See the Whole Board

Sometimes you need to back up and look around

There was an episode of The West Wing in which President Bartlet said at different points to Charlie and Sam to, “See the whole board.” In the first instance, he was talking about a real chessboard. In the second, he was discussing deployment of naval resources around the globe. In both cases, he was admonishing his staff to back up and look at the big picture.

He was telling them that focusing too closely on one detail can cause you to lose sight of the ultimate goal.

If our goal in photography is ultimately to take great pictures, we often need to stop looking through the viewfinder, back up a few steps and see the whole board. This is a beginner’s trap. It is why new photographers often shoot people with a tree or pole growing out of the subject’s head.

They need to look not just at the subject, but at the whole scene they want to capture. This is one of the early lessons of composition — look all around the frame from corner to corner and make sure they are capturing what they thought they were.

This problem is by no means limited to beginners. I remember one time I had made my semi-annual trip to a local airport to shoot planes taxing, taking off, and landing. I waited until I had the sky I liked, and the sun was in the right position. I placed myself in a great location to capture the action while at the same time, getting a beautiful background for the aircraft.

Everything was just perfect, and I was watching a jet landing while composing the image I wanted to capture in my head.
Just as I was about to shoot, an older man and his grandson moved into the frame in front of me. I waited impatiently for them to move while the man explained things to the boy. He was pointing this way and that while the boy either followed his directions and looked up at his grandfather in rapt attention.

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