Structure and Creativity

The structure serves creativity.

Panoramic photography delivers powerful stories about dairy farming. While it is generally associated with landscape and cityscape photography it is also used in industrial and agricultural photography. Generally, these are long shots of an entire industrial site or whole farm but we have taken a different approach; a moving image in a single frame.

We have developed techniques that create images that tell the story of dairy processes like ultrasound scanning or milking. Images that include veterinarians, farmers and stock. For example, a single photograph can include the image of a foetus, the scanning of the foetus, the cow exiting the platform, the landscape that the shed is located in and the sky at sunrise.

Panoramic photography is a tool that requires investment in technology and an investment in developing a system that consistently delivers technically excellent images. Once the technical systems of panoramic photography have been developed and mastered then there is the freedom to focus on the creative art direction of the panorama.

Weather, people and animals are far less controllable, especially as they are moving objects within a composition that generally is made up of 8 frames merged into one panoramic image. Photographing on a working farm means that it is generally not possible to direct people or stock.

Often there is only a short window of a few minutes where subject and light come together; especially when photographing during an early morning milking. Three hours of preparation and testing may only offer a 10-minute window where the light is perfect.

Once the technological systems are in place the creative process is to visualise the final photograph and time each of the 8 shots with moving subjects so that the final panorama tells the story in an aesthetically pleasing way. Along with adjusting exposure for each sequence ( not each frame) if the shoot is happening at sunrise.

There are so many variables and not all variables can be controlled. A successful panorama requires both structure and the ability to creatively visualise.

“Pablo Picasso once said, “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There’s no other route to success.” “