Being a Blind Photographer does not mean that we are disadvantaged from our visually gifted brethren and in fact can go much further than what Jim wrote about not long ago. As a Blind Photographer, the way you see the world is different than the average person and depending on how you capture it and feed in your interpretation, it can be all the better for you.

Take a look at the photo above, it was blogged a while back by BP. I encourage you to click on it, download the larger version and closely analyze it (add me on Flickr while you’re at it!) The focus is on the closest point on the lounge chair. Why was this done? Because it provides for a naturally beautiful bokeh with the string of lights, the lines made by the bars and chairs being parallel to one another, the composition of the lines going up and down, and just the fact that the bridge in the background is just so beautiful looking.

Now here is the catch: This is how I see without my glasses on. Further, I’ve been trained to always see the world and think of it the way I described above. When the glasses go back on, I see the world exactly the way everyone else does. So I’m given the unfair advantage of seeing the world blind with a “natural bokeh” and also to see the world in 20/20.

Your camera is like this. Let me take that back, your lenses are like this. Every photographer knows their cameras very well, but how many are just as well acquainted with their lenses? Have you ever spend a long period of time shooting just in manual focus?

If the answer is no, you should give it a try and become more familiar with your lenses. Try shooting by not looking through the viewfinder or using Live View: instead, learn just how much you need to twist your focus ring in order to have something perfectly in focus. Granted, autofocusing can work too–especially in hectic environments and when you’re shooting without your glasses. However, you’re not always guaranteed the results or vision that you want to achieve. The better you become with using your lenses the better you will become in thinking about and composing your shots: no matter what challenges may lay ahead of you.

I have more about this over at PhotographyBay and there is a guaranteed promise that if you try shooting the way I describe that you will think about your photography in a much different way.

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Tags: blind, musing, vision

This entry was posted on July 25, 2009 at 12:58 pm and is filed under blind photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.