MCTuomey
Veteran
I have a hole in my soul ... and photography helps to fill it.
Photography and Personal Identity
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cameramanic
Following the light
War Baby
War Baby
I was a war baby born in 1945.
My Grandfather told me, once you get bitten by the photography bug there is no cure.
I know now he was right. He started to teach me about photography when I was
14 years old, I had seen photos of different countries in Magazines and I wanted to learn how to develop and print my own photos. I also wanted to travel when I was old enough,
My father had been in the Merchant Navy, and my grandfather had been in the Indian army,so I had heard the tales of the East, and the tales of the sea.
My granfather lived with my aunt and uncle and our dark room was set up in his bedroom, this took about an hour to achive , we used old biscuit tins with light bulbs inside, to put the trays on to heat to the right temp. He gave me a camera a # 10 Ensign Carbine by Houghton-Butcher. A folding roll film camera (I have one in my collection) and the bug bit.Then came Girls, two wives and seven Children, I set up Different Darkrooms over the years, and took lots of travel photos around the world
(I am a marine engineer) But could not afford a Nikon or a Hassleblad or Leica.
These were the cameras of dreams,My first SLR was a Zenith.
About ten years ago
I started to take my photography more seriously, I also bought my first Digital camera a Casio bought In Hong Kong very poor quality photos but a novelty. I went to collage to get some qualifications in photography and my photography improved. With Didital cameras flooding the Market and most homes having a PC the price of Film cameras started to drop, now I own Nikons and Hassleblads and a Digital SLR, a Nikon D100 but no Leica yet, I found that with the digital cameras my photography was fast and frantic like fireing a machine gun,
If you shoot long enough you will hit something. The hassleblad slowed me down
and made me think about my shots, with only 12 to a film you dont have an itchy trigger finger, the Hassleblad is not the best for street photography nor is the Nikon F4 with a big telephoto. While browsing the net I came upon Rangefinder forum,
and started reading about Rangefinders, now I have a couple of Voigtlanders
a couple of Zorkis and a Fed . And i am realy enjoying useing them.
In my opinion Photography has never been as popular has it is now, Digital is to thank for this, with camera phones and web cams, most people have a digital camera of some kind, which leaves the cost of used Real cameras still dropping,
good news for Real Photographers,
Regards
Dennis Robins
War Baby
I was a war baby born in 1945.
My Grandfather told me, once you get bitten by the photography bug there is no cure.
I know now he was right. He started to teach me about photography when I was
14 years old, I had seen photos of different countries in Magazines and I wanted to learn how to develop and print my own photos. I also wanted to travel when I was old enough,
My father had been in the Merchant Navy, and my grandfather had been in the Indian army,so I had heard the tales of the East, and the tales of the sea.
My granfather lived with my aunt and uncle and our dark room was set up in his bedroom, this took about an hour to achive , we used old biscuit tins with light bulbs inside, to put the trays on to heat to the right temp. He gave me a camera a # 10 Ensign Carbine by Houghton-Butcher. A folding roll film camera (I have one in my collection) and the bug bit.Then came Girls, two wives and seven Children, I set up Different Darkrooms over the years, and took lots of travel photos around the world
(I am a marine engineer) But could not afford a Nikon or a Hassleblad or Leica.
These were the cameras of dreams,My first SLR was a Zenith.
About ten years ago
I started to take my photography more seriously, I also bought my first Digital camera a Casio bought In Hong Kong very poor quality photos but a novelty. I went to collage to get some qualifications in photography and my photography improved. With Didital cameras flooding the Market and most homes having a PC the price of Film cameras started to drop, now I own Nikons and Hassleblads and a Digital SLR, a Nikon D100 but no Leica yet, I found that with the digital cameras my photography was fast and frantic like fireing a machine gun,
If you shoot long enough you will hit something. The hassleblad slowed me down
and made me think about my shots, with only 12 to a film you dont have an itchy trigger finger, the Hassleblad is not the best for street photography nor is the Nikon F4 with a big telephoto. While browsing the net I came upon Rangefinder forum,
and started reading about Rangefinders, now I have a couple of Voigtlanders
a couple of Zorkis and a Fed . And i am realy enjoying useing them.
In my opinion Photography has never been as popular has it is now, Digital is to thank for this, with camera phones and web cams, most people have a digital camera of some kind, which leaves the cost of used Real cameras still dropping,
good news for Real Photographers,
Regards
Dennis Robins
zpuskas
Well-known
Being a sales manager is my vocation. Being a photographer is my avocation. It's been a part of me on and off for over 40 years. Mostly on for the past 20. I can think of nothing that gives me more creative challenge and pleasure than creating and viewing photographs.
Bertram2
Gone elsewhere
Great thread you opened here , Frank ! And a stunning mass of response, and not one single boring contribution ! 🙂)
Photography is a constant in my life too tho it needed quite a time until it really got an important part of my life. I ALWAYS had at least one camera and I really used it but for documentation only.
First approach at the age of 7 with a AGFA 6X9 Box, did not last long. Later at the age off 12 a 35mm Dacora VF camera mostly used for travels. 12 years later then a Minolta SRT101b with a set of primes, the first attempt to leave documentation and enter the fields of artisitic expression, also a bit under the influence of some friends studying graphic art in those days. Tho they helped me and guided me I was mostly disappointed about myself and my poor results and after 3 years I decided to sell all that expensive and heavy stuff which had not made an artist out of me. I just had not understood what the task was.
