In our "Working the Scene" Assignment, I talked about the process of discovery. In that assignment description I said: "Most experienced photographers recognize that when they are exploring a location, their camera and their "photographic eye" are tools that enable them to see aspects of their subject that they might not otherwise have noticed, and to study these aspects in a process of discovery. It is only after we have gone through this process of discovery that we can effectively compose an image that conveys the essence of the subject. Many photographers call the process of exploring a location or scene with their camera in hand 'working the scene'."
In that previous assignment, most of us concentrated on capturing a view of the overall scene. For this assignment, I'd like to put more emphasis on the "discovery" part of the process. In the quote above I describe the process of discovery as one of actively looking for and studying aspects of our subjects that we might not otherwise have noticed, had we not actively been seeking to learn more about the subject. Often it is this process of discovery that enables us to really understand the subject, and in turn compose an image that truly conveys its "essence." For this assignment I invite you to go exploring with your camera in hand, and to really examine a subject in detail to learn more about it, then compose an image that conveys what you have discovered.
Your assignment for the week of 19 - 25 July 2010 is to compose an image that describes some unique aspect that you have discovered about your subject. I suspect that in most cases this will result in compositions that are more selective than the overall scenes that many of us submitted for the "Working the Scene" assignment. Please upload your images to the "Discovery" album in the Weekly Assignments category of the Gallery no-later-than midnight Mountain Time (GMT - 07:00) on Sunday, 25 July 2010.
