Soul Shot - A New Photography Label

I did a random test shot in front of a mirror in the elevator yesterday while at the office.

Taken using the Olympus's in-camera art filter.

Very cliche, yet I like how the finger print stains on the mirror refracts light from the elevator ceiling, casting a blurry glow from above.

I feel like adding a new label to my blog entries, one dedicated to a set of photographs meticulously picked compared to the usual photographs I take that are labeled under Photography.

Sure this entry will fall into that label too, but perhaps I want another to separate it from the lot. I thought about the label "Purposeful Shooting" which Colin mentioned Zack Arias use to describe his shots, where the photographer describes "shooting with purpose" rather than to spam a shot or just take photos for the sake of archiving.

The label didn't sit right with me though, cause it felt as though it's saying people who do the latter don't shoot with a purpose, but what if their purpose was to document as much of a memorable experience? Or to do whatever it takes to get a right moment out of their photos even if it means shooting a lot? Olympic photographers spam thousands of images just to get their one shot that will make it to the front of the news page, that's their purpose isn't it?

Don't get me wrong, I understand what Zack is trying to say, where he's coming from, and I agree with his point, perhaps the better phrase to use would be one which Ming Thien wrote about in his blog entry - The Importance of Shot Discipline.

"The revolver analogy is a good one. I’d compare a (Nikon) D3/D4 class camera to a machine gun with a telescopic sight: it’s complicated, but you can spray and pray indefinitely and probably get something good – even if you have no skill or experience whatsoever, simply by the sheer weight of statistics. (If you take a thousand photographs, one or two will probably be okay – similarly, aim in the right general direction and you’ll probably hit the target once or twice). In experienced hands, it’s impossible NOT to get the shot.

Honestly, I found shooting with the D3 too easy. Same goes for the D700. The (Leica) M9-P, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. It’s like a Magnum .44 or a Desert Eagle 50 Cal; utterly useless to a beginner, but a fantastic tool if you know how to use it. But, you pretty much only get six RAW shots when the barrel is hot. See why timing is important while shooting action?

Do I find it limiting? Yes, but only if I’m not paying attention. And guess what: that was the simple part to shot discipline."

Ming's blogs can be quite overwhelming, a lot of walls of text, some times very philosophical, some times very geek and techie, half the time I have no clue what he's talking about especially when it comes to his techie articles, but then I see his photographs and I go "ok you win" (Ming's Portfolio, Adobe Flash Only) (Ming's Flickr Account)

Back on track, this is the first photo of this new label, I don't want to use "Shot Discipline" either because I don't think all my photos in this category will be taken following this mantra. While my "photography" label is used to generally categorize photos taken using my Canon 450D and Olympus EM1, this label will house photos I feel are above the usual archival standards, while they may not appear beautiful to everyone, these shots will be the ones that speak to me the most, a "soul shot" perhaps.

I'm not sure how soon or how long it'll be before another shot comes along under this category, but whatever the case, I have to ensure I don't fall into the habit of spamming photos in this label only to find a decline in quality when I look at it a year on.