Slow Brain Sunday

[madshutterbug]

I am tired today, so whatever I'm doing, I'm doing slow. Worked last night at Hospital, came home, few hour nap as usual. Surprise visit today from Herself's middle brother, his partner and their children. Youngest is about 3 I think, and had great joy meeting goats. Some of the goats reciprocated, most maybe not, and she still found great joy.

Quote:
And young people who are learning digital skills discover that the real challenge is coming up with an image that resonates, first of all, with your self and hopefully, with an audience. They can learn all these new techniques and think that they’re easier to use, but creating great images isn’t about the tools. - Jerry Uelsmann

Mr Uelsmann is somewhat well known for his specific works, and for opening a realm of vision for us all. He's been asked if he intends to learn the digital manipulation skills and declined; how and what he does works for him, and he doesn't wish to change at this point in his life. There are a lot of quotes from him I ponder periodically, and this one resonates with me because it touches my foundation lessons from Dad. First, learn to compose a photograph. Then, learn to control the aperture and shutter speed. Then, learn to print...

First: see a photograph, an image.

Comments

[azhdragon.livejournal.com]

I like that quote.

I belong to a few photo communities on LJ, and sometimes I look at the photos posted and think "why would you take a photograph of that, let alone display it for the 'world' to see?"

Ok. so I get the odd bum photo - someone moved, something was not quite right, the settings on the camera were wrong. You get that. But I delete those photos; I don't put them up for the world.

I guess I'm lucky, in that photography runs in our veins in my family. My grandmother owned and ran a photography studio. For myself, I took photography courses in high school and learned the technical side of the SLR, as well as how to develop my films.

In some ways, the digital age makes it almost too easy to take photos. Two of my grandchildren are regular photographers, having been snapping away since they were 3 and 2, respectively. Lots of odd shots of feet, of people with no heads, of the under side of the table. But then, they are little kids. As they grow older, they will hopefully realise there's more than just "point and click and hope for the best".

I'm hoping in the future to build up a studio and do more by way of formal shots. But that will have to wait till there's a space I can dedicate to it. In the meantime, I read photography books and magazines ... and take the occasional photo. :-)

[madshutterbug.livejournal.com]

IN a move which causes some of my local photographic contacts to look at me all O_o, I am know to occasionally put a small memory card into a camera. How small? It is relative, a bit, and still small. The first time I did this I used a 96 Mb card in the D70s, which provided me with 17 frames.

I still shoot film, though not as often, I do allow. Generally, when shooting film I'm shooting 120, in my TLR, which gives me 12 frames per roll. Once I'm done cleaning it up, and rigging the room to a darkroom for loading the carriers, I'll start shooting with the 8x10 view camera recently acquired. Four sheets, that's all I can take with me before needing to reload. I do intend to purchase another carrier, more because I've got odd issues with the number Four moreso than the limit on the number of photographs I can make at a time.

Why?

To slow down. To bring myself back to thinking about what I'm doing.

[azhdragon.livejournal.com]

One of the areas I'm interested in developing my skills in is wedding photography - which requires (as I've discovered) both 'composing ability', and the 'what the hell; shoot it all and sort it later' mindset.

Some of the best shots of my son's weddings were the candid ones. The formal, standard, posed photographs are alright, but the ones I like best are the candid shots.

Except when I'm at a sporting event (eg, football - or aerial pingpong as our local code is known), I do tend to compose, however briefly before I click. Probably a hangover from the days of 24 shots to a roll, or the even earlier 12 shots I had with my first camera, circa 1972. Even if the composition is limited to "ok, there are no trees or signs growing out of their heads ... let's do it" :-)

A good friend of mine is into lomography - I can see the appeal in a warped sort of way.