (or luck) will not make me lucky, but failing a hundred times will make me succeed maybe three or four times. The failure is the manure that grows the fruit.

Although I am a much more experienced writer than photographer, I think I can say that the same principles apply to photography.

Don't you think?

D
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
NY photographer Jay Maisel is fond of saying, "The more you shoot, the luckier you get.".

One of the (many) powerful advantages of today's digital photography is that shooting frames is free. So you'd think that we'd be witnessing some terribly "lucky" photography. To a small degree I think that we are. But not to a degree that might be suggested by the advent of free frames.

We might spot an analogous situation in writing. Writers no longer have to spend money on paper, pencils, and typewriter ribbons to stretch their creative legs. But are we seeing exponentially better writing in the age of electronic paper? No, I don't think we are.

So there's more involved in good photography, and writing, than simple frequency increase. I believe that one key step in both endeavors is that one must spend more time studying failures than admiring successes. Otherwise we ceaselessly repeat behaviors that lead to disappointing results.
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Doug,

I totally agree with what you say. I also agree with what Ken says -wholeheartedly. You both couldn't be more right. I actually wrote several essays about the subject, pretty much using the same arguments you are using.

But eventually some people like to believe that good photographs are the result of luck.

So in the end I find it simpler to say that it is fun to be lucky.

Why argue? Eventually the proof is in the photograph --whatever the reason why it came to be -- be it luck, experience or other. If one can consistently create good photographs, and if others want to write it off as being the result of good luck, I see no problem with that. I am content in the knowledge that luck, for some people, must just be another word to express admiration.

After all it is fun to be lucky. It is fun to create good photographs, to write well, or to engage in any endeavor in which we are good at. In the end, talent is best often expressed while enjoying ourselves.

I personally find that walking away from the argument is the key to being more creative. It's hard to have fun and remain creative while arguing endlessly over matters that, over time, become pointless.
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
.....
I personally find that walking away from the argument is the key to being more creative. It's hard to have fun and remain creative while arguing endlessly over matters that, over time, become pointless.

well, a picture, book, etc is kinda discussion, too, but on another level.
 

doug anderson

New member
Doug,

I totally agree with what you say. I also agree with what Ken says -wholeheartedly. You both couldn't be more right. I actually wrote several essays about the subject, pretty much using the same arguments you are using.

But eventually some people like to believe that good photographs are the result of luck.

So in the end I find it simpler to say that it is fun to be lucky.

Why argue? Eventually the proof is in the photograph --whatever the reason why it came to be -- be it luck, experience or other. If one can consistently create good photographs, and if others want to write it off as being the result of good luck, I see no problem with that. I am content in the knowledge that luck, for some people, must just be another word to express admiration.

After all it is fun to be lucky. It is fun to create good photographs, to write well, or to engage in any endeavor in which we are good at. In the end, talent is best often expressed while enjoying ourselves.

I personally find that walking away from the argument is the key to being more creative. It's hard to have fun and remain creative while arguing endlessly over matters that, over time, become pointless.

I don't really "argue" it. I say it, then let it go. You can take a horse to water....etc.

Every once in a while a complete novice will take a wonderful photograph; but that same novice, unless he continues to take a lot of photographs, will seldom take another.

I guess my argument can be simplified by saying, you have to work at it with heart.

D
 

doug anderson

New member
We might spot an analogous situation in writing. Writers no longer have to spend money on paper, pencils, and typewriter ribbons to stretch their creative legs. But are we seeing exponentially better writing in the age of electronic paper? No, I don't think we are.

Ken, good point. It's perhaps another version of the monkeys and typewriters argument to say that because it is easier to proliferate, the quality gets better. Not so. In spite of word processing software, there are not all that many Homers, Shakespeares, etc.

D
 

Alain Briot

pro member
I personally believe that I am lucky. Eventually, luck does play a role in art and an important one.

Why? Simply because art is about letting things happen to a certain extent, and not trying to control every variable. In a way we could say that art is about knowing what to control and what to let happen, and in what amount. The part that we do not control is left to chance, or to luck, or to happenstance, as we may want to call it. The point is that, regardless of the word used, we let it fall where it may.

