Re: Some snapshots


"Vance" <Vance.Lear@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Oct 31, 8:51 am, "Buerste" <buer...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
"Vance" <Vance.L...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

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On Oct 30, 9:11 am, "Peter" <peter...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





"Vance" <Vance.L...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

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On Oct 29, 8:45 pm, "Buerste" <Buer...@xxxxxxx> wrote:

"Vance" <Vance.L...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:32bd8293-e5e0-4c28-916a-37bdf9151842@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I don't usually post or show my walk around stuff, but I have a few
recent images that aren't that bad, so, what the heck.

Enjoy, or not. Comment if you wish, I always appreciate what people
have to say.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Vance.Lear/Potpouri?authkey=frqUj4oUZPU#s...

Vance

Thanks for the use of your eye! I'd be interested in some technical
information and how you task yourself. One good image a day would be a
tall
order for me.

What an interesting question. I have never thought about it. What do
you mean by technical information?

That brings up a point. I wonder how many here mine their shots to find
shots within shots.
Many beginners, even more experienced photographers, have a tendency to
show
every pixel within the frame, which is not really necessary all the
time.

--
Peter- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I frame in the camera as well as I can. You can't always get a great
frame. You may not be able to get close enough, your lens isn't long
enough and it's what you have. If it's an assignment, I will stand in
water up to my neck, lay in the mud, climb trees that I have no
business climbing at my age (though I still like climbing trees) and
anything else that seems to be what to do to get the shot. I tone all
that way down for my own stuff. Well, I will still climb on things
because I just like climbing things.

Also, as you point out, sometimes there is a better image hidden in
the image than what you actually took. That happens a lot. It's not
that what you take is bad, you just didn't see what might be better.
I accept it as a reality of photography, or the reality of me behind
the camera if I am going to be accurate. Another thing is that no
matter how well you frame the subject, it might not be compatible with
the frame format. Some shots are just meant to be square, or, at
least something other than the shape of your sensor/film.

There are all sorts of 'rules' about photography and I have seen them
applied very restrictively, if not stupidly. Things like you never
put your subject in the center of the frame. If thats where the
subject belongs, then bloody put it there. Correct exposure? That's
subject to interpretation. I shoot the 'wrong' exposure all the
time. In fact, I am glad my equipment can't argue with me because we
often don't agree! WB is a big one. It seems that with digital and
the ability to adjust it per image everyone wants the 'correct' WB. I
wonder how many images are less than they could be because someone was
more interested in technically correct colors than they were in
getting the colors that really compliment the image?

OOPS. Ranting again.

I'm still wondering what you wanted to know about technically tasking
myself. I would try and answer if I understood the question.

Vance

Well, You really answered the technical question...you are intuitive. I
keep forgetting that digital is the media, I'm using 120 film for my
endeavors. I do use digital a lot for work to document things but I
somehow
enjoy hauling and setting up 50 lbs of really old gear. I log each
exposure
with spotmeter readings of shadows and highlights, shutter times and
apertures, and filter info. Technically, I can make very good photos yet
only one in a hundred have that "spark". You seem to have much better
ratios. I truly enjoyed some of your images and I'm somewhat jealous.

The other question is how you task yourself. What is the motivation that
drives you to capture/compose what you see in the mind's eye and how do
you
translate to the media? What is the goal you have before you even leave
the
house.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'm happy that you enjoyed some of the shots.

What digital does is allow a freedom, partly economic, to experiment
and explore in ways that film never encouraged. Going 'What if ...?'
is so practical that there is no reason not to find out the answer.

I'm trying to slide sideways into an answer to your question because I
have no way to answer you directly. I don't have a direct answer.
Please bear with me.

When I discovered digital I found out that film was actually
restricting me, even as a matter of classical 'straight' photography.
I wasn't seeing things that may have been potentially there because I
was subconsciously adding up the cost, time and trouble of each shot.
I was filtering things based on whether they might be good shots and
this, of course, was based on whether I had come up with decent
similar shots before. The result? Variations on a theme. Digital
radically changed that. If I still shot film for whatever reason,
like you do, I would use digital to explore for potential images and
just to see what happens 'If...' and then shoot whatever seemed worth
following up in film. You can use a P&S for that exploring.

I think exploring the world like that is as much photography, if not
more of photography, than the final result. The final image, what you
see and perhaps show to other people is your summation of what you
discovered through the process. That's my perspective on photography,
it's not my photographic perspective.

In trying to answer your question, I had to not only think it through,
but I had to question my answers. They were too trite. They sounded
right and very photographic, but they weren't the answer to the
question you asked and I had to ask myself what motivated me. I have
never thought about it before. I found I'm motivated by the process
of discovery, not the image. What I don't love about life, I find
interesting. Once I have discovered something intersting, then I am
motivated.

What motivates me for any particular image or series of images is all
over the place and the only thing I can give is an analogy: Going
back to an observation by Tim Leary of LSD fame, it depends on set and
setting. Set is where I'm personally at, my subjective emotional and
psychological space and setting is the context I'm embedded in. The
entrance to my world of set and setting has a big sign on it saying
'Come on in.' On any given day something interesting (if I turn it
around in my imagination and look at it the right way) may walk
through that entrance. I will grab my camera on the way out of the
house with no more motivation than not missing whatever comes along.
I keep myself open to surprise.

I don't know if that's any kind of answer and it's certainly more than
I intended.


Vance
*****************************************

Excellent! I really appreciate the thought you gave to the questions and I
feel good that I made you think about it. You do realize that I'm entirely
selfish on this as I strive to better manage my own discoveries. In
contrast, as a mechanical engineer, I have Solidworks models that are matted
and framed in addition to prints from films. I have yet to take any
interest in digital but I do have plenty of adequate equipment, and I always
have one with me. Although using film is a ritual that I enjoy. A lot of
it IS that ritual and I've somehow attached and compartmentalized being in
"The Zone" with the ritual. I WILL start playing with digital as a creative
media, though I feel that I'll have no control. Just a different set of
constraints. I see possibilities. Thanks for the thoughts!





.

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