Jay Maisel Quotes about Photography - Page 3

A photographer's art is more in his perceptions than his execution. In a painter, I think the perception is only the first step, and then you have a kind of hard road of execution.

There are rules about perception, but not about photography.

Be aware of every square millimeter of your frame.

Keep your mind open. You may very well learn something new about yourself and your pictures.

You have to let the past successes go, or you'll never be able to see anew.

You sort of have to be always aware, even when you're not thinking of shooting. That's when the best stuff happens.

Sometimes without shooting a picture germinates in your head. Other times, you keep taking pictures of the same thing and watch the images mature and grow.

As you see something that yo want to shot and it's bearing down on you, it's important to start framing long before the subject gets close to you. The light will reveal itself possibly long before you want to take the image, but you have to wait until the picture comes to you, and if you've been anticipating carefully when the subject will be in position, the background will have been figured out in advance.

Since the background is as important as the subject, you mustn't let it default by chance. You must control not only vertical and horizontal, you must be aware of the depth of field (or lack of it) that you want in the background.

When you shoot, that is opportunity number one to make a statement. When you edit, you have opportunity number two to make your statement. It could be an affirmation of your first choice or could go off in another direction.

I don't see light as something that falls, but as a positive force.

Color is seductive. It changes as it interacts with other colors, it changes because of the light falling upon it, and it changes as it becomes larger in size.

When we are given gifts, we must be quick and able to accept them.

Each picture you take has power as long as it brings experience to the person who’s looking at it.

You need minimum color for maximum effect.

You must not think of yourself as looking at the stage from the audience. You must think of it as theatre in the round and look at it from all sides.

Always wait for the trigger. The trigger is the final part of the puzzle, the reason you want to shoot.

You have to have a lot of 'overage' so that your failures aren't the only thing you come home with. You've got to have a lot of things that were magnificent failures, but you want some magnificent successes.

You cannot accurately remember color.

You have to pick the right tool for the point you're trying to make and there is no one solution.

The problem suggests the solution.

The awareness of the quality of space in out photos is akin to our awareness of the very air in our photos, the atmosphere that pervades every square inch of our image and yet is often invisible to the photographer.

Every picture should have a place you can go, a home, a climax.

All these factors are only valuable if you're curious. But in any case, the more knowledge you have, the more things are open and available to you.

'Color' is quite different from 'colors.' In an image with many colors, we find that all the colors compete with each other rather than interacting with each other. The results" colors.