man & nature # 62 ~ he "gets it"
Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 08:45AM 
Two raindrops • click to embiggenA few days ago, on my ku # 537 entry, a lengthy comment was left by Craig Tanner, the driving force behind The Radiant Vista. TRV is (was?) a photography site that (was?) "is a creative community of inspiration, passion, and grace. wherein the community could "pursue our dreams and explore our endless potential."
As many here on The Lanscapist know, I am not a fan of the manner in which Craig critiques (critiqued?) his member's photos - in the form of podcasts on the Daily Critique feature of TRV - with the idea that he is helping / inspiring members to grow and realize their potential. His critiques focus (focused?) on technique and "rules", so much so that I and others felt that he tended to "suck the life out of" the pictures he critiqued. It also seemed to me that his emphasis in critiquing photos was to help "photographers" make more and better pretty pictures.
CAVEAT: the aforementioned is merely my opinion. I have no intention of denigrating Craig's methods, intentions, or aesthetic taste - he does (did?) what he does (did?) with passion and it serves (served?) his audience very well.
So, what's with all the (----?) stuff? Well, imagine my surprise when I visited TRV and discovered that all of the Daily Critique podcasts were gone. Not the pictures or comments, just all of Craig's critique podcasts. Hmmmm....
The reason for my visit to TRV was because I was suspicious that something was up when I noticed that the email address Craig left on his comment was not for TRV. It was for The Mindful Eye - a "coming soon" site devoted to "Education and Inspiration for the Mind and Spirit of the Photographer.
Upon further investigation I have discovered that TRV will disappear into the digital ether tomorrow - Friday, October 24. It appears that Craig and a couple other regular contributors to TRV have decided to concentrate on what they do best on 3 different sites:
The Radiant Vista features you have come to know and love are migrating to different sites that are being launched on October 24 by Craig Tanner, Mark Johnson, and Matt Gibson. After October 24, when you land on the home page of Radiant Vista, you will find a thank-you note to everyone for all of your support, along with links directing you to these exciting new sites.
Some of you may want to check this out.
All of that said, in his comment on ku # 537 Craig basically compared me and my Landscapist shenanigans to a cranky, loud, and obnoxious street preacher whom he encountered rather frequently whenever he was in Savannah, Ga. Someone in who's presence he dreaded to be.
But, to make Craig's long comment short, Craig eventually went on to actually meet the guy and to get to know him a bit whereupon he discovered that:
.... most of the assumptions I had made about this man were simply wrong. They were mostly things I had made up in my head that said a lot more about me than they did about Charles. I was amazed to find out that I had never even actually correctly heard the words he repeats when he walks and preaches.
Craig went on to mention that he visits The Landscapist "every once in a while" and although "[A]t this point in time we have different approaches ... it does my soul some good to come here every once in a while and be challenged to look at the world in a different way."
To which I can only respond with a warm and heartfelt "thank you". Craig, despite our different approaches, you "get it".
Reader Comments (4)
I've been absorbing the content from RV for a long time now and I've even taken a workshop from Craig. His daily critiques are really not that indicative of his photographic methods and style. Craig goes way beyond, in a meaningful way, compositional mechanics and near-superficial details.
In one of Craig's past podcasts, he goes in depth about composition and the "rules". He offers a set of "rules" (or more appropriately, "guidelines") for making better compositions with the caveat that there are NO fixed rules. He goes on to say that discussing compositional mechanics and the like isn't meaningful to photography but it's important to connect with people in general.
On a basic level, it's biology at work. Our subconscious is attracted to beautiful things and there are certain "rules"... er, "guidelines" that, generally speaking, are more pleasing to the eye.
Now, I think your own photography should please YOU and satisfy your own photographic vision, but when you're making photography to be attractive and pleasing to a generic pool of viewers, then following some of the said guidelines often works.
I think there's also a false implication that following the guidelines is all you need to do. I think perhaps that photographers striving to get better at their work loose sight of the basic initiator of making a photograph - you start with a subject that is meaningful to you and can possibly communicate some emotion or message that's important to you. That's difficult to bottle up in a guideline or rule. It's much easier to discuss the mechanics of composition and how visual elements are arranged.
I've learned a lot from Craig and his podcasts and daily critiques. I know that good photography isn't all about leading lines, rule of thirds, etc., but that stuff can be important.
When the new sites are up and running, hopefully Craig will have his old podcasts available again. Check out episode 24 - Finding the Heart of Your Work :-)
Seems Mark S. Johnson's new site opens tomorrow Oct. 24th, and is called Mark S. Johnson Photography.
http://www.msjphotography.com/
Craig Tanner?
And Matthew S. Gibson site is at
http://www.matthewsgibson.com/
There's a greeting dated 10/24/2008 at the above site.
Craig Tanner has already his own site.
These "man & nature" pics from the past two days are more fine work along those lines. You know I'm partial to the subject, and they remind me of this pic from some time ago.
Yeah, some of us "get it."