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January 14, 2015January 14, 2015

Practice, failure and unlearning

Developing a skill requires consistent practice. This is common knowledge in martial arts, but it is definitely true in other areas of life. It is simply not enough to absorb new information; it is also necessary in internalize it by repeatedly tying the new skill. The role of failure in this trial process is debatable. Most people fail many times before succeeding, so it is comfortable to think that we learn from our failures. Also, it is clear that training has to be challenging to be effective. However, some argue that failure is over-rated. For example, Peter Thiel, the author of “Zero to One“, said that in the case of startup companies (which fail often), failures occur not because of a single reason, but because of a combination of multiple factors. This makes these failures difficult to analyze and to learn from. As he puts it, a failed business is always a tragedy.

Although practice is crucial for learning, at some point in the creative process, it is necessary to “unlearn” – to put aside one’s arsenal of learned techniques and allow the intuition to take over. During photo shoots, for example, there is often no time to think through the composition, the lighting, the posing, etc. as the action unfolds. At such times, I work on trusting my experience in selecting the appropriate combination of parameters without thinking about the details. In fact, it is practice that enables this to happen – I have seen and shot similar situations enough times that I know which techniques, gear and camera settings do and to not work. In fact, knowing what does not work is particularly important for spontaneous, intuitive shooting. That knowledge, in a sense, is a product of prior failures.

January 13, 2015January 13, 2015

Avoiding mental attachments

“…sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

– Marilyn Monroe

Although planning is a crucial part of a photo production, things often do not go according to the plan during the actual photo shoot. This is not always a bad thing (some believe that anything that happens, happens for a reason), but it is important to mentally flexible if such situation occurs.

Recently, I came across some interviews and writings of Josh Waitzkin, who had a very successful career as an international-level chess player and is also an accomplished material artist (he trained in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under the instruction of the phenomenal Marcelo Garcia). Josh talks about mental attachment to past decision and how to avoid it.

To explain a mental attachment using a chess example, assume that I looked at a position on the board and decided to implement a certain combination. As the game unfolds, the opponent tries to implement his/her own plan, which changes the situation – what used to be a good plan, becomes not so good, because the objective situation has changed. (This is what makes chess and martial arts so much like real life.) If I stay mentally attached to the original plan of action, my own actions would make the situation worse, because they would be out-of-touch with the objective reality. In martial arts also, one of the fundamental concepts is to be present in the moment, “read” the opponent and not to be absorbed by one’s own thoughts and fears.

I believe that like any fundamental skill, mental flexibility in the face of unexpected changes requires practice. In photography, for example, if my arsenal of shooting and lighting techniques is fairly diverse, I would be able to adjust my shooting if the location, models or props do not work the way it was planned.

January 12, 2015January 12, 2015

Developing special abilities

In role-playing computer games (RPGs), the term “special ability” refers to a set of skills of a character, that is unique and cannot be acquired by other characters. In real life, people often develop special abilities due to their environment. Sometimes, these abilities are physical, for example, increased lung capacity and endurance of ethnic groups that live high in the mountains (e.g. Sherpas). In other cases, these are special skills, like horse-riding of Mongols in the middle ages.

Many successful professional photographers suggest looking into one’s own environment to develop a unique skill or vision. The advantage of doing so is that we already have some expertise related to your work, daily activities or surroundings. What remains is translating this expertise into photography and focussing on it.

In my case, working at the university, I have an opportunity to photograph sports competitions, in which our student-athletes participate. Doing so also supports the students and the athletic program, which makes me feel good. The other direction is photographing fluids in motion. It is related to my research in experimental fluid dynamics. In fact, exploring the artistic side of flow visualization has been on my mind for a while. One of the examples that I give in my class when talking about history of fluid mechanics is Leonardo da Vinci, who used his artistic capacity for observation to propose a surprisingly useful analogy for turbulent flows: he described them to be similar to human hair, moving in the wind – large waves carry smaller curls and kinks with them.

I think the relationship between the environment and the special skill or ability it creates is a two-way interaction, as an engineer would say. The special skill acquired because of the environment enables one to make a fuller, more complete and creative use of this environment. In case of the Mongols, for example, living in the steppes made them great horse-rider, which in turn, enabled them conquer the steppes (and much of the known world) under Genghis Khan.

January 11, 2015January 11, 2015

Using phone camera

I wrote earlier about my favourite camera apps for iPhone. Currently, I am experimenting with my new iPhone 6 plus, which has a much improved camera, compared to an iPhone 5. To me, the main appeal of the phone camera is that I always have it with me. Of course, despite all the impressive improvements, a phone came is not a DSLR. In order to avoid disappointment, it is important to understand what it can and cannot do. There are many resources for learning this, both online and in print. The book on the right is a good example.

For example, the iPhone camera is excellent for macro shots. It also works amazingly well for shooting well-lit scenes, like the shot in an indoor butterfly garden above. However, the low light performance is quite poor. In other words, the images taken in low light have a lot of noise.

In some cases, noise is quite acceptable. This is true for sports images, for example, although a phone camera would a very poor choice for sports, because of the short focal length of the lens.

