Creating Mood in Photography
“The dark is busy around here”
- Tara French, “The Searcher”
Sandpiper Sunset, Tavira Island
Donald McGuire
Evening. Nature is given back to the creatures we share our home with. The tiny sandpipers return to the shoreline as they race the waves. It is a time of transition.
'Mood' is the suggestion of something rather than its reality. It is sensed, not seen. What it feels like instead of what it is.
In photography, this is often captured in moments of transition. It might be a change in light, energy, weather, or season. The fleeting mood is found in the in-between.
Injecting an ethereal mood into a photograph entices a deeper study. Seeing such images slows down the lightning-fast scroll through the massive amount of available content. Instead, we pause for a moment and explore the subtleties beyond the moment.
The mood that most attracts my eye is 'haunting' and 'quiet.' I don't mean haunting in a scary movie way but instead as something that stays with you more profoundly. Likewise, I don't suggest quiet as the absence of sound but rather the presence of peace - calm waves lapping the seashore, wind through the trees, or the flutter of birds.
We each have our own unique connection with the cycle of the day. It's embedded in our personalities. The time of day we feel most at peace. For me, the evening provides the best opportunity to feel rather than see. It is more than the apparent advantage of the so-called golden hour.
Instead, our moments of genuine creativity are something more personal. The evening is the time of day I am most connected with my surroundings. It is a time of transition. From clamor to quiet. A time to slow down.
Evening, May 2010
Donald McGuire
It takes time for our creative vision to coalesce before we recognize it as something inside us and not a scene in front of us. The photo of two geese in the evening, taken over 11 years ago, is not a favorite, but it was a significant moment along my photography journey.
It was the first hint of a voice, a whisper, not a scream, whose haunting quiet would continue to guide me these many years later. Looking for peaceful moments of transition. Finding it across the sky in this embryonic moment, from orange to blue, day into night.
It was permission to ignore the bell curve of the proverbial perfect histogram. But, instead, realize that moments hide in the shadows. So, where does that voice come from, and when are we most receptive to hearing it?
I've often read that many creatives strive to write the book they would like to read or the song they would like to hear. Obviously, this translates to taking the photos that we most instinctively respond to in photography.
The sources of that instinct are varied. What underlying aesthetics most capture our attention? As photographers, this goes beyond the visual and includes moods and moments we encounter in books, movies, paintings, and songs that continually inform the spirit of our photography.
Exploring that question is an ongoing journey that evolves as we do. As we find new inputs and influences. Hopefully, you will consider your own sources of inspiration. Return to the moment you first heard your voice. Our work is more about who we are than what we photograph.
Why does one photographer gravitate towards wildlife vs. nature, landscape vs. street, journalism vs. portraiture? And what mood drives them when they get there. It is complex because there are so many variables. Yet, the driving force comes down to our inputs. What interests us, how we feed them and how they are expressed.
Fighting with the Night
Donald McGuire
Those inputs may be only a few words from a book. For example, in the Nordic noir series by authors Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall, one sentence has always stuck with me because of the mood it invokes.
Unfortunately, I read it so long ago that I don't recall the specific novel, but one passage has always been a visual metaphor. "A solitary light was fighting with the night. And losing". It was long before I was interested in photography, but it was an image I often envisioned. We all carry such memories waiting for expression.
In a photograph, a hint of mystery provides an opportunity to engage the viewer more intensely. To transform their imagination into a more surreal moment.
Walking in Varche, 2021
Donald McGuire
During the pandemic lockdowns in Portugal, I took long walks most days. In the village of Varche, I've always noted this compositionally pleasing 'S' curve and have taken the photo several times. But the light was never what I was hoping for. Here though, with the sun flare coming from the upper right, I felt the light finally meet the moment I had envisioned.
There is soft light, but we can sense darkness looming. We see the curve fading into the distance but don't know where it leads. The oncoming night leading into an uncertain path suggests a haunting mood. The feeling was heightened by the isolation that became synonymous with the pandemic.
Olive Trees in Fog
Donald McGuire
As it did in Victorian mystery novels, fog creates a mood of mystery. We can't see beyond the more immediate subjects. Yet, the spirit conveyed by fog does not have to be threatening. The moment can also be tranquil, as in this fog-enshrouded olive grove. Mist cleanses the landscape. How rarely does the photographer get a blank canvas?
There are technical considerations when photographing in fog. First, a longer focal length compresses the scene and adds depth to the photo. Also, consider that the camera will underexpose the atmosphere left to automatic exposure.That may not be a bad thing, but it is something to be aware of.
Darkness presents another opportunity to create an ominous and mysterious impression. Thus, the night can generate feelings of an impending threat. The lack of light eliminates distractions drawing the viewer's attention only where the light is present.
Darkness, Darkness
Donald McGuire
In this night photo in Sintra, Portugal, the street's curve leads the eye into further darkness. The absence of people suggests loneliness.
Our influences become part of our visual DNA. "Darkness, Darkness" is a much-covered song about longing and loneliness. However, it's not necessarily that such things come to mind when you take a photograph.
Need Inspiration?
If you are short on inspiration, looking at the work of master artists, both photographers and painters, can help ignite your creative spark.
So it is no surprise that I choose one of each that presents such a vivid sense of atmosphere and mood. In addition, these forays into other artists can benefit our photography in ways that a new lens or camera never will.
Waterloo Place by Léonard Misonne, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Léonard Misonne, born in Belgium (1870-1943), is best known for his pictorialist style that uses soft focus and a sense of atmosphere that immerses the viewer within a mesmerizing moment. In the late 19th century, pictorialism was a movement to pursue a more artistic expression for a photograph beyond the scene's reality.
His work demonstrates that lack of sharpness and definition is not always an issue, especially when a mysterious mood is a goal.
One Artist, Two Arts
Consider John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836 - 1893), an English Victorian-era artist whose nocturnal landscapes are realistic yet ethereal. The moonlight was a consistent presence in many of his paintings. Notice the similar color palette and composition in two scenes—a lesson for a photographic body of work.
John Atkinson Grimshaw, A Moonlit Evening, 1880 Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
But why include these specific examples of Grimshaw's paintings? Because it is central to much of what this and future posts will be about - our photographic inspiration.
John Atkinson Grimshaw, Liverpool Quay by Moon Light, 1887 Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Combining an ethereal mood and realistic painting technique originated from his passion for the embryonic art of photography. Thus, Grimshaw embraced two mediums, but one art.
Claude Monet, Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare, 1877 Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Lastly, a nod to a more widely-known artist, Claude Monet, and his perspective on mood. I am by no means an art historian. But I do know the Impressionists were all about the mood of a place, hence its impression. Monet is quoted as follows - 'For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right . . . but its surroundings bring it to life . . . For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere which gives objects their real value".
Despite many sensibilities shared by photography and painting, a tug-of-war ensued between the two, elevating both. The impact they had on each other will be further explored in the next post.
