Peter Oshkai photography

April 12, 2015April 12, 2015

Art and science: recipe for a breakthrough

“Although motorcycle riding is romantic, motorcycle maintenance is purely classic.”

-Robert M.Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“

“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” is a book that keeps surprising me with the depth of its inquiry into some of the very fundamental philosophical dilemmas. For example, it has an interesting discussion of two seemingly unreconsciable ways of looking at things, phenomena or processes: a “classic”, or analytic, and a “romantic”, or artistic way.

Needless to say, to be able to combine both approaches is very difficult, but perhaps a relatively straightforward way of making a meaningfull contribution in either sphere would be to apply state-of-the-art techniques and know-how from the other sphere. This idea is similar to multi-disciplinary scientific research, where breakthroughs often occur at the junction between two or more separate fields.

For example, one could use analytic classification as an approach to art. This, in fact, has been done throughout the ages by using the principles of geometry, psychology and optics in architecture and painting. An extreme example of perfect symbiosis of the “classic” and the “romantic” approaches in Seurat‘s theory of chromoluminarism, which utilizes optical mixing of colours (an additive process), instead of physical mixing of pigments (a subtractive process.)

The inverse (applying the “romantic” approach to science) is a bit less obvious, but I believe it can be done very effectively. There are two points of opportunity for this in a scientific workflow: 1) examining and communicating the impact of the phenomenon under consideration as a whole, before it has been analyzed and 2) looking for and pursuing the aesthetics in the analytic process itself.

April 11, 2015

Foreground interest

In Robert Pirsig’s book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“, there is an episode when the riders marvel at the expanse of the prairie and John, one of the main characters, comments that landscapes like that are difficult to photograph, because there is nothing there: “This is the hardest stuff in the world to photograph. You need a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree lens, or something. You see it, and then you look down in the ground glass and it’s just nothing. As soon as you put a border on it, it’s gone.”

Actually, one straightforward way to address the apparent lack of the compositional focus is to include a foreground element that would serve as an anchor point for the composition and a scale reference. In the case of the motorcyclists, their machines or even one of them could have made an excellent foreground.

Alternatively, setting the camera very low to the ground can allow a flower, a rock or a blade of grass to be included in the frame in the foreground. It should be noted that achieving sufficient depth of field becomes an issue is this situation. Even at high f-numbers (f/16 or f/22), it is usually impossible to keep both the foreground and the background in focus (and this is what is usually desired in a landscape). One needs to make choice what to focus on and where to sacrifice sharpness. The ultimate solution is to use composite focus, where two frames with different focal points are taken and later combined in post-processing.

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015

Over-processing

Image post-processing is most effective if it is either so subtle that a viewer does not notice it or, on the contrary, so dominant that there can be no mistake that it has been done deliberately.

Having post-processing as the main ingredient of the image is challenging because it can compete for the viewer’so attention with other elements (composition, subject, etc), so that the effect of each of them will be reduced.

On the other hand, subtle processing does not necessarily mean a small amount of it. In fact, as the digital technology continues to develop, I believe that the overall workflow will become more back-loaded, where creative decisions about composition, lighting, and perhaps even focus, will be done at the post-processing stage.

Having said this, it has been widely speculated that still photography would soon be replaced by grabbing frames from high-resolution video, but this proposition over-simplifies the relation between stills and video. The latter is typically shot at relatively low shutter speed to produce blur in the individual frames, which makes the motion look natural.

In any case, even if a photo is taken with heavy post-processing in mind, it is important to be aware of the general desired effect and where it can be achieved more effectively and/or efficiently during shooting.

April 9, 2015April 9, 2015

When less is more

Using self-imposed constraints in the way the information is delivered can make the message more powerful. Similarly, economy of information, i.e. how much of it is being transmitted, is also an important concept. Amanda Palmer pointed this out in her interview with Tim Ferriss in relation to music, but I believe it also applies to visual arts and teaching.

In photography, painting, calligraphy, etc., the use of negative space allows the viewer to complete his/her own personal version of the image, given the limited amount of visual clues provided by the artist. Personally, being a fan of Japanese art, I would like to explore simplifying the composition and limiting visual elements in some of my typical shooting scenarios (sports, travel, landscapes, portraits) without necessarily resorting to minimalism.

On a similar note, teaching often fails by providing the students with too much content (for their level of knowledge, duration of the class, etc.) and rarely (if ever) by giving too little information. Leaving something for self-study allows the students to engage with the material and make it “their own”. I must say that having just finished teaching a relatively large course, I am looking forward to limiting the course-related information that I both receive and transmit to bare minimum for the next few months.

April 8, 2015April 8, 2015

Definition vs. understanding

In his book “The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety“, Alan Watts argues that to define a process or a phenomenon is not the same as to understand it. Of course, it is possible to become lost in the semantics of what the definition of “understanding” is, but in general, I believe this viewpoint provides a great insight.

Even though we can define something, we often lack the deep understanding of it until we can experience the concept in question. In kendo, for example, it is almost trivial to memorize the names and superficial biomechanical descriptions of various techniques (waza). However, the understanding of the implications of the techniques develops gradually, through practicing them in multiple matches (shiai) and training sessions (keiko) against different opponents. I suppose, a similar difference exists between defining the various mechanical processes and artistic concepts that are involved in extracting a piece of music from a violin and actually playing it. Practice, as in physical doing, is the key word here.

By extension, the same principle applies to photography. It is not sufficient to mentally grasp the concept of camera shake, for example, that is caused by excessive rate of pressure on the shutter release button. To really understand the effect in conjunction with various focal lengths, shutter speeds and lighting conditions, one needs to practice rolling his/her finger over the shutter button hundreds of times and examine the results.

