The Los Altos Camera Club’s annual photo walk is this weekend. We’re planning an early Saturday morning expedition in a town called Alviso, located at the bottom of San Francisco Bay. Alviso's best years are kind of behind it, so needless to say it makes for an interesting subject. So much so, that the special category for our monthly competition this month is "Capturing the Essence of Alviso".  Of course, the key question is how do you as a photographer capture the essence of a place?

 

It certainly is not "frame and shoot", "frame and shoot", "frame and shoot". Any essence found in that manner will be pure luck. The key to capturing the essence is to see what others don't readily see. Using the grey matter between the ears to see something that is under the nose of the regular inhabitants, but utterly ignored. 

 

It means capturing the unusual; whether it is truly unique or the everyday seen in an unusual way. However, unusual for unusual sake is not enough. The photograph needs to tell a story, a vignette about the life of that location. There must be a mood set by the photograph that captures the imagination of the viewer.

 

Subjects abound to illustrate the essence, people going about their daily life, elements of life that embody the values or activity of the location. All can translate the soul of a place. 

 

It isn't limited to a single photo.  Creating a triptych of tight, medium, and wide is an excellent way to accomplish the goal. However, the set of photographs need to not only standalone as great photos, but work together as a set.

 

Sound challenging? Photojournalism too hard? Not into street photography? In truth, any photographer regardless of their field of photography can accomplish “capturing the essence”. Why? Because in the end, "capturing the essence" is what we should be striving to achieve with all our photographs.