Paraphrasing here but you’ll get the idea. The lyrics go something like this,
“I want it all, I want it all, AND I WANT IT NOW!!’
We live in a very now society. Information is almost instantaneous. Look at the web. I just typed the search term photography into my browser and had access to About 1,020,000,000 results (0.66 seconds) from Google. Holy Crap! The reason I bring this up is that technology has spoiled us in many ways. This quick access to information has spread to the ability of cameras to give us a quick result that’s good enough. AKA in focus and a decent exposure.
This leads to two things I’ve noticed. The lament that a photographer isn’t creating ‘enough’. Enough new or exciting or different images. Or worse. A photographer thinking that they are creating wonderful images and not receiving the just kudos.
Let us now move on to today’s quote.
“If I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography.” Edward Weston
Granted that when Weston shared this quote the processes for attaining images was more difficult than we have at our disposal today. But the abiltiy to see, and bring that vision, to our final images still takes knowledge and time.
Practice. Experimentation. Study. Making mistakes. Education. And, more practice. Push the limits of the new tech.
Rinse and repeat.
Don’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results. That’s someone’s definition of insanity often attributed to Einstein.
That is what ultimately leads to creating compelling imagery.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – What are you doing daily, or weekly, to take your image creation skills to the next level?
PPS – Esoterica – Weston was pushing the material he had at hand. For example, in his iconic studio photographs of the peppers and nautilus shells did you know that the low rated ISO of the sheet film used made it necessary for very long exposures? Some as long as 4½ hours!!
In a post a couple days ago I talked about an art installation at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Arts and how it moved me and made me sad…
Well, there was another installation there that saved me from spiraling too far down into the depths. It was Bruce Munro’s Ferryman’s Crossing.
When I first walked in to the Crossing I thought, “WTH??? It’s a bunch of CD’s on the floor…
First look at Ferryman’s Crossing
And despite my initial reaction I decided to spend some time checking it out. Glad I did.
The CD’s are tilted in two directions with lights flashing down from the ceiling from different angles, timings and places. This is not an environment you want to be in if you are epileptic but strangely enough it is a very calming place to be. There are large expanses of concrete receiving the reflections bounced off of the cleverly placed CD’s.
Sounds of a stream with birdsong and wildlife are piped in while the reflected lights play as a dance upon the walls. The longer you stay in the art the more you see. Yes I said in the art. You can walk as though on the banks of the stream. As in Joseph’s Coat from the bible many colors appear among the CD’s while the soft reflections play upon the walls.
Here’s a short video to give you a feel for the movement within the art.
Maybe it’s because I consider myself a ‘child of the water’ and enjoy all kinds of water I felt more at home here the longer I inhabited the space.
I did think to try and push the envelope of my creativity to see what I might capture with my camera. So in addition to the ‘straight’ images I photographed here are a few from my experimental foray. I looked for slightly different images to tell the story of this art piece.
Zooming the lens slightly during capture led to the electric colors and patterns
Rotating the lens and moving during capture…
Images were captured with the Lumix LX100 camera. To make the colors appear richer I set an underexposure of approximately 2 stops. Slight processing and enhancing with Adobe Camera Raw using the highlight and shadow sliders…
Sometimes we need to spend time in a place before it begins to share it’s innermost secrets with us.
I’ll bet it’s the same for you and I think today’s quote might help us understand better whether we are… or not.
“A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.” – Louis Nizer
Am I a laborer, a craftsman or an artist?
At any one time I am one of the three. I suppose it depends on the task at hand. I always aspire to be an artist but at the very least I hope to be a solid craftsman when I make my photographs and artistic images. Sometimes I am just a laborer. And I then try to either elevate the work on the next go ’round or not to perform that particular job again.
How much of yourself do you put into your work?
Laborer? Craftsman? Artist? Which are you??
And why do you think so?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Louis Nizer practiced law (successfully) for the rich and famous. In addition he wrote, spoke and advised some of the most powerful people in the world… Here’s another quote that you might not know where it came from and is attributed to Nizer, “When a man points a finger at someone else, he should remember that four of his fingers are pointing at himself.”
The Imaging USA trade show put on by Professional Photographers of America is always a popular part of attending the annual convention, especially the first day…
This was captured hand held with the Lumix GH4 and the 7-14mm Lumix Vario f4 lens at the bottom of the escalator in the Georgia World Congress Convention Center. Time lapse was processed in camera. Then it was downloaded to Adobe Premiere Pro for some massaging. Video was smoothed out. A little color correction was applied due to the extreme lighting conditions. Titles, slides and music finished off the video.
Thanks to Eric Miller for the use of the music!
Time Lapse Video captured at Imaging USA in Atlanta, Georgia January 2016
Time Lapse can be a great way to tell a story ’cause that’s a pile of people!! Approximately 560 images, with a frame fired every 3 seconds, were captured and combined. Output at 12 frames per second in 4K video.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – See you at Imaging USA in San Antonio next year??
An interesting thought for today’s Photo/Art Quote from Freeman Patterson. It’s not really something I’ve thought about much over the years. I guess as I’ve been exploring photography as more of an artistic endeavor verses a realistic process I would be attracted to this thought.
“The camera always points both ways. In expressing your subject. You also express yourself.” Freeman Patterson
I’m going to guess that this is the reason if you give ten photographers the same subject to photograph you will end up with ten different images. I also believe that the story given when the subject is presented to a photographer can have a huge impact on the final outcome.
Witness Canon giving six photographers the same person to photograph who told each photographer a different story about his life and got six VERY different photographs in return.
Canon video of six stories and six results. One subject.
Spend some time thinking about this and please share your thoughts. This is one of those things that fascinate me.
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“If I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography.” Edward Weston
