You Don’t Take a Photograph, You Make It
Ansel Adams famously said “You don’t take a photograph, you make it” and in the early days of my photographic journey, I didn’t fully understand that quote. Of course it made sense to me at a surface level but I didn’t deeply grasp what he meant until I was years into honing my craft. These days, it’s my favorite photography quote and I even feature it on the front of my website. I think it’s super important.
I also think non-photographers don’t generally get this either. It sort of bothers me when someone sees one of my photos and says “nice snap!”. That makes it sound like I didn’t really do anything other than show up, wave the camera in the general direction of something, and push a button. It sounds passive. It sounds like I was barely involved. It sounds like I was just lucky. Worst of all, it dismisses all of the planning, execution and skill required to make the image.
Photography is incredibly active and requires significant effort and involvement in the process, and attention to countless little details, from planning to executing, editing and beyond. Sure we get lucky at times, but most of the images I share are the result of hard work. That could be anything from researching the location, working the scene, looking for compelling compositions, waiting for the right time to take the image, and then potentially copious amounts of editing to achieve my artistic vision for the shot. And I didn’t even mention all the years of practice leading up to this moment.
I’m involved, completely and wholeheartedly, throughout the entire lifecycle of image creation. It’s not a lean-back experience - I am fully leaning into the process the entire time. That’s what it requires.
Now, all of that is not to say that “lucky snaps” don’t happen. They do, and I will take them, every time, without complaint or apology. If you are out shooting enough, some of these will just happen. But more often than not, I am working, planning and maybe waiting for the right things to come together. And then I am editing, and re-editing, and then possibly re-re-editing, to get the image just right. Sometimes, all that effort still doesn’t work out and I don’t get a great image, or don’t like the way it’s coming out during my edit, and I move on. It happens.
In other words, just because you put in the work, you aren’t guaranteed a great result. That’s part of the mystery, challenge and fun of photography - you can do everything “right” and still not get anything you like.
But generally I find that if I put in the work, I get the result. No, I obviously can’t make the perfect sunset appear but I can still use my knowledge and skills to create something worthwhile out of the scene in front of me. And that is the making of the photograph. And it’s a blessing, and I love it.
This is a great example of making a photograph. I was visiting Prague and knew that I wanted shots of/on the Charles Bridge, with a nice blue hour sky and the city lights on. I was there for 5 days so I had some time to scout and plan ahead. All my morning, daytime and nighttime visits to the bridge early in the week made it clear that it was always crowded during normal waking hours. So I scouted out various views and angles, and then proceeded to get up at 4am one morning so I could get out there early and shoot it without all the crowds. In other words, I planned in advance and put in the pre-work. I had the bridge all to myself that morning which allowed me to take my time and get the shots I wanted. I made this photo, I didn’t just take it. There’s a big difference.
