Craftsmanship or Intuition

A process, not a finish line

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By Ellen Borggreve | January 6, 2024

Ellen Borggreve

Ellen Borggreve is a Dutch landscape photographer and author with a special affection for experiencing fleeting moments of magic amongst the old trees she regards as lifelong friends as well as the forever changing timelessness of sea, sand and sky.

ellenborggreve.com

For every artist the journey into creating the things they wish to be making starts with gaining enough technical knowledge so the tools that are used do not get in the way of creating. For photographers, this means that when you first get your hands on a camera, you need to learn how to operate it, what aperture, shutter speed, and iso mean and how to use them to your advantage. How a level horizon line is most often more pleasing than one that is not, where to focus, how to use the different focus methods available in the camera, and the list goes on. If your technical knowledge is sufficient to not get in the way of making the photographs you feel called to make, it is time to shift the focus to composition and not spend too much time learning other technical things a camera can do that you will probably never use.

A painter knows how to use a paintbrush, what kind of surface he likes to use and which paints he prefers. Rarely does he know the entire chemical composition of the paints he is using.

He knows about the way the paints behave on certain substrates, but he spends his time learning how to paint, what pressure to use with his brush, the way a bend of the wrist can make the paintbrush flow more easily over the canvas, how to mix the paints, juxtapose colour and distribute elements over the frame, rather than getting in lost in technical trivia.

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