-
zeroequalsinfinity posted on the forum topic Welcome! (Introductions) in the group Night: 13y, 6mo ago
I love shooting night shots, be it star-trails, distorted colour trails, or landscapes. I will shoot in the city or in the country.
(Sample country shot enclosed below.)
Bare with my while I tell you a true story. I had an exhibition a few months back. While the public viewed I would mingle with the crowd to hear what they had to say. I stood next to a man studying a print intently. He didn’t know who I was. I asked him what her thought about the print. He turned to me and said ‘nice detail’. At that point I reached for the print and took it off the wall. he asked me if I was buying it. I said I was the photographer and was removing it from the exhibition. He asked why. I told him if that’s all he could say about the print then I had missed the point – and so had he.
When viewing the heart of another person, look past the colour of his blood.
The thing I would say about that is that some people (including myself) find it quite difficult to verbalise emotions or feelings. I mean, I might be feeling like my chest is about to explode with joy and I’d likely say something stupid like “nice detail” – lol
Just sayin’
I agree admin. Then we decide to stay as we are or move up a notch. We can learn to express ourselves or we can stay where we are. As photographers and joining this forum I’m sure most members would want some constructive criticism of their images. If they are just after a nice pat on the back then where’s the opportunity to improve. Improvement is within all of us but we need to know how, what and where. If my wife asks me ‘do I look good in this?’ the answer will be a safe ‘yes’. If a photographer presents an image for criticism I don’t have to be ‘safe’ just informative and constructive. The photographer won’t lock me in the dungeon if I give the ‘wrong’ answer. I’d like to improve my photography. I practice every day. I want people to tell me they like my stuff. I also want people to tell me how I can improve. If I think they are talking rubbish, I’ll ignore them, but between you and me, I’ll always listen. I’d hate to think someone out there knew more than me.
I think this is by far the best blog I have ever been part of. I love the postings and tutorials you post and I love the comments. Most of all I test myself. What can I learn from these people that will improve my photography. It’s the ides that result from these discussions that is the best place to learn. If I can translate every thought into an image I am improving my skills. Seeing others do that is where I can learn.
Keep up the great work and if I get to become a pain in the arse let me know. I’ll go back to the dungeon.
Just when the conversation was getting interesting. Here’s the thing. In over 50 years of taking pictures I have had the good fortune to be able to view my photography in many ways. When I was your age (by the looks I would guess in the 20’s) it was all about me and the camera. The bigger the better. the more I knew about the tech stuff the better. Loved every minute of it. Then I discovered money. People wanted to hire me to take their pictures. Then I had to shoot for them. Now I’m at the end I take pictures for one reason – to connect. The photograph is my interface between me and the viewer. I take a picture for me. Then I show someone and they tell me what they see or feel. What a wonderful experience this is. We chat about the place or the thing or sometimes the gear. I hate talking about the gear. I often make stuff up just to please them. Or avoid the topic completely. I watched a mother cry over a photo of her young son once. That was the best feeling. I want people to experience things and share it with me. It’s why we tell stories. Sharing. If you take a picture just for yourswelf you are missing out on half the fun. You may as well leave this blog because that is exactly what its all about. Photography is a visual art. Its for everyone to share and enjoy. Its not abstract. It simple. When was the last time you looked at an image and felt goose bumps or a tear welling or a lump in your throat or anger or fear or longing or joy or loneliness or nothing. That’s the second part of photography – not ‘very nice blue. It looks sharpened though’
One more thing. There is no good or bad way but don;t be indifferent. Be constructive, purposeful, resourceful, thought provoking, argumentative, innovative and daring.
If we fear critisicm we believe that what we know is the truth. That concept limits our ability to learn.
How’s your mind now?
I suppose I should explain my own ideas of what I hope to capture with my better shots.
What I aim for, is create an emotional impression, and the first and most important part of that is composition. (I am actually always learning more about composition, it is the one area of photography in which I know I will always be learning.)
Next point: Should a photographer aim to create a particular impression / emotion in the mind of the viewer? I think (s)he should, but it must as truthfully as possible reflect the impression created in the artist at the time the image is taken. It may be that the artist knows that certain things will have to be post-processed to remove things which distract, take away from, or distort the impression that is attempted to be created. My own thoughts are that this is an extension of the original impression and/or that it is a means to strengthen that impression.
