36 Reasons to Photograph an Egg

Winter 2007

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Neil Schulman

Before you leave on your next trip, you should take 36 photos of an egg.
“Huh?” you respond. But taking pictures of an egg, and some other tricks will enliven your kayak photography.

Sea kayaking photography suffers terribly from repetition. Every kayaker has hundreds of pictures of the bow of their kayak. The tiny object in the background might be a whale, a cliff or your paddling buddy, but who can tell for sure? Kayak photography is one of the most challenging kinds of photography out there. Here’s why, and some things you can do about it.

ONE PERSPECTIVE FOREVER
When you kayak, you’re always exactly the same height above sea level—three feet. Unlike hiking, you never start in a valley and climb to a birds-eye view. And you always have seven feet of bow in your way. If that’s not enough, add some technical challenges: bobbing up and down on waves makes images fuzzy; gear must be compact and waterproof, hindering versatility; water droplets land on your lens; in rough water, both hands are on your paddle. The result: shots of calm water, bow pictures, and empty boats pulled up on shore. Very rarely does our photography capture the feeling of paddling a small boat on the great big sea. But help is on the way.

WHAT IS PHOTOGRAPHY FOR?
The first step is to rethink why we take pictures. At the most basic, it’s to document the experience: here I am in camp eating pancakes, here’s my son or daughter in the kayak. But many of us strive for something more. Great photographs somehow evoke the feeling of paddling in slow, glassy swells on a sunny afternoon, of sore shoulders after a long day, the adrenaline rush of flying down a wave, or the claustrophobia of being tentbound on the third day of rain.

The word photography means “writing with light.” Through our photos we are trying to tell a story, not just record a pretty sunset. Of course, the big challenge is that we have to imply the story from one image. Somehow, that image has to capture what you experienced with all five senses—a three-dimensional, moving world—and distill that into a two-dimensional picture without sound, smell, and feel, that still conveys the kernel of your experience.

And the camera has inherent limitations. On a digital sensor or two-dimensional piece of film, you can’t capture motion, distance or size. You can only imply them with creative use of camera position, light and lens selection. Capturing these key ingredients is like seeing the wind—you can only observe the effects, not the wind itself.

Few artistic endeavors are more difficult. Which is where the egg comes in.

THE EGG EXERCISE
Think about an egg. An egg can represent many things. Whiteness, fragility, birth, food, purity, growth—these are some themes of “eggness.” Your assignment: take 36 different pictures of that egg. There are no other rules. Better yet, get a couple of friends to do the same exercise, and share your results. You’ll be amazed at what you come up with. You’ll remove the main block to creative photography: not knowing what you want your picture to say.

Now, apply this same thinking to your kayaking images. Think about the place you’re in, the kind of paddling you love to do, whatever it is that makes paddling important to you. Just like the egg, define that experience and find a way to show that with your camera. Try it as many different ways as you can. And one more exercise will help.

FUN WITH ADJECTIVES
Before your next trip, thing about where you’re going and why you paddle. Think of a bunch of adjectives that describe your paddling or your next destination. Write them down. Start with the obvious ones—maybe windy, fun, remote, salty, blue. Then get creative: fickle, playful, turbulent, far, patchy, social, soothing. Let your mind roam. These words are your photographic theme for the trip. Like the egg exercise, find ways to take pictures that capture that adjective, and get others to do the same and share. See what you come back with.
Now that you know the stories you’re trying to tell with your photos, here are a few more tricks for kayak photography.

MATURE AND IMMATURE SUBJECTS
The late, great wilderness photographer Galen Rowell divided his subjects into mature and immature subjects. Immature subjects are new to the viewer, and the subject needs to be shown directly. If you’re not familiar with grizzly bears, you’ll need a fairly direct image that shows a big, brown mammal with big paws. But if you know what a grizzly is like, then some big tracks on a sandy riverbank will imply bearness so the viewer wonders how big those tracks are, where the bear was going, and even feels a prickle of fear.

Sea kayaking is making the transition from an immature to a mature subject. Kayak images have become mainstream, from this magazine to car advertisements. Photographers can now make more creative images without losing a mainstream audience. In immature images, kayaking is shown directly. In contrast, the image of gear drying on a clothesline at sunset implies kayak camping rather than showing it directly—in fact, the paddle is the only thing that tells you kayaking is the subject.

Generally, mature images are far more powerful, because they leave more to the imagination. By doing so, they engage both mind and emotions more fully.

ACTION VS. PREGNANT MOMENTS
Because still cameras can’t show movement, you face a choice about how you want to convey it. You’ll have a choice of showing something happening, or showing a pregnant moment—something about to happen. I find the pregnant moments the most powerful, because they create a cliffhanger, with the viewer trying to figure out how the scene ends. Does the wave break over the paddler’s head? Does he flip?

You’ll also have to decide technically how to show motion—through either freeze-frame or by carefully blurring the subject. This choice requires that you be able to control the shutter speed of your camera, which many point-and-shoots make difficult but possible. If you try blurring, remember that the viewer’s eye will seek out the sharpest part of the image.

NEW PERSPECTIVES
Think of the world’s most-photographed spots: Yosemite Valley, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon. It’s difficult to take a creative image of these places, unless you change the perspective radically. The same challenge applies to kayaking because the paddler is usually 3 feet above the sea.

When I photograph places that have been captured thousands of times before, I think about my experience there, visualize what I want to convey, and then I spend long moments choosing a spot and an angle.

The same trick can be used with variations to remedy the from-the-water perspective of kayak photography: start shooting from way up high, from right at the waterline, super wide-angle, super-zoomed in. If you have a waterproof camera, get in the water. If you’re usually a shutterbug, bring a tripod and slow down. If you usually shoot slowly and carefully on a tripod, handhold and pick up the pace. These shots needn’t be perfect—you’re looking for new beginnings, not finished masterpieces. That’s part of the fun.

THE EYE, EXPOSURE, AND MOOD
There are also a few technical things that are good to know about how we view photos. First: the human eye will move through a photo in a certain order. The first place it will go is the area of greatest contrast. Then it will go to the highlights, then the midtones, and finally the shadows. When you plan your image, think about what you want the viewer to look at, and expose accordingly.

Secondly, exposure. There’s the myth that every scene has a “correct” exposure. Nothing is further from the truth. Small variations in exposure are tools you can use to change the mood and message of your image. Higher-contrast images create drama. Lower contrast images imply a relaxing experience. As little as 1/3 of an f-stop can change the mood. Don’t think that the auto-exposure function on your camera is anywhere close to this smart.

BREAK THE RULES
Any basic book on photography shares some basic rules: the rule of thirds, perspective using converging lines, diagonals and s-curves, and subjects moving into the frame. These are good guidelines—but not rules. The key is to have an idea why you’re setting up your photo the way you are. This means taking time—watching the scene, deciding on a theme, and then coming up with a plan to tell your story. Pre-visualize the image you want first. You won’t get there by snapping away like a tourist at the Eiffel Tower. Spend some long minutes watching. Pressing the shutter is the least important act.

So go out and break the rules. You’ll come back from your next trip with better vision.

Neil Schulman photographs and writes from Portland, Oregon. He encourages you to break the rules, including the ones in this article.