This is easy to see in certain medium because the happenstance quality is evident. Brushstrokes that are left to fall where they may instead of being all aligned and similar. Chisel marks that go in different directions, with the understanding that the chisel mark is secondary to the shape of the entire sculpture. Notes added ad lib that enrich a composition without radically modifying the entire melody.

In photography light can be used in the same way, by letting light do what it may. One cannot predict a rainbow, or a lightning storm, or even a snowstorm. Certainly, one can follow the weather and believe the weathermen, but eventually the exact location of the storm, the shape of the clouds, the location of a rainbow, are all uncontrollable variables. Luck controls whether they will work in our compositions or not.

Similarly colors, and the color palette used by the artist does not need to be overly controlled. There are also a multitude of details in natural scenes that do not have to be controlled and that can be left to fall where they may.

In studio work with models accidents happen where the model does something unplanned, and often unconsciously, which turns out to be a lucky accident if the photographer lets it happen and captures it.

These are just a few examples jotted down quickly on a Saturday morning while preparing for a consulting session with a student. I am sure you can think of other examples. What's more important eventually is to keep in mind that fine art photography is both an art and a science, that it has a creative and a technical aspect. While the technical aspect can be fully controlled, it is necessary to leave a certain amount of freedom to the artistic aspect and to accept that luck is part of the artistic aspect.
 

doug anderson

New member
I personally believe that I am lucky. Eventually, luck does play a role in art and an important one.

Why? Simply because art is about letting things happen to a certain extent, and not trying to control every variable. In a way we could say that art is about knowing what to control and what to let happen, and in what amount. The part that we do not control is left to chance, or to luck, or to happenstance, as we may want to call it. The point is that, regardless of the word used, we let it fall where it may.

This is easy to see in certain medium because the happenstance quality is evident. Brushstrokes that are left to fall where they may instead of being all aligned and similar. Chisel marks that go in different directions, with the understanding that the chisel mark is secondary to the shape of the entire sculpture. Notes added ad lib that enrich a composition without radically modifying the entire melody.

In photography light can be used in the same way, by letting light do what it may. One cannot predict a rainbow, or a lightning storm, or even a snowstorm. Certainly, one can follow the weather and believe the weathermen, but eventually the exact location of the storm, the shape of the clouds, the location of a rainbow, are all uncontrollable variables. Luck controls whether they will work in our compositions or not.

Similarly colors, and the color palette used by the artist does not need to be overly controlled. There are also a multitude of details in natural scenes that do not have to be controlled and that can be left to fall where they may.

In studio work with models accidents happen where the model does something unplanned, and often unconsciously, which turns out to be a lucky accident if the photographer lets it happen and captures it.

These are just a few examples jotted down quickly on a Saturday morning while preparing for a consulting session with a student. I am sure you can think of other examples. What's more important eventually is to keep in mind that fine art photography is both an art and a science, that it has a creative and a technical aspect. While the technical aspect can be fully controlled, it is necessary to leave a certain amount of freedom to the artistic aspect and to accept that luck is part of the artistic aspect.

I agree. But don't you think technique and practice free you to be spontaneous? If you don't have to think about what you're doing, your fingers finding their way around the camera automatically, it's possible to get the decisive moment or the intuitive composition.

I have the feeling that you're speaking as a photographer who has been at it long enough that certain things just seem to "happen."
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
...Why? Simply because art is about letting things happen to a certain extent, and not trying to control every variable. In a way we could say that art is about knowing what to control and what to let happen, and in what amount. The part that we do not control is left to chance, or to luck, or to happenstance, as we may want to call it. The point is that, regardless of the word used, we let it fall where it may.......
If a work is essentially happenstance then the "art" is in recognizing, declaring and valuing it and presenting it for private and/or community enjoyment. Then that chance event, is at least real art for the finder. If other people go for it too it is indeed art with a life.

However, that should, to me at least, be only a part of our work as artists. I would hope that more effort is made to acquire the technical knowledge of light, color, form and composition to make art from one's own vision of things.

For me "luck" or happy chance, has occurred many times.