I took a couple of photos with my iPhone during an early morning hike up Mt. Doug, when it was still dark. It was very foggy and dark, so I new the images would be very noisy. Instead of fighting the noise, I tried to use it to create an artistic effect. After returning home, I brought the photos from my iCloud into Lightroom. The photo of the gnarly tree above had almost no colour in it to begin with, so I slightly increased the contrast and converted it to black-and-white using Nick’s Silver FX plug-in. I used the “Fine Art process” preset, which increases local contrast and brings out small details. I wanted to preserve the noise pattern, because I thought it looked like the surface of a watercolour paper.

The photo of the signal light in the fog (below) reminded me of the Impressionists‘ paintings, so I wanted to play with it’s colours to create an image in that style. In Lightroom, I bumped up noise reduction sliders (both luminance and colour) to very high values, around 50. Of course, this results in significant loss os sharpness and detail, but just like the Impressionists, I was not concerned with these kinds of things. I also increased the saturation of the Blue, Red and Purple colour channels almost to the maximum.

January 10, 2015January 11, 2015

Value of education

Recently I heard and read many prominent entrepreneurs, such as Peter Thiel, co-founder of Pay-Pal and the author of the highly regarded book on startups “Zero to One” or Richard Branson, expressing very critical views of traditional, academic education. Thiel has completed both college and law school, while Branson never went to college, so the view seems to be relatively independent of their personal background. And of course, it is not just these two famous people, who believe that the conventional education is deeply flawed and, in a nutshell, one should take responsibility for his/her own learning. This view is so popular, that sometimes after seeing various infographics online, it seems that dropping out of school is requirement for success.

I think that this certainly applies to someone, who wants to become a photographer nowadays. The technology and the whole paradigm of content creation and production are developing so fast, that I cannot see how a school curriculum can truly keep up with it. Beside, there is a vast amount of resources available online and in print, so one only needs to be willing to learn.

Having said that, I see a huge benefit in formal education. Taking the example of photography, I think it would be of great benefit for a future professional to take formal classes in communications and business, not to mention fine art.

While Peter Thiel appears not to hold learning for the sake of learning in high regard, I believe that learning how to learn (note the difference) is very valuable. From the historical perspective, brilliant individuals like Thiel, Branson or Musk would always exist. They become personally successful and make great contributions to society. However, this kind of brilliance of a few individuals is different from the intellectual and creative potential of a sizeable slice of the population – people, who accumulated this capacity through receiving the highest possible education, often over multiple generations (i.e. children benefitting from the education received by parents). No doubt, maintaining the highest level of education for a large part of the population is very expensive for society. This is partly because this kind of educational system is more or less equally open to a wide range of individuals. Of course, one could argue that the higher education is very competitive, but the system certainly serves not just the highly capable and motivated people like Thiel or Musk. As Tolstoy’s character from “Anna Karenina” Konstantin Levin said about multiple generations of educated aristocrats, “talent and intellect, of course is another matter.” Perhaps, education is valuable precisely because the society benefits from it, even in an indirect way, even if an individual, who receives the education, doesn’t realize that he/she needs it.

January 9, 2015January 9, 2015

Limiting choices

I wrote earlier about the value of imposing certain obstacles, overcoming which help develop photographic skills and, generally, a keener sense of the process at hand. This approach is similar to an artist’s using a limited palette of colors to show the essence of an originally multi-color scene.

Having fewer choices has other important benefits, as Tim Ferris explained in his hugely popular “The 4-Hour Workweek.” I believe it was he, who coined the term “choice-limited lifestyle.” The key concept here is that attention, i.e. ability to focus on something, is a limited commodity, which is required not only for getting things done, but also for appreciating the present moment (e.g. food, music, works of art, company of other people). Making decisions, even good ones, effectively consumes attention, which becomes unavailable for future decisions during the rest of the day (or until some recovery has taken place and the attention budget is restored). Hence, there is a dilemma of making the best decision, but likely being dissatisfied after having invested a lot of attention into it, or making a sub-optimal decision, but never having to second-guess it.

This is a long preamble, but I believe the principle of choice-limiting directly applies to photography. Modern cameras, from entry level (e.g. Canon EOS Rebel T5) to top-of-the-line ones (e.g. Canon EOS-1D X), offer virtually unlimited number of combinations of shooting modes and settings. Rather than spending time, for example, trying to decide on the ideal priority between releasing the shutter and obtaining focus, which can potentially lead to missing the shot altogether, it is better to determine, through systematic experimentation, which few combinations of settings work reasonably well in typical situations, programming them as custom functions, and then focus on shooting. Likewise, in post-processing, it is important to stop tweaking the adjustments of a particular photo and move on to another one. After a certain point, spending more time working on a photo, debating various possibilities for improving it further, will make the whole process progressively less satisfying.

January 8, 2015

On confidence

“We should devote ourselves to being self-sufficient and must not depend upon the external ratings by others for our happiness.”