April 7, 2015May 11, 2015

Learning to be an extrovert

Any personality type has unique advantages and disadvantages. At certain times, though, it is important to be, or more precisely, to act, like an extrovert. This is particularly true in the case of teaching, where engaging the student(s) is of primary importance. Incidentally, this is a challenge to many academics in analytical areas, such as mathematics, where concentrated, solitary thinking process is an effective, perhaps even necessary, mode of operation, which naturally favours introverts. But since teaching is a necessary stage of any learning process, sometimes, even the most introverted person has to summon the ability to gladly engage other people at an emotional and intellectual level.

I believe that both martial arts and photography (or any visual or performing art, for that matter) offer excellent training grounds for the skill of behaving like an extrovert. Martial arts, by definition, involve communication with an opponent, and in photography, sharing photos, receiving and providing feedback and interacting with models, assistants, colleagues and the audience are the points of communication with other humans.

I do not suggest that one needs to change his/her natural behaviour in general. On the contrary, trying on a different personality type can enhance the inherent character strengths and, at the very least, help understand the other people’s perspective on the common issues.

April 6, 2015

Creative direction

Although it sounds like an oxymoron, good creative direction can be very effective and make the creative process a positive experience. A good example of this are the instructions that come with LEGO blocks. They are very specific, which guarantees the successful result, and they teach important techniques, such as sorting the blocks by colour before starting a project, interlocking the blocks to make walls, etc. As a result, we feel that we have learned something and also created an interesting and aesthetically-pleasing object.

As my daughter reaches the age where she starts to appreciate the possibilities of making neat objects out of the heap of blocks, but still needs help with it, I had a chance to play with LEGO for the first time in a very long time. I really appreciated the thoughtful design and clear directions. The creative aspect was limited, of course, particularly since the subject was a sheep, which does not inspire thoughts of creativity and leadership. However, I think there are some interesting possibilities in terms of macro photography involving Lego.

I took the photo above with my iPhone. Its wide-angle lens is perfect for this kind of close-up shots. In fact, a combination of the focal length and sensor size in a smartphone camera would often outperform a DSLR in close-up photography, provided that the lighting is adequate.

April 5, 2015April 6, 2015

Image vs. reality: telling a story to yourself

The question of whether the act of photography detracts from the actual experience of whatever is being photographed is not an unreasonable one. After all, a photograph is only an image of the a event, place, person, object or situation. A still photo cannot even adequately represent motion, which is arguably one the most important components of an artistic image. A still image is just representation of motion, a conventional way of describing the concept of time-dependence and change, which is inherent to everything that surrounds us.

Moreover, taking a photo requires a certain amount of concentration and effort, which can detract from the interaction with the subject. Travel photography is a perfect example of this, where lugging around a backpack full of heavy photo gear often profoundly altered my experience of many exciting and relaxing destinations. In fact, this exact issue (travelling with too much equipment) prompted the popularity of “nimble photography,” which is being popularized by Derrick Story.

On the other hand, I believe that the effect that photography has on the experience is well worth the effort and attention that it requires. To be clear, I don’t think that the main value of photography is in documenting the experience. Rather, it is in forming the experience. In this respect, photography is similar to writing, which does not simply express a pre-existing idea, but serves to crystallize the idea or a viewpoint through the writing process itself.

In the case of travel photography, researching the destination for possible photo locations, looking for shots and taking time to take them is what allows me to formulate my impression of the place and people, who live or visit there. Carrying a camera is then similar to an artist’s carrying brushes and sketchbook. As to the question of whether a DSLR is necessary or if an iPhone would suffice, I prefer to paint with high-quality brushes on good watercolour paper rather than with a blade of grass on a napkin. In other words, I find it very liberating, from the creative standpoint, not to be limited by the equipment.

It would certainly be sad to pursue an experience merely for the story that could be told about it in the future (as this is what a photo is – a condensed story in a single picture, the one that is, hopefully, worth a thousand words). But creating that story can actually shape the experience itself. I think that in this the storytelling has a tremendous power.

April 4, 2015

Easter egg hunt

Photographing children is often more challenging than shooting sports, because the clildren’s action is more unpredictable. For today’s Easter egg hunt with two three-year-olds, I used a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens lens on a 1D X body. I wanted to keep the aperture wide open for background isolation, so I had to reduce the shutter speed to about 1/1000 sec to avoid over-exposure. Also, I tried to position myself so I would shoot against the light.

Leading the children by playing with them in such a way that they would be well-positioned with respect to the camera makes a huge difference in child photography. This leading has to be done by someone other than the photographer. My wife is very experienced in this role, as she knows what angles and types of shots would work well for the pictures. As a result, my favourite pictures from today’s outing are of her playing with the kids.

April 3, 2015

Popularity

An unexpected aspect of sharing photos on Flickr or other social media and offering them for sale as stock images is realizing that some of the most popular photos (in terms of the number of views, sales, etc.) are not my personal favourites. I believe that this is a feature of broadcasting to a very large audience, as opposite to “narrow casting” to a small community of personal friends, who generally have similar tastes and interests to my own.

Sometimes, however, I have a sense that an image has a potential to become popular even before I post it. It usually has to do with the subject, as in the photo of ukai (fishing with cormorants) that I took in Inuyama, or the unique viewpoint, as in the shot of Niagara falls taken from a helicopter.

Otherwise, I find that even if the image has some of the components that can potentially make it interesting, such as motion and emotion, if the audience cannot relate to or immediately recognize the subject (e.g. the Eiffel tower or the Great Wall of China), their engagement in terms of views, shares over social media, etc. will be limited.

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