Love/hate relationship

Well, not really a relationship. David Hobby of Strobist featured a series of behind the scenes videos on Dave Hill in a recent blog post. So I watched the videos and was curious as to the result, so I peeked over to Dave Hill's website. I can't stand that over produced, comic book, fake as all getout style! I throw up a little bit when i see stuff like that. I saw him using a Mamiya 7, medium format rangefinder film camera during part of the first video. I was a bit intrigued and wondered if he'd have any film shots in his gallery. As I was dragging the mouse over to close the browser, I noticed a "Personal" section to his site. His personal section is FILLED with some of the most GORGEOUS black and white film work I've seen in a while, including some large format pieces! I've been exploring the black and white medium and large format film niche for a while and this guy has pretty much what I'm striving for. Obviously he's taking these along side his commercial, highly produced and photoshopped work. I think these are much more pleasant though. Different strokes, I guess.

On Carrying a Camera

DC Drive HD
Originally uploaded by Charles Allen

I read this post the other day about carrying a camera all the time. I dont know why I thought I was the only one that thought like that. He took the words out of my mouth. Especially with this: "...when I am driving around, such as when I am coming home from work, I will try to compose photos of what I am seeing out of my window in my mind."

Natasha Ericson

Natasha Ericson
Originally uploaded by Charles Allen

I took the time to experiment a little with the antique 4x5 camera I have. It takes forever to set up and the results are a little unpredictable with such an old camera, but this is also my first print from it. It's like a large format Holga, a nice effect when it works out, but not commercially viable. I'm looking to buy a modern large format camera to solidify this technique.

Art

So I've been a little conflicted about photography as art. I subscribe to too many photography blogs and some of them lean towards the "artsy" side of photography. While I appreciate some pictures I see classified as "Fine Art" others I think are just bad pictures. Jackson Pollock famously splattered paint and called it art. I think some of these photographers whimsically snap pictures and call them art. Today I read this from the A Photo Editor blog:

“I always feel as though there’s supposed to be some deeper meaning behind my pictures, a meaning other than ‘Something inside me connected with what I saw in front of me, so I pulled out my camera and took a picture.’ That does not seem to fly as an artist statement. Why, I’m not sure.” Emily Shur (here)

That's kinda how I feel! I think from now on, my artists statement will be something like "I thought it looked pretty."

I guess there'll always be stuff that I like that others don't for reasons I cant explain. I dont even know where I draw the line between what I think is art or not, and I certainly dont want to dismiss photography as purely documentary. I just dont get some of it.

I'll give you a prime example. Chase Jarvis is one of the leading commercial photographers in the country maybe even the world today. Back in September, he did a fun little experiment where he asked his blog readers to help him edit his portfolio by picking out one favorite and one least favorite. The answers were all over the board, but there were some that rated consistantly low and some high. He asked some art buyer friends the same questions and they picked completely different pictures. The ones that the art buyers picked generally ranked pretty low by his readers perspective and are very much the artsy stuff I dont care for. Dont get me wrong, I love his work and think it's awesome he is where he is today, I just dont get the artsy stuff.

I'd love to hear what you think. Do you have photographers that you think are artsy but cool? Do you have any insight on some of the snapshots people call fine art?

Justification

I'm constantly trying to justify why I insist on doing some things the hard way. Like black and white photography. My friend/co-worker and fellow serious photographer Joe Brygadier insists he can do anything digitally that can be done "the old fashioned way" and I have to agree with him on so many levels. In fact he agrees with me on most levels too, but we have a healthy film/digital dialogue going.

I read something completely unrelated today on the Time magazine website (a neat article about travel) that actually articulates how I feel about the genuine quality of film and traditional darkroom prints:

"No matter how much we crave it, authenticity is hard to come by in this country. We don't get it from our wide-stanced politicians, we don't get it from our lip-synching pop stars, and we rarely get it during our travel experiences."

Oh how true

The Masters

There are some great photographers out there who blog. David Hobby AKA "Strobist" has a world famous tutorial blog that will make any novice photographer an advanced amateur. Chase Jarvis is one of my favorite current commercial photographers and is on the cutting edge of the industry. But Joe McNally is one of the best storytellers in the business. He's been there and done that. He admittedly has been fired from every job he's had but is arguably one of the most successful photographers of his generation.

He has a lengthy blog post this morning. He starts with quip about the economy and being a creative type in a down market. He goes on to talk about some of the jobs he's been fired from and ends with quite a profound conclusion:

"It ain’t the way it used to be, but what is? There’s never been any guarantees, or forgiveness, or for the last 10 or more years, fairness, in this industry. But here’s the thing.

"...We make pictures. At the end of the day, we create something potentially significant that did not exist at the beginning of the day. We go forward, despite the uncertainty. Because this is an act of love and passion, which defies reason and prudence.

"And we make that occasional good frame, the one that sings, the one that lifts our hearts and the hearts of everyone who sees it. That well and truly is as good as it gets."

I know some people don"t share my love for photography, but I count my blessings everyday that I'm able to do my work through a lens. I cant imagine it any other way. It may come at the cost for my family of a more lucrative traditional career, but enjoying what you do with a wonderful family who supports you, is truly as good as it gets.

Photography Lesson

Every once in a while people will ask me learn photography like me. Well, here's a good answer:



No, but seriously, the Digital Photography School online has this tutorial today about 5 Elements of Composition in Photography. The author also defines the "Rules" of photography (like the rule of thirds) uniquely:

"Instead of looking at composition as a set of ‘rules’ to follow - I tend to view it more as a set of ingredients that can be taken out of the pantry at any point and used to make a great ‘meal’ (photograph)."

Pretty good advice for those of you just starting out with a camera. Or for those of you more technical minded folks who have the camera mastered, but can't seem to get good pictures. We learned a lot of these principals in design school, and every design element can also apply to good photography.

EDIT: [EV +/-] Exposure Compensation blog had a great post the other day "Of Design and Photography". It's actually more of a book recommendation. He gets a little more philosophical about photography and design as it relates to viewers, but is worth a read (the blog that is. I cant vouch for the book).

EDIT 2: There's a part 2 of the Digital Photography School article mentioned in the main body of this post. I knew there were a few of the design principals left out. I just didn't remember which ones (since it's been so long since school). Anyway, he goes over the rest there.