Feb. 27, 2008 - Of Time and Space

A few days ago, in an interesting piece on his blog, Paul Lester briefly described his methodoolgy for "working a scene" in order to find the best possible image. For him, working the scene simply means photographing the main subject from every possible angle and then, at some point down the line, deciding which one best conveys whatever it was he was trying to capture.

Paul Butzi had an interesting response on his blog. His opinion, in fact, is fairly close to my own, and goes something like this: "Working a scene" has more to do with time than it does with space. If you're drawn to a scene, then the "correct" angle or position is often fairly obvious. Not always, but most of the time. If you listen to your gut, you'll know where the camera should be positioned. If you need to take 20 or more pictures of the same thing to find the "good" one, then perhaps you should look for another subject. This one ain't it.

No, that's not the way to find the "best" image. As Paul Butzi points out, working the scene for some of us means coming back to the same place again and again. If it's not right at this particular moment in time, it might be right earlier or later, or tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Working in "space", in other words, is not as likely to get you what you want as working in "time".

I'm not suggesting that working in the moment doesn't work at all. It can be very effective. It might also be the only moment you have (coming back at another time may not be possible). I'm only suggesting that if coming back is possible, and you know that the subject will still be there (we're talking mostly landscape stuff here, right?), then picking a different time is far more likely to do the trick than picking another angle.