Un/Taken ep. 14 Donn Dobkin

Want to read what you don't get to see?

This topic is about the photo you did not take. If you haven’t seen the previous episodes, read those stories here.

In this episode we get to know the story of photographer and fellow Substacker Donn Dobkin, who write Glimpses and Visions. He tells the story of his photos, taken and untaken.

Here we go.

Untaken

Which photo was untaken and why did you not take it?

Missed shots. Woof. There are three types for me, and I’ll start with the least painful.

First, when I’m doing a story, particularly involving portraiture, it seems inevitable that within ten or twenty minutes of driving away I’ll think “Oh jeez, I should made an image of him doing this, or her engaging with that.” It happens, I’m not sure… Every Single Time? I do walk in with shot lists, and lots of ideas, so usually I’ve come away with a solid set of material, but there’s always something that occurs to me later.

Next, there are fleeting moments where my brain doesn’t engage quickly enough. Most recently I stumbled into a firefighters’ fitness competition in Portugal, after it was mostly completed. I would have loved to have been there during the process and made a lot of images to tell the story. I’d been thinking about that as I made my way through the crowd. I walked behind a group that was posing for a team photograph, and the back row had an enormously large and powerful man in the middle. The Shot, which didn’t occur to me quickly enough, was taking a photograph from where I was, showing three men from behind, from the waist up, capturing the relaxed power. I can of course still see the scene vividly. But I didn’t process the thought at the time, and soon they completed their group photo and dispersed. I’m probably not doing a good job describing how fabulous that image would have been. But I know.

The worst ones are when I’m driving, I see something, and I don’t pull over. There’s just no excuse for that. My most recent experience of this was in Utah, where a Mormon temple was against a mountainside and heavy clouds and fog were pressing it from above. It looked like an Ansel Adams scene, both the composition and the tonal range. I could have made the image from the side of the highway. I lamented internally for weeks, and now that I’m writing it, it’s as if it happened yesterday.

Taken

Which photo that you did not expect to take surprised you the most?

Sometimes I press the shutter in frustration, where I think there is almost a good shot, as if I could force something good to happen by strength of will. Shockingly, I can’t! However, occasionally one of those images will indeed grow on my after I’ve looked at it for a while. This is one that I didn’t expect to work, but that I now like:

Who is Donn Dobkin?

I call myself an artist. I make Fine Art prints and books, and I shoot editorial work. I’ve used a camera off and on since high school, but full time only for the last 3-4 years. Stylistically I generally enjoy strong graphic elements. Lines, curves, or shapes. I also enjoy bold colors and rich, B&W tones. Those are leanings, but not absolutes. I love variety.

Finally, I really enjoy whimsy in imagery. Rodney Smith, Annie Leibovitz, and many others. You’ll see whimsy in some of my work, too.

I have Facebook and Instagram accounts, but I don’t use them all that much. My work is best seen on my web site: https://www.dobkinphoto.com/

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That’s it for this week,

Till next time

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