Wilson's Prom weekend away

The greatest lesson in photography I have learned in a long time is not about tips on one of the many aspects of photography (lighting, composition, lens settings, etc). It is about the power of visualization.

Last weekend I went to Wilson's Prom for a photography workshop with Peter Walton. There were about 20 of us there from our camera club. Peter did not actually conduct any sit-down lectures, unlike Ian Rolfe when we were in Mt Buller last time. Instead we just went out to shoot with him and talk to him as we shot our images. At the end of the day, Peter showed 4 images that he took. What I saw took my breath away because I was there with him on each of the 4 shootings and my images were nothing compared to his. Below are my images.

Thus I have learned one of the most useful lessons in my photography journey: the power of visualization. To put it another way, the lesson I learned was how little I knew about visualization.

 Many people say you cannot take a good photo in mid afternoon. They say the light is too contrasty. I thought this image wasn't too bad, but Peter's image really had the "wow" factor.

 I asked Peter what to aim for in this rather ordinary looking sunset. Peter took one shot, and then he told me to do the same and shoot. This shot doesn't look like much. Wait till you see what Peter did with his.

With the sunlight almost gone, and as I was ready to leave, I turned around and shot this silhouette. I was surprised to see later that Peter also took a similar shot. Only his was a better composition.





I shot this image of Mark after Peter had done the shooting. Peter managed to get a much sharper image and a more suitable background. (This image had more to do with technique than with visualization)