Everyone approaches these things from there own perspective, and that is totally legitimate. However, my aim is to bring about a state in the viewer, and it needs to, as best as I am able, do that. Hence, any technique which more effectively accomplishes that is fair game.
Spot on. Composition is important. Its the tools for getting the message across, like the right words in a well written story. But like any ‘rules’ they can be bent. Creativity involves the use of old things in a new and effective way. Learn, learn, learn. When you stop you are dead.
Hi Mitchell
Nicely put. 14 is good. I can barely remember being that. When I was your age my old man would take me to the galleries and we would look at beautiful paintings. I would stare at a Monet or Streeton and say ‘that’s nice’ and he would say ‘that’s easy for a 14 year old to say’ and I would feel his hand shake and see a tear in his eye and wonder what I had done wrong. Now when I see those same paintings I too have a tear and a shaky hand.
As we get older we find new ways of seeing. It’s not ‘arty farty’ or sophisticated crap; its just that we know more and want to know even more – about others and about ourselves.
When I first met my wife I wrote her a poem. I could have said what I said in a thousand ways but the purpose was to tell her how I felt. She got the message and I got a beautiful woman to share my life with.
When your pictures can do that sort of stuff you are past the point of just taking pictures – and you will never look back.
Like many of us who take pictures it is an enjoyable struggle to find a way of reaching people but it is the most satisfying experience.
The great photographers did just this. That’s why we consider their photographs great. They reached out to us and we understood a little of what they were trying to tell us.
Sure, we have our own point of view and we can share that with the photographer as well.
I look forward to sharing with you.
I don’t think I could have said it any better, (but fools go where angels fear to tread).
Age does have some distinct advantages, (aside from aches, pains, failing memory, and proximity to death.) Amongst those are two very important ones:
1) Being comfortable in one’s own skin, (which is to say being a lot more accepting of the person one has found oneself to be.)
2) Wider and deeper experiences, stored in memory which begin to hint at a unified and beautiful synthesis at the root of things.
Looking back to being 14, what would I give myself from my current age (52)? Here is what I would give myself:
a) A list of books to read, including the Herman Hesse books, “Siddartha”, “Damien”, “Steppenwolf”, and “The Glass Bead Game”. Aldous Huxley’s, “Island”, “The Doors of Perception”, and as much Shakespeare as you can handle. Also, “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran. And try to keep the following from Samuel Beckett in the forefront of your thinking,
“To be capable of helping others to become all they are capable of becoming we must first fulfil that commitment to ourselves.”
b) Next, music is the most direct and emotionally evocative of the arts; it transcends in many respects the cultural biases which exist due to history and language. In that regard, I will suggest my favourite composer, Gustav Mahler. His music is potent, it plays the listener, collapsing duality into an ecstatic present.
c) Van Gogh … (especially his self-portraits). “And my aim in my life is to make pictures and drawings, as many and as well as I can; then, at the end of my life, I hope to pass away, looking back with love and tender regret, and thinking, ‘Oh, the pictures I might have made!'” see link to images http://www.vggallery.com/painting/main_az.htm
Funny how photography leads to other paths. That’s heavy stuff. I could never get my head around Mahler (I’ve never had my duality collapsed into anything, let alone anything ecstatic – does it hurt?), Hesse never made it to my library and although VG was up there for me I was more into the Aussie impressionists. Still am.
I think we can move with instead of ahead. I have the feeling we all get it right and then die.I can’t wait that long. The meaning of it all is finally revealed – there isn’t one. Like Pooh, life just is. Meanwhile I’ll blunder along with what I have, making most of it up along the way. My capacity it measured against what it is I’m doing right now. Having a chat to a young bloke about photogrpahy and life. Ain’t that nice.
Nothing wrong with an ego. Mine is still intact and I defend it at every turn.
I’m glad I didn’t know then what I know now. Nor would I give myself any of the things I value now. Growing up with a Box Brownie and taking pictures of the family at the beach was some of the most valuable experiences I have ever had. I’m still listening to Miles Davis and Peggie Lee. My favourite book of all times is Davidson’s Man Shy and I read that at 12. I remember crying the first time I saw ‘Nightwatch’ . I drank too much, smoked too much, chased after girls far too much and had the odd arguement with the law once too often. Would I undo any of it? Not in your life. Would I add to it? No way. Would I go back? No thanks. As zero says, I like it here and am very comfortable in my flabby skin.
