The Key to Understanding Photography: Visualization

The decoding of photography. Do you guys ever get confused about photography? There are so many kinds of cameras, lenses, lighting equipment and more. There’s also so many books to read as well. Well the good news is that there is a way to decode photography. It’s called the Cycle of Photography.

A cycle is something that has a beginning, middle and an end. Each day has a cycle, and seasons have a cycle.  We have lots of cycles in our life and photography has an exact cycle that you follow. It took time for me to realize this, and many interviews before I noticed this cycle. At first, I thought it was four stages, but then I realized there was a 5th stage: Visualization. This is what I want to speak about in this post.

What Photography Begins With

There is a vast belief that photography starts with cameras and confusing knobs and menus. I’m going to tell you that’s point number two. So that’s like trying to get into a house by climbing into the second story window. Photography starts with you and your mind. Your ability to see an image. So what is visualization? Author Robert Collier said, “Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it, Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.”

And that wasn’t written specifically about photography, because visualization fits any creative activity. You can use this in every part of your life. The Oxford Dictionary lists Visualization as

• The action or fact of visualizing
• The power or process of forming a mental picture or vision of something not actually present to the sight; a picture thus formed.

In your photography, you’re getting an idea before you even pick up a camera what it is you want to photograph. I want to just dispel the idea that this somehow slows you down, or it’s too thought provoking a process. If you’re taking snapshots, it’s done without any thought. That’s what a snapshot is. You’re just pressing the shutter. You’re not even thinking necessarily about where would be the best place to photograph that day.

The Whole Key to a Photograph

Ansel Adams said the whole key to a photograph is visualization, and that is the difference between photography as an art form and a snapshot. I don’t care how long that visualization process takes. There’s always a visualization process that goes along with your photography. Even if you say, I want to go out today and photograph on the main street of my town or in Yosemite. You’re getting a quick visualization right there. Now, if you can expand on that and really explore it, your photography will get better. That can happen in a split second. I look and I go, wow, if I stood over there, this photograph is going to be a thousand times better.

I use my mind to direct the shot, the camera and everything else. In and interview, Chase Jarvis brought up how one of the things you want to do is walk around the scene without a camera pressed your face. As soon as you get a camera pressed on your face, you’re into the second stage. So don’t go there yet. You just walk around, get an idea of what things look like. Where could the photograph be? Some photographers will go 10, 20 or even 30 minutes without putting a camera up to their face.

Watch the live stream based on this blog here.

Be sure to keep an eye on our blog as we will be coming out with a part two about how to find inspiration and strengthen your visualization muscles.