I have always had a fascination with images in my surroundings and photos that try to depict what my mind tries to interpret. And when I would try to get that image on film in my camera, an ordinary photo would come from the one hour photo mat. Frustration! When I was in college, I subscribed to the Time-Life Photography series. These books were very well done with much information about the world of photography and numerous prints from very famous photographers - - but my images always fell short of what I thought I saw.
About that time (twenty-five years ago), I heard about a new photo club that was starting in Idaho Falls. The Eastern Idaho Photography Society was a group of amateur and professional photographers whose goal was to advance the members knowledge of their craft and create artistic imagery- - lofty goals, but I was game to try anything to get better! They met monthly at a local eatery in Idaho Falls. If I didn’t get any better with my camera, at least I would have a full stomach.
I was truly surprised at what I learned in those first few months in the club. One can read in a book what an f/stop on your lens is all about, but to have someone show you why that knowledge was important to create a better image was an eye opening concept. With their instruction, I could blur the background to get all those distractions out of the way so that my mind and eye would look at the important central theme of the picture. They showed how leading lines in a photo could be used to “guide” your eye to the important part of the picture, how to use the position of the animal/person/flower to maximize its impact, how to use light to its best effect, etc. My mind was swirling with ideas about how to shoot images.
The club also sponsored field trips to various locations within our area. I grew up in Ohio, and was a recent transplant to this area. To see a region for the first time was amazing, especially with all of the other photographers showing you some of their techniques on how to get the best image on film. I was awed by how unselfish each photographer was in showing each other how to create better images. In this era, only film cameras existed. There were Polaroid cameras that would give you an image in just a couple of minutes -- but this route was very expensive and would only give small images. Film was cheaper, but there still was a cost to buy the film and another cost to process the film. By having someone in the Society show you what had worked for him/her in the past meant that you had a better possibility of getting a good image with less cost to your pocketbook. Like most skills, you get better with practice, practice, practice -- but it sure was nice to keep the costs at a reasonable amount.
Another experience in the club was the Advancement Program. We asked the participant to bring images to be judged by the other members. But we also stressed that we wanted “constructive criticism” of the images presented. The perfect image does not exist and, therefore, a person can usually find multiple errors in the photographic print (or slide). Positive criticism can point out how the image could be improved to make a stronger photograph on the next time. For example, moving a few feet to the side of where you took the current image would remove the telephone pole that is sticking out of your child’s head in the picture. (Sometimes, we get so caught up in getting the light right on a person’s face that we forget the background.) Also, in the Advancement Program we had some months where we assigned a specific topic, i.e. humor, cars, wildlife, sunsets, portraits, fall colors, etc. This type of effort would force the wildlife photographer to stretch his horizons by shooting cars, portraits, but usually, that photographer would learn some technique that would help him take better wildlife images the next time he was in the field.
During my 20 plus years in the club, I felt that I became a much better photographer -- and understood why some images were really better than others. Our yearly juried show presented numerous efforts by club members that were truly worthy of being called ART. We helped each other with darkroom technique problems and solutions. We helped each other through the transition to digital photography and some digital manipulation on the computer. I feel very blessed that I was a member of the Eastern Idaho Photographic Society and thank all of the people that helped me become a better photographer.
Editor's note: The Eastern Idaho Photographic Society, started in 1989, is now celebrating 25 years of camaraderie and photographic exploration. Jan Larcom was one of the founding members. For more information, visit EIPSID on Facebook or visit the club's website at epic.net.