Creating Images with Depth and Meaning

WildWillowWays
7 hours ago
4 min read

Photography is probably more popular today than ever before. It is said that approximately 5 billion photos are taken worldwide every day, and 90% of these are taken with smartphones.

For most people, these photos will be mainly snapshots of family and friends, places they visit and photos of special occasions. Of those that are more traditional photography images, many will be of beautiful vistas in epic locations, often taken during golden hour. Most ‘casual’ photographers are not too interested in learning about composition techniques or exposure and are happy to have a ready camera that makes all these decisions for them and produces a good image.

For the small percentage of those who take photographs with a dedicated camera, or those who use smartphones for serious photography, and for every photographer who strives to improve their craft, aspects of photography such as having a properly exposed image, well framed and with a pleasing composition, will be important. These photographers will keep learning, practicing and continually trying to have technically perfect images.

However, there is a another layer to creating great photography and it can be more difficult to achieve. That is the ability to communicate something to the viewer through your image, and evoke an emotional response. This is a skill that the very best photographers possess, and it is a degree of perfection that most of us can only strive for. Yet this is what makes photography unique, meaningful and exciting; this feeling you get when you have an emotional reaction to something and you want to take the photo to communicate this reaction, this feeling, to another.

So, we could say that while it is very easy to take photographs today, and the number of people who do so is testament to that, it is also very difficult to take a good, not to mention a great, photograph; a photograph that has depth and meaning and that expresses your own unique vision.

Creating images with depth and meaning is a skill that can’t be taught. It comes from the heart of each photographer. It involves an emotional connection to what we see, and it is something that the latest camera or the sharpest lens can’t give us.

What helps us to create more meaningful photographs?

My belief is that one of the ways in which we can improve our ability to make more meaningful images is by studying the work of the best photographers. These men and women achieved their greatness through combining mastery of their camera gear and their technical skill with a unique artistic vision. They have an ability to see beyond the ordinary, interpret what they see and capture their subject in a way that resonates with their viewers. In viewing their images, we may feel what they felt, we may feel something else, but we will have some reaction. The people who created these images have spent their lives dedicated to their craft, being observers of life, patiently waiting for unique moments and special subjects which bring depth and meaning to their images.

Another technique that may help us to add depth and meaning to our images is to try to describe for ourselves what we were thinking or feeling when we made the image.

Ask yourself, ‘What was it that prompted me to make that picture?

As you do this more often you will begin to see a pattern emerging in your thought process.

You will become more aware of what it is that moves you or excites you.

You will begin to better understand yourself as a photographer.

The sets of images below illustrate what I mean. They are unique images that are meaningful to me, and I am constantly working on achieving the good!

I grew up in a small town in the Irish countryside. Although I didn’t live on a farm, we were surrounded by farmland. Farm buildings, farm machinery and farm animals were common features of the area, and the sights, sounds and smells of rural life are very familiar to me.

Although I now live in the city, I constantly travel to the countryside to visit family. On this occasion I was travelling along a country road when I saw the sun shining on a snow-topped mountain. I stopped the car to admire the view and saw that I was being watched!

I took the photo…

Then another...

The farm buildings and equipment, as well as the smells and sounds around me, brought a sense of nostalgia and urged me to take some photos to honour the feeling. Although they are not great photos, they do have a special meaning for me as they were created in response to what I was thinking and feeling at the time.

***

The next set of images was taken in my local woodland. I had been trying to get a good image of this tree. I liked the way it stood in the woodland, strong and sturdy beside its 'neighbour'. I captured a few images in different seasons, but I never managed to create an image that I liked. This year the tree became a victim of the recent bad winter storm. It was damaged in the storm and became dangerous, so it had to be felled. My latest images were taken with a sense of sadness that this beautiful tree, which has stood in the woodland for hundreds of years, is soon to be no more.

BEFORE