I don’t see myself as a passionate photographer. I like taking pictures and I like telling stories. They go nice together. What I do like is drawing my next breathe and in between each breathe I do something. At the moment its having a nice chat with a couple of young blokes who have a common interest.
If you are interested in photography you might like to have a look at this link:
http://tdinning.blogspot.com/
or this one:
http://artscraftphotoproject2010.blogspot.com/
This is what I do in beween breathes.
And you don’t know how important the next breathe is until you have drawn what you thought was the last.
Maybe I never grew up.
I am too passionate by half at least. And truth which never could be framed alludes me, hence the frames without content which are the veils removed. And if ever truth unveiled shall greet me, all forms will lie dead and silent, for nothing will remain of self and other, only two mirrors facing with naught even of themselves to reflect or to perceive.
Some think to be stripped down layer by layer is a dreadful end, but never yet did a bride in her chamber or a groom gazing deeply upon his Beloved refuse to dash away obscuring forms to become lost in timeless, formless light.
But then, how are we, like the man in Plato’s cave returning from a seeing state to help those who mistake shadows on the wall for what is?
This is the artist’s calling and frustration: To express a form light and thinning as a soap bubble floating on air which reveals all the spectrum in its dervish dance, until in an instant, POP!
Whatever you’re smokin’ I want some.
It’s good stuff … (and makes the grass grow green.)
Yeah, right. I think I’m with you Mithellfoto. It is a nice blue and I agree there has been some sharpening. Now where’s the Nikon?
It is a nice blue … (damn it I didn’t use no sharpening … ok maybe a little.)
I think your wife is calling.
Heretic … It is Canon only. (Ok, I do use a Nikon, but I love religious wars over gear.)
I gave up being personal – or at least my wife gave it up for me. Direct maybe and that has everything to do with my age. Sorry, did I mention Nikon? It could have been a Canon or anything else for that matter. Whatever is at hand, I’m afraid. A mate of mine lent me his first ever SLR – a Practica Nova II, and a roll of FP4 just for fun. Took me back to Mitchells age. Loved every minute of it.
DO any of you guys frame your own pictures. I’ve spent the last week framing for my next ex – a small affair of 36 prints of my escape routes. It’s being held in the dungeon below the prison called home. If you have worked out where I live you are invited. I’ll post the images on flickr when its done.
There’s something about seeing the final product hanging on the wall and you took it fro conception to display.
Please forgive the splling errors. My keyboard is playing up
I like hand-holding my old Kodak Masterview 8 x 10 camera for macro work. It does require a unique posture to do properly, which I learned from the Spanish Inquisition. I call it the wrack and it is done on one’s back with help of ropes and pullies. Did I say that tripods are for wimps, well they are. The photographer is the tripod, you just need those ropes and pullies, (and a pair of assistants if no suitable anchoring objects are around.)
Today’s photographers just don’t get into the spirit of extreme imaging … I don’t get it.
Me? Sarcastic? Don’t know the meaning of the word. I just don’t take too many things seriously. I used to and look where it got me – a grumpy old man with a Nikon. It could have been worse. I might have bought a Canon.
Let’s get it right. When I write I might read like a poet but when I speak I sound like a Docklands assasin. And as for understanding? I don’t understand much of it myself.
Not understanding is often a good thing, and especially when it prods me to see things freshly or differently.
I’m a passion junky that’s all. One of the things about very powerful (ecstatic) states, is that they are not amenable to reduction to descriptive text, (poetry sometimes, music quite often, and images sometimes).
The point as I see it, is to use the tools and craft that one has to create a form that can elicit a state in the mind of the reader / listener / viewer. That is not a simple thing to do. First one has to recognize by one’s own reaction that a form is able to evoke a state, then craft is brought to bear to realise it. Developing sensitivity to what may be evocative, and then finding a way to distill what is evocative out of what I see is an ongoing learning experience. Then it is a matter of refining the image, strengthening the evocative, and weakening any elements which distract.
Now sometimes it just all comes together “organically”, but this is more luck than anything. What I want is to be able to sense the potential, and then realise it, (more often and more powerfully.) That means I read a lot about composition and technical aspects of photography, and then I go out and apply it, (hopefully getting better with time.)