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Photographer stirs an awed audience

Published online on Monday, Sep. 28, 2009

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Longtime readers of this column know that I'm big on experiencing art, not just observing it. Yes, it can be exquisite to bask in the presence of a world-class artist.

I enjoy going to spectacularly produced Broadway musicals, looking at the work of master visual artists and listening to musical virtuosos. Only a tiny percentage of artists reach the top, and there's a reason why we flock to them.

But I'm also a firm fan of community theater, of up-and-coming painters, of dedicated amateur musicians finding their bliss.

I was thinking about this Tuesday night when more than 400 eager digital photographers crammed into the Tower Theatre to hear Rick Sammon. This prolific and enthusiastic professional travel photographer -- designated a "Canon Explorer of Light," which makes him sound like a high priest of some aperture-based religion -- made his two-hour presentation into part look-at-the-pretty-pictures wowfest, part practical-tips seminar and part pep talk for the aspiring artist within all of us.

"You have to fall in love with a subject photographically," Sammon told us.

In other words, you have to do everything in your power to get the best possible shot. That might mean making meticulous plans in terms of light and location. Or getting behind, under, over or to the side of the subject. You have to think about the little things: the background, the focus point, the composition, the camera settings. Shoot both horizontally and vertically. When photographing people and animals, shoot eye to eye.

Most important, you have to remember that a camera "looks both ways," he said. The photographer is a mirror. When you're photographing people, you have to exude your own sense of positive energy. The subject will pick up on that vibe -- whether it's your attitude, smile or body language -- and reflect it back. Dour photographers don't make good people pictures.

The same philosophy doesn't apply to sunsets, say, but there's still something appealing about the concept of a photographer's positive energy making a difference, even in landscape shots.

The crowd ate up Sammon's optimism. There was something quaint, even nostalgic, about the enthusiasm of the Tower Theatre audience. Hundreds of years ago, people in the hinterlands used to flock to lectures by painters who toured with examples of their work, and I'm sure there were plenty of amateur painters in their midst. It's hard to imagine in this visually overstimulated world of ours today, but there was a time when one famous painting on display would be enough to draw crowds.

As we photographers oohed and aahed at Sammon's gorgeous shots -- from the stunning blue ice of Antarctica to the yawn of a lion on the African plains -- it's as if we were connected to those image-eager audiences of the past.

There's more in common between painters and photographers than you might think. The human eye, remarkable instrument that it is, can see a whopping range of 11 f/stops, Sammon told us -- from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights, all at the same time. The best digital cameras only see five or six f/stops. (If you've ever taken a photo of an interior with a window looking onto a bright scene outside, you know how hard it is to capture both extremes.) Painters have always been able to offer a human interpretation of a scene -- perhaps recreating what the eye truly sees, perhaps offering a more subjective view, but not bound to a limited range of light.

Now technology is allowing photographers to do the same, especially with the advent of HDR (high dynamic range) imaging, which allows multiple images to be knitted together into a seamless whole. Photographers can document, yes, but they're also full-fledged artistic interpreters.

For me, photography is a way to unwind -- and to look at the world in a different way. It isn't just about taking the images themselves. I've found myself drawn more and more to the world of the digital darkroom. I can lose myself for hours in PhotoShop stoking my creative urges.

I enjoyed Sammon's talk, and I took lots of notes, but the technical stuff -- most lenses are sharpest at f/8, for example -- didn't make the biggest impact.

What I liked most was the big, eager crowd. It was refreshing to see so many people in the Fresno area passionate about photography. For two hours, we dreamed of artistic possibilities. When it was over, all I wanted to do was rush home to my camera and make some art.