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HT2579 - Either Match Perfectly or Not At All |
It has been pointed out to me over the years and by several people that I have zero fashion sense, particularly in my choice of clothing. Maureen compassionately laughed at me when I dressed up one time in khaki pants and a tan shirt that didn't match and then another time when they did and I looked like the ice cream man. Such lessons taught me a lot about depth of field in my photography. |
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HT2580 - Sometimes a Picture Is Just a Picture, Sometimes Not |
In these Here's a Thought comments, I talk a lot about meaning and content and the philosophy behind photography. There is, however, a case to be made for just letting a picture be a picture. It's a matter of trying to find balance in the swinging pendulum between profundity and simple beauty. So much of photography is about capturing beauty and why not? If that's the only content of the photograph, image after image after image, one does eventually feel that the meal is all dessert and a taste of substance would be a welcome relief. |
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This morning I went to one of my favorite breakfast diners. While I was waiting for my food, I pulled out my phone to review a new PDF publication of photography. I simply could not do it due to the volume and bombardment of distracting noise. A loud radio, the conversation and laughter of the patrons, dishes clanking, cash register ringing, phones ringing, door chimes — I was drowning in an overload of the audible cacophony. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I dislike art gallery openings. The same can be said about web pages that pop up a never-ending stream of ads. Seeing artwork is best done in the quiet that allows us to connect with the work with the fewest distractions. |
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HT2582 - Compositional Geometry |
Consider one, two, or three. In geometry, one is a point, two is a line, three is a triangle. In photographic composition, one is a thing, two is relationship, and three is a movement. Which of these do you think makes a more interesting and dynamic viewing experience? Staring at a dot? Bouncing back and forth along the line? Or traveling in an almost circular movement? |
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HT2583 - During One Sitting |
| If I really want to spend some time with an image to understand it, think about it, consider its implications and deeper message, I know going in that there is a limit to how many images I can connect with in a given sitting. Of course I can only speak with authority about my own experience. I know, from my Sunday morning book time, that I reach a limit at about a hundred images. More than that and my brain just locks up. Sometimes far fewer. I can scan quickly through more, but that always seems a bit of an insult to the artwork and the artist |
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| HT2584 - Everyday Life Interrupted |
It's interesting to look back at the artists' statement included with many portfolios in LensWork. It's amazing how many times the photographer begins by saying they were doing something completely disconnected from photography when all of a sudden they saw something that created a sympathetic vibration with their creative soul. They grabbed their camera and interrupted daily life to make art. |
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HT2585 - New Is Not Necessarily a Virtue |
Photographers tend to get very excited about everything new. New gear, new techniques, new locations, new venues. The problem with new is that it can be a false promise. It's far too easy to equate new with better. My experience is that better pictures most often come from repeated visits and pushing past the new, past our first impressions. |
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HT2586 - The Data Hidden in the Noise |
We click the shutter because there's something there. We feel it, we sense it, we may not be able to describe it, but there is data hidden in the noise. Our job is artists is to brush away the noise, the obscuring dust, sometimes the verbosity in our mind. Photography is not so much about taking as it is about revealing. |
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