Pears in a windowsill, National Hotel, Moscow
From the Sam Abell book "The Life of a Photograph"/courtesy Sam Abell
Sam Abell is an inveterate and habitual composer of scenes. "I see space, and white, and color in every situation and scene I'm in," he says.
Regarded as one of National Geographic's foremost photographers, he has made thousands of images while on assignment for the Society's magazines, books, and Web site. He also teaches photography, and if there was a university devoted entirely to this, he would be its foremost and most distinguished professor.
Abell has photographed almost every scene and aspect of everyday life one could expect to come across working for National Geographic and other publications for more than thirty years, so it's not surprising that he looks at everything as if he were composing a photograph, even when there is no camera in his hands.
More than anything else, it's this incredible gift for composition that forms the theme of his latest book, "The Life of a Photograph" (National Geographic Books, October 2008, $40).
Many of the nearly 200 images Abell selected for the book were some of the most notable photographs he made for National Geographic. But others are from his personal collection, never been published, and they illustrate the way his mind works during the process of making a memorable photograph.
I've known Sam Abell and his work for the dozen years that I have worked for National Geographic, but I did not know that he composes his photographs using the full frame of what he sees through the lens. There is seldom any post-production of his images. No cropping or correcting. He thinks through all that before he releases the shutter. The result is a picture that is used full-frame.
If he really goes through life in a perpetual state of composing scenes, I asked him, what was he doing right at that very moment, while I was talking to him? "Oh, I can't sit still until I find the right angle to look at you," he said. "In any situation, I am studying the background, the horizon, the light, and the angle of my point of view."
Photos from the book "The Life of a Photograph"/courtesy Sam Abell
Abell also talks about his technique of creating two or more images in one, combining what could be two or more separate photographs in a single image. An example of this is his cowboy image, reproduced above, and which he discusses in the accompanying video.
Video 1: Sam Abell discussing his cowboy photo by David Braun/National Geographic News
Another example is the photograph of the dolphin jumping alongside a boat - an example of what he says is composing the scene, the first layer of the image, and then allowing the subject to move into the picture, the second layer.
"In all my years of looking at raw film, " Abell said, the dolphin photo (below) gave him his "single greatest moment of ecstasy and disbelief ... I couldn't believe it."
Photos from the book "The Life of a Photograph"/courtesy Sam Abell
Video 2: Sam Abell discussing his dolphin photo by David Braun/National Geographic News
I asked Abell for three things that he teaches photography students.
His response:
- Equipment does not matter. You need to learn how to compose.
- It's okay to record everything. Think of yourself as a diarist, photographing everything you see. (You see many examples of this in the book.)
- Reverse your thinking and learn how to make photographs from back to front. In every situation there are always at least two pictures that can be layered into a single frame.
What Others Had to Say
Added by Anton's Profile on October 23, 2008
Great article!