My son, James, and I just watched Dances with Wolves tonight. This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It has been quite a long time since I had seen this movie and my hadn’t seen it before tonight. As we watched the movie we experienced a variety of emotions: happiness, anger, empathy, and great sadness. Obviously this movie was successful in stirring up all kinds of emotions.
Shouldn’t our photographs do the same? We take photos all the time and we attempt to capture incredible moments that tell a story. After all, the old saying is, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
If this is true, then we owe it to ourselves and to those who view our photographs to make sure that we capture and even evoke emotion with our photos. You can view a hundred photos, most of which appear ordinary and flat; but when you find that one photo that expresses emotion you immediately know it.
So, are you attempting just to capture colorful subjects or are you willing to create photographs that evoke emotion?