Reticulated _Vase_MG_5055.jpg



© 2007 Asher Kelman "Reticulated Vase 1" Canon 5D 24-105 IS L

A vase shattered, giving me and exceptional vision. I had no intent previously to do this but the lucky chance added much to my thinking. In art, as in life it's not the chance event that is so important, but it's the use of it which gives it life and makes it "lucky". It was raining in Boston when I passed a bus stop by the Student Union Building. I offered a ride to the soaked students. One girl took the chance. We have 3 boys and celebrate each day that one key lucky moment!

Asher
 

doug anderson

New member
Here's another example I copied from here. Asher




342670580_T8yoG-L.jpg


This is one of the first pictures I took when I got my D300 last spring. I'd not taken it seriously at the time (it was an accidental shot) but now I like the kind of mystery that grows up between the woman and the man carrying the guitar on the other side of the street, as if there is recognition or flirtation going on.
 
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Alain Briot

pro member
I agree. But don't you think technique and practice free you to be spontaneous? If you don't have to think about what you're doing, your fingers finding their way around the camera automatically, it's possible to get the decisive moment or the intuitive composition.

I have the feeling that you're speaking as a photographer who has been at it long enough that certain things just seem to "happen.

---


If a work is essentially happenstance then the "art" is in recognizing, declaring and valuing it and presenting it for private and/or community enjoyment. Then that chance event, is at least real art for the finder. If other people go for it too it is indeed art with a life.

However, that should, to me at least, be only a part of our work as artists. I would hope that more effort is made to acquire the technical knowledge of light, color, form and composition to make art from one's own vision of things.
"

Agreed. What I wrote previously is not meant to say that knowledge is unecessary. It is meant to say that total control is not part of art and that knowing where and where not to exert control is not only important but a key element of art. Learning where to let go of control is part of being an artist.

It is also meant to say that after we learn to control the medium, we have to unlearn to control the medium... Or rather, we have to learn that in art control is really controlled freedom. Letting us and the medium express themselves, letting all these years of learning and practice come together in a spontaneous moment of inspiration in which we no longer fear to fail technically and we can focus solely on the artistic, on expressing our feelings.

Often, unlearning is just as difficult as learning, if not more difficult. Many learn. Much fewer unlearn. Unlearning is frightening to many. Appearing to depend on luck is sometimes perceived as lacking the proper knowledge, or as laisser faire, or again as carelessness while it is in fact an important aspect of being an artist. In fact it is an important aspect of life (as Asher points out through his example). Luck cannot be ruled out. We can only learn to recognize happy accidents when they occur and make the best of them. IN the case of art this means incorporating these elements into the final piece in the most effective manner, so that they add instead of distract, and so that they help move the work onto a higher plane, another level of sophistication and a higher meaning.

And yes, I have been at this long, and at other medium as well :)

I am pleased that Asher posted an example of photographs in which luck played a role. It'd nice to continue with other examples from the rest of us. I'll post one of mines.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Every so often we need to be reminded of chance, luck and the whims of circumstances and other people's choices which give us an opportunity we didn't create ourselves.

Coming home from a meeting guided by the lady on my wife's car map guidance system, I was allowing her to direct me and pay attention to the road for safety. At the same time, by G10 camera is ready, aimed through the windshield. ahead I know will be the giant billboards that grace Highland Avenue just as one goes south towards Sunset Boulevard. These signs are always impressive but right now, the advertising covers major historical movies, there's the head of the Statue of Liberty from New York Harbor and it's capped by a sign for Toyota! Below, the place is full of traffic getting from work, to a game or dinner or a night on the town.

I just expected an average picture to give me an idea what I might get if I came back at this time and set up a tripod. I took two shots as we had to stop for an orange light about to turn red. I don't remember seeing the boy skipping across in front of my car before he had an arrow to cross. Not only that, he was riding with his front wheel up in the air, I think this is "popping a wheelie" from what I've overheard.



IMG_4793_600pixels4opf.jpg
IMG_4794_600pixels4opf.jpg


© 2009 Asher Kelman "Boy at orange light Steals go" 2 pics seconds apart, the boy recorded by chance].​


I love when we are ready enough to grasp opportunity thrust before us. It's said that "$%#* happens!" Well so do chance amazing things. The idea is to be open to that possibility too!

Asher
 
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