Zen of Photography: Introducing Light

By Brian Ross

Zen of Photography Introducing Light presents the fundamentals of creative photography as an unfoldment, a revelation. Each section considers a unique facet of the creative photographic process and gives you an opportunity to develop your own unique photography expression.

Offering a blend of poetry, philosophy, and technique, Ross shares how the art of photography is created by the refinement of the photographer’s eye. The photographer’s eye processes and contemplates a variety of creative lenses of mind, focusing on subtle details in microseconds, being in the zone, and having a single-mindedness meditation. He shows how each element of the creative photographic process must be considered to enlighten and refine your photographic sensibilities: the artist, the camera, the light, the time, the place, the dynamics of visual grammar and composition, the photograph as a visual communication, and the viewers’ experience of the image.

Presenting an inspiring, informative, and beautiful collection of thoughts, images, and techniques of photography, integrating poetry, Zen philosophy, insights, and instruction, Zen of Photography Introducing Light inspires you to refine your photographer’s eye and develop your creative photography process to create great images.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532062261

Brian Ross

Brian Ross is one of America’s most respected and honored journalists. As ABC News’ Chief Investigative Correspondent, he has earned a reputation for holding the powerful accountable with investigations into financial corruption, human rights abuses, and government failures. His reports have put the guilty in prison and helped free the innocent. In addition to his groundbreaking findings on the Bernard Madoff Pinzi scheme scandal, Ross has helped to expose the cover-up of sexual abuse of Peace Corps volunteers, the CIA’s use of torture and its secret prisons, the unjust denial of black lung benefits to American coal miners, the use of child labor by major American retailers in Bangladesh, and a long list of scandals that have shaken the political world in Washington. The winner of virtually every major journalism award many times over, Ross has worked at ABC News since 1994 and before that held a similar position at NBC News. He lives in New York.

Book preview

ZEN OF PHOTOGRAPHY

INTRODUCING LIGHT

Copyright © 2019 Brian Ross.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6227-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-6226-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018913292

iUniverse rev. date: 01/16/2019

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Contents

Introduction

Light

Our Experience of Light

Beauty Is an Expression of the Divine

Photography

The Art of Writing with Light

Definition of Photography

Considerations of Photography as Fine Art

Photograph

The Image

Qualities of Expression and Visual Communication

Photography Is a Dynamic Communication

Expressiveness of an Image

Visual Communication Is Distinct from Perception in Language

Contrast

Tones

Qualities of Light

World as a Canvas for Light

Composition

Dynamic Elements within a Frame

Dynamics of an Image

Elements of Composition

Composing Images

Visual Grammar

Kandinsky and Bauhaus

Form versus Function

Point

Line

Content of the Image

Contents of the Frame

Combination of Elements

Composition within the Frame

Competing Influences

Weights

Balance

Symmetry

Patterns

Visual Rhythms and Melodies

Visual Poem

Camera

Instrument to Regulate Light

Journey of Light as It Enters the Camera

Aperture

Shutter

ISO/Sensitivity Settings

Present Moment

Viewer

Viewing Experience of an Image

Viewer’s Eye

Photography as Visual Communication

Viewer’s Experience

Viewing the Quadrants of the Frame

Artist’s Intent for Expression

What Effect Does the Image Have on the Viewer?

Photographer

Artist Cultivating Self-Expression

Perspectives

Never Take Pictures

Photography Is a Giving Rather Than a Taking

Unique Perspective = Unique Self-Expression

What Is the Point?

Photography Is a Gift

Photographer’s Eye

The Photographer as the Artist

Photographer as the Author

Self-Awareness in a Moment

Photographer as a Composer of Images

Photographer as Artist in the Process of Self-Expression

Cultivating Discernment

Awareness and Intent

Love and Enlightenment

Time

Journey of Light from the Sun

Spinning Planet Temporal, Ever Changing

Moment in Time at 1/500 of a Second

Photograph as Time Machine

Visual Expression of Time

Unique Moment in Time

Place

Contours of the Canvas

Oneness

Macro and Micro Perspectives

Elements: Earth, Air, Water, and Fire

Harmony of the Moment: Combination of Elements in Balance

Interplay with Natural Light

Patterns Created by Natural Shapes

Journey of a Photograph

Soul of a Place

Creative Photographic Process

Creative Fine Art Photographic Process

Considering Qualities of Light

Qualities of Light

Visual Grammar

Composition

Photography as a Visual Meditation

Cultivating the Garden by Experimentation

Develop Your Unique Expression

What Makes Your Body of Work Unique?

Shoot So Much It Becomes a Natural Process

Express the Light

Portraiture

Laughter of Heart

Bringing Out Inner Light

The Body Is a Canvas for Light

Photographing Culture

Character of Place

What Is an Authentic Experience of a Place?

Presence and Awareness

Unity and Oneness

Serendipity

Synchronizing all the above

Pursuit of Beauty

Reflections of Divine Light

Beauty is an Expression of the Divine

Joy

About the Author

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Introduction

During my first walk in the forest, I felt at home among the trees.

A kuleana, in Hawaiian, means an honored responsibility, both an obligation and a privilege. My kuleana herein is to introduce the light. It’s a phrase I first heard over a transistor radio, translated from Tibetan, which the Dalai Lama spoke at his temple in Dharamsala, India. He was talking about cultivating bodhicitta, or compassion, and said, We must introduce the light, to eliminate the darkness. A decade later, I offer these words as my meditation on photography, the art of writing with light.

Thirty years ago, I found an essay by Wassily Kandinsky from his Bauhaus years (1920s) entitled Point and Line to Plane. It expressed his tenets of visual grammar. For me, the revelations felt like being propelled into hyperspace. It considered