July 21, 2010..................................................................................HOME...................................."The Magic & Mystery of Photon Collection"
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When you really stop and think about it, making a great photograph should be virtually impossible.
After all, to make a photograph you have to collect photons as they bounce off of the world around you. Photons which travel 93 million miles to reach the object off which they will reflect. Not to mention that you have to be in a certain place, at a specific instant so those reflected photons head in your direction. Now factor in infinite billions of photons whizzing past every second. Which ones will you choose to capture with the small collection device hanging around your neck. Sound daunting yet?
Of course some would say, “Well that’s what makes it easy. There are so many photons, and the collection devices today are so good, all you have to do is point it an almost any direction and push the button.” But here is where it gets tricky. As the photons are coming your way they create patterns. Sometimes the pattern may last a few minutes. But a pattern may only exist seconds, or less. In a human lifetime, a fleeting pattern may occur only once. What are the odds you’ll be where you need to be, poised and ready for the capture?
Then there is interpretation of the data recorded during the release of energy as the photons collided with your collection grid. Many energy release patterns will be worthless. You’ll have to carefully analyze dozens, hundreds, or thousands of collection patterns to find those of value. As I’m sure you can now agree, the odds are heavily weighted against success.
Yet a few of these data patterns will be so unique that when light is again reflected off the facsimile image something special happens. Projected onto the human retina they induce a physiologic chain of reactions not only detected by the observers brain, but which stimulates an emotional reaction. If the pattern is remarkable, the emotional reaction builds a stored arrangement of nucleic acids, memory, even though the secondary observer has no first hand experience of the photon capture event.
I know. By now you’re thinking, “Mark is warped in ways I never understood.” It’s the medical and scientific background. How the artist inside ever escaped and began the serious pursuit of photon collection is another mystery.
All kidding aside, having just finished an assignment for Nikon and looking over the images, I remain in awe of the photographic process. While I’ve made satire of taking photographs, it truly does remain a magical and mysterious thing for me. Most days I walk around and see an everyday world. Yet the days I venture out with my camera and a mindset focused on capturing photons, alchemy really does take over my brain. I see and feel those unique patterns of light and strive to record them. When I share the best with others I revel in the enthusiasm they generate. I marvel that from the experience of viewing a photograph I’ve made, some may take away a memory of having seen it for years to come, or perhaps the balance of a lifetime.
And everything I said above, about the odds of capturing a certain pattern of photons? I wasn’t kidding for a second.
One afternoon I invited over a friend’s son to model. Lifestyle images are a big part of advertising, so something as simple as a boy on a raft in a pool can be a winner.
.
After all, to make a photograph you have to collect photons as they bounce off of the world around you. Photons which travel 93 million miles to reach the object off which they will reflect. Not to mention that you have to be in a certain place, at a specific instant so those reflected photons head in your direction. Now factor in infinite billions of photons whizzing past every second. Which ones will you choose to capture with the small collection device hanging around your neck. Sound daunting yet?
Of course some would say, “Well that’s what makes it easy. There are so many photons, and the collection devices today are so good, all you have to do is point it an almost any direction and push the button.” But here is where it gets tricky. As the photons are coming your way they create patterns. Sometimes the pattern may last a few minutes. But a pattern may only exist seconds, or less. In a human lifetime, a fleeting pattern may occur only once. What are the odds you’ll be where you need to be, poised and ready for the capture?
Then there is interpretation of the data recorded during the release of energy as the photons collided with your collection grid. Many energy release patterns will be worthless. You’ll have to carefully analyze dozens, hundreds, or thousands of collection patterns to find those of value. As I’m sure you can now agree, the odds are heavily weighted against success.
Yet a few of these data patterns will be so unique that when light is again reflected off the facsimile image something special happens. Projected onto the human retina they induce a physiologic chain of reactions not only detected by the observers brain, but which stimulates an emotional reaction. If the pattern is remarkable, the emotional reaction builds a stored arrangement of nucleic acids, memory, even though the secondary observer has no first hand experience of the photon capture event.
I know. By now you’re thinking, “Mark is warped in ways I never understood.” It’s the medical and scientific background. How the artist inside ever escaped and began the serious pursuit of photon collection is another mystery.
All kidding aside, having just finished an assignment for Nikon and looking over the images, I remain in awe of the photographic process. While I’ve made satire of taking photographs, it truly does remain a magical and mysterious thing for me. Most days I walk around and see an everyday world. Yet the days I venture out with my camera and a mindset focused on capturing photons, alchemy really does take over my brain. I see and feel those unique patterns of light and strive to record them. When I share the best with others I revel in the enthusiasm they generate. I marvel that from the experience of viewing a photograph I’ve made, some may take away a memory of having seen it for years to come, or perhaps the balance of a lifetime.
And everything I said above, about the odds of capturing a certain pattern of photons? I wasn’t kidding for a second.
One afternoon I invited over a friend’s son to model. Lifestyle images are a big part of advertising, so something as simple as a boy on a raft in a pool can be a winner.
.
I’d finished shooting and was upstairs downloading the images. While we had been in the pool, dragonflies had been buzzing around. They are a favorite subject of mine but are elusive. So imagine my surprise when my young friend calls upstairs, “Hey, I caught a dragonfly!” Skeptical, I returned to see a dragonfly sitting in his hands. Without even pausing a beat, I sprinted upstairs and grabbed the camera, putting it in macro mode as I ran back down. To my amazement, the dragonfly remained. Recognizing the likelihood that this encounter could end any second, I positioned the hands in the bright sun, right at the edge of the shadow from our house. Several quick shots and it was over. Fourteen million pixels collected all the necessary photons. The pattern recorded speaks for itself. The juxtaposition of man and nature, respect and trust coexisting if only for a brief moment, creates an image which touches emotions.
.
As I was rushing back down those stairs with the vision of a photograph in my mind, it felt as though making it might be impossible.
Yet impossible was suddenly just improbable, and an instant later became captured magic.
Magic and mystery. Why I collect photons. Why I love photography.
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Mark Alberhasky is a Nikon Mentor for the Mentor Series Worldwide Photo Treks.
Join him as he travels and share his enthusiasm for photography and learning.
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