-Bruce Lee

I came across an interesting article by Paul Graham, called “How to do what you love.” It is curious how similar are his thoughts regarding prestige, particularly in academic circles, to the words of Bruce Lee above. Graham goes bit more into details of why it is dangerous to let prestige be the guide in the choice of what we do. It is because the aura of prestige substitutes our own values with those “of the rest of the world.” Incidentally, he expands even further on this in “Hackers & Painters.”

I think there should be a balance between using the opinions of others as a constructive tool and being confident enough to disregard them when appropriate. In fact, it is in determining when it is appropriate to filter out the opinion of others that confidence is needed the most. After all, there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance.

For artists, photographers included, opinion of other people is a major factor that can influence the entire career. The challenge is not to let it dictate the direction of the art itself.

There is an effective way of approaching the confidence/arrogance dilemma in kendo. I have heard a saying that in practice (keiko), one should cultivate a feeling as if he/she is the worst (least capable) student in the group, while during shiai (read: real fight) one should feel as if he is the best. This way, we can be humble, yet not swayed by external factors during pivotal moments and decisions.

January 7, 2015January 7, 2015

Street photography in China

My first overseas trip of 2015 will probably be to a research meeting in Shanghai. I have been to China only once before, attending a similar meeting in Beijing. During that trip, I had an opportunity to explore a little bit of the city on my own, in addition to going on an organized tour of the Great Wall. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to take street portraits in China. Everywhere, people of various walks of life were incredibly friendly and easygoing, always willing, if not eager, to pose for a photo. I have probably the largest number of shots with strangers making eye contact with the camera from that trip than from any other country.

This time, I am looking forward to going to China gain, partly being inspired by my current bedtime read, “Reamde” by Neal Stephenson, where some of the action takes place in China. If time permits, I will try to find some part of the city a little bit off the beaten tourist path. In Beijing, some of my most vivid experiences were from a district containing a maze of narrow streets and run-down houses, which I sought out on purpose. Actually, it turned out to be not nearly as photogenic as I hoped, but I tasted the most delicious (and cheap) Chinese dumplings in my life. It was in a tiny hole-in-a-wall restaurant, where an old woman literally made them after I made a selection from an entirely Chinese-language menu (my rudimentary knowledge of kanji from Japanese lessons helped enormously, to my own surprise), inkjet-printed on a piece of paper, laminated into thick plastic.

Speaking about books, I would like to start looking through the Beijing and Shanghai travel guide that I bought before my last trip. Usually, I leave myself too little time for planning of the touristy part of the business trip. This is really too bad, because I find the anticipation and initial processing the information about the new destination nearly as enjoyable as the travel itself.

January 6, 2015January 7, 2015

Switching off problem-solving by reading books

Recovery is an important part of physical training, and it is also crucial for intellectual and creative work. However, turning off mental problem-solving is quite challenging. Tim Ferris, the author of the famous “4-Hour Workweek” mentioned in his podcast that he read fiction for an hour before bedtime to change his mindset. I have been trying to do the same, although even a leisurely pursuit like this apparently requires some discipline.

The book I am currently reading is “Reamde” by Neal Stephenson. I am enjoying it quite a bit, even though I cannot help constantly comparing it with his, very different in many respects, cult classic “Cryptonomicon.”

I find that another good way to re-focus mental activity is to look at the photographs on 500px. Doing so is very refreshing not only at the end of the day, but any time there are a few minutes that cannot be used otherwise, thanks to a smartphone or a tablet that I almost always have with me. In fact, I am looking forward to enjoying both photos and e-books on the great screen of my shiny (and huge) new iPhone 6 plus. At the first glance, the reading experience is much improved, compared to the old iPhone 5. Stephen King suggested to always have a book handy, and thanks to the ever-evolving technology, I have many of them in my (largest) pocket.

January 5, 2015

Reasons for writing a blog

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.”

Daniel Gilbert

While blogging is different from keeping a diary in that blogging is inherently a public activity, while a diary is usually private, both activities are great tools not only for developing the writing skills and the expertise in the subject of the blog/journal, but also for providing a set of autobiographical benchmarks to the author.

Daniel Gilbert, who wrote a classic book “Stumbling on Happiness” explains in his short TED talk that people tend to underestimate the amount of change their personalities will undergo within the next ten years from the current point in their lives. Thus, it is useful to examine the actual amount of change that that one’s personality (tastes in music, favourite people and places, etc.) experienced in the past ten years. As Gilbert puts it, “it has to do with the ease of remembering versus difficulty of imagining.” A journal or a blog provides a record, a reference point for this retrospective self-examination.

For me, this blog is a way of organizing my notes and thoughts on commonalities between photography (as an art, a business and a research tool), martial arts (as a way of personal development, bushido) and academic life (that of a researcher and a teacher). It is commonly said among photographers that “your first 10,000 photos are your worst” as a reference to the large amount of practice needed to achieve proficiency and to develop personal style. Actually, I think that it is much more than 10,000 photos. Your mileage may vary, of course. After all, talent is a strange thing with a non-uniform distribution among people. Somewhat unexpectedly though, among my first 10,000 photos are some re-discovered personal favourites that I stumbled upon while writing the blog.

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