Post-Previsualization
Seal Rocks, Oregon
2023
Previsualization is a common topic of discussion in photography. Often attributed to Ansel Adams, previsualization is, in short, the idea of “seeing” the final print in one’s mind before a photograph is taken. I think every photographer, even one snapping simple images with a cell phone, uses some degree of previsualization in the act of composing a shot. Obviously some will give more thought, consciously or subconsciously, to what they are capturing than others. I know when I am out photographing I use varying degrees of it–at least on a conscious level (who knows what’s going on behind the scenes in my head).
In the case of this photograph, I was easily envisioning in my mind how this pattern of pebbles in the cracks of the larger rock surface would look in black and white. I was sure the subtle tonalities of gray produced in the conversion to black and white would make for a pleasing image. But I was wrong, no matter how I tweaked the image in Photoshop to try and get it to line up with what I thought I could see in my head, all I got was a drab, bland image compared to presenting it in color. So that’s what I ended up doing, thus proving the value of post-previsualization, a practice which occurs all the time among creatives in order to adjust the realities of what is actually achievable with what was floating around in one’s head.
In addition to the greater clarity of the color version, the slight blue of the pebbles reminds me of water. So I see fish swimming upstream left to right. More post visualization since I was not on hand for the capture. 😉
Is it possible for there to be post-visualization if you didn’t have previsualization? One for the philosophers of photography I guess.
Either way, an interesting shot of rock eggs laid by a rock mother in the birthing chamber. Did you shoot straight down or at an angle?
More or less straight down as I recall. I thought they might be eggs laid by a Pacific Rockfish.
You give new definition to the “mind’s eye”. Very striking image and I like to imagine how the water deposited those stones – all at once or bit by bit?
Thanks Judy. It’s interesting to stand on a rocky pebble beach, where you can actually hear the waves pushing the rocks up and down as they come in and recede.