Scott Bourne on Pre-visualization

It was very important for me to write this blog entry, because of something I experienced last night.  I had the opportunity to attend one of Scott Bourne’s seminars presented at Pictureline in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme was pre-visualization and the content was very powerful and empowering for me as an intermediate photographer.

Pre-visualization is something that is built into all of us. From the time that we are little we imagine being a fireman, doctor, nurse, Jedi Warrior, etc., and we find ourselves daydreaming about what that is like as a grown up. Much like the childhood dreams of future professionals (Jedi Warrior equaling actor), pre-visualization in photography requires one to imagine in their mind what the eye perceives with the eventual hope that it can be reproduced by “making a photograph”.

As Mr. Bourne pointed out in his seminar last night, sometimes pre-visualization drives someone to capture that “perfect image”. Those in this category of “pre-visulaizers” become chasers of the image they have imagined or seen and dedicate themselves to capturing it. I have a very personal case in point related to this and it is found in the image above.

In 1984 I took a high school photography class. While in the class I came across some photographs of the Utah State Capital building in Salt Lake City. One of the photographs was that of the building shot at night from the front. I spent weeks looking at the photo and imagined what it would be like to capture the building in this way.

Try as I might, I was unable to reproduce the image making attempts in 1984, 1985, 1987, and in 1988. I must have gone through fifty rolls of film just trying to emulate what I had seen. In my mind I knew exactly how I wanted it to look, but because of this reason or that reason I was not successful. After 1988, my interest in photography waned and although I continued to make pictures sporadically I never went back to the Capital building until very recently.

Several years ago a friend of mine, Paul Dennison (a.k.a THE Wog), got into photography. I was exposed to him daily and as a result my salivary glands in the realm of photography again began to flow. I joined Flickr and began interacting with photographers and photography groups in the Salt Lake area. I revisited my roots in film photography, dusted off my Pentax K-1000 (which I still use), and eventually purchased my very first digital camera.

I find it very interesting that my first thoughts, when I initially entertained returning to the camera, were that of the Utah State Capital building and the image I had seen so many years ago. My very first photo shoot with my freshly dusted Pentax were shots of the building at night. (One image from that shoot seen left.)

I spent several months revisiting the Capital building at night and then over this last summer I took a break from photography. I returned to it with coming of fall and just last week revisited the building. I got my shot! (Image located at the top of the post.)  I was happy to have captured it the way I had seen it and remembered it so many years ago.

Very recently I had another experience that was not so long outstanding related to pre-visualization and believe this falls into another category; that of “I know I have a photograph that I love, but what can I do with it?”

I did not know going into this experience that I had a photograph in my collection that would inspire me to revisit and attempt duplicating historical photographs until one evening I attended a Photowalking Utah event at the Salt Lake City Library. I had some time on my hands prior to the event, so I took some advice from a great photographer named Rich Legg who had suggested spending time just looking at pictures in photography books in the library. What I found was a book on architectural photos made from 1839 to 1939.

Architectural photography appeals to me greatly, so I snatched the book from the shelf and found a table. I looked at the many images found in the book and discovered something. The high contrast look and feel of photographs processed in that period of time were very pleasing to the eye. I found myself with the pre-visualization bug… and began to imagine how I might reproduce the look and feel of the images seen in the book.

It dawned on me as I thought about it extensively that I had a photograph made in June of this year that might fit the bill for reproduction. Home, I found the photo I was thinking of in my archives and loaded it to Elements and began to post edit the photograph until I was satisfied with the result (See resulting image below). Having a love for architecture and the images made from it, you can bet there will be more of this type of treatment in the future from me.

I truly appreciate Mr. Bourne and what he shared with us last night. He gave his valuable time to us and really shared his artistic heart with the photographers located in Utah who were able to attended. His love of photography and his care for the photographer make him very special in the world of artists. If you ever have a chance to attend one of his seminars, as a photographer or not, you should not hesitate. Just do it. In your time spent with him you will count it as one of the most “worth it” moments in your artist life.

CbyM