Bought a Minolta Hi-Matic because I still could not live completely without a camera and used it as I used all the others before, for documentation.
1986 my son was born and I wanted a better camera , tho still only for documentation it should be technically superb. So I bought a Yashicamat 124G which I still own and use today and thus the early years of my son are burned into some hundred 6X6 slides, still looking as fine as in the 80s.
Leaving aside the documentary work I was again very disapointed about my obvious inabilty to develop my craft and artistic expression and after some years I put that Mat into the board and again I bought a P&S for documentation only, a Nikon TW zoom 35-70 which makes superb slides.
So far all attempts had failed to use the camera as a tool for a personal expression, today I know it was my own fault, I was too lazy to deal with the whole issue decently and patiently enuff.
I really loved the cameras but I was simply too stupid to teach myself how to use it properly.
1999 the last artistic attack happened , I thought I should try to work more seriously again with a camera and I thought best would be such a magic all-auto thing of which I had dreamed in the 70s. So I bought a F80 plus a Tamron zoom 28-300. I was not contented with the quality of the lens, which was only my personal fault as it turned out later, when I understood how such a zoom must be used to work fine. Artistically the results were still not more than mediocre, not satisfying at all.
I began to read and to surf in the www and after a while I found that I had bought a crap camera which can't take decent pictures. Idiotic conclusion but helpful anyway, because 2002 I decided to buy a system which has a 1st class optical performance.
I had a nice offer for a demo M6 with 3 lenses for Euro 3800,- but decided that to be too much for a test, wasn't sure if I would like the RF style of shooting. Bought the same set for the half price from Voigtlaender and never felt any regrets.
This led me into the RF community of the www, first to the CVUG list and pgallery.net and later to all the other interesting RF places in the www. And this was the breakthrough for me, this time it worked , I did not give up after the first miles.
Met a lot of wise and patient guys out there ( a bunch of idiots too ), and some got my personal friends. I asked them again and again and I listened to their advices and I watched their photos and asked again....
And finally after all these many years the first time I had results which pleased me and motivated me to continue my self teaching lessons.
It's been a long way to go since 2002 but today I know more about photography than ever before and I think my pics look also better than ever before and the process of improving my craft is still going on and won't ever end as I know today.
Thus finally photography could establish itself as a part of my life, now I need it, I get nervous when I cannot shoot for a while, it helped and still helps me through bad and bitter times of disappointments my life generates from time to time , it keeps me in touch with my environment because it has taught me to open my eyes !
And sometimes, when some stuffed shirts at a party ask me what my profession is and I do not feel like talking about any boring IT biz stuff, then I answer "Photographer !" and tho this is a damn lie they believe it and so i do in this moment 🙂))
Best,
Bertram
Photography is a constant in my life too tho it needed quite a time until it really got an important part of my life. I ALWAYS had at least one camera and I really used it but for documentation only.
First approach at the age of 7 with a AGFA 6X9 Box, did not last long. Later at the age off 12 a 35mm Dacora VF camera mostly used for travels. 12 years later then a Minolta SRT101b with a set of primes, the first attempt to leave documentation and enter the fields of artisitic expression, also a bit under the influence of some friends studying graphic art in those days. Tho they helped me and guided me I was mostly disappointed about myself and my poor results and after 3 years I decided to sell all that expensive and heavy stuff which had not made an artist out of me. I just had not understood what the task was.
Bought a Minolta Hi-Matic because I still could not live completely without a camera and used it as I used all the others before, for documentation.
1986 my son was born and I wanted a better camera , tho still only for documentation it should be technically superb. So I bought a Yashicamat 124G which I still own and use today and thus the early years of my son are burned into some hundred 6X6 slides, still looking as fine as in the 80s.
Leaving aside the documentary work I was again very disapointed about my obvious inabilty to develop my craft and artistic expression and after some years I put that Mat into the board and again I bought a P&S for documentation only, a Nikon TW zoom 35-70 which makes superb slides.
So far all attempts had failed to use the camera as a tool for a personal expression, today I know it was my own fault, I was too lazy to deal with the whole issue decently and patiently enuff.
I really loved the cameras but I was simply too stupid to teach myself how to use it properly.
1999 the last artistic attack happened , I thought I should try to work more seriously again with a camera and I thought best would be such a magic all-auto thing of which I had dreamed in the 70s. So I bought a F80 plus a Tamron zoom 28-300. I was not contented with the quality of the lens, which was only my personal fault as it turned out later, when I understood how such a zoom must be used to work fine. Artistically the results were still not more than mediocre, not satisfying at all.
I began to read and to surf in the www and after a while I found that I had bought a crap camera which can't take decent pictures. Idiotic conclusion but helpful anyway, because 2002 I decided to buy a system which has a 1st class optical performance.
I had a nice offer for a demo M6 with 3 lenses for Euro 3800,- but decided that to be too much for a test, wasn't sure if I would like the RF style of shooting. Bought the same set for the half price from Voigtlaender and never felt any regrets.
This led me into the RF community of the www, first to the CVUG list and pgallery.net and later to all the other interesting RF places in the www. And this was the breakthrough for me, this time it worked , I did not give up after the first miles.
Met a lot of wise and patient guys out there ( a bunch of idiots too ), and some got my personal friends. I asked them again and again and I listened to their advices and I watched their photos and asked again....
And finally after all these many years the first time I had results which pleased me and motivated me to continue my self teaching lessons.
It's been a long way to go since 2002 but today I know more about photography than ever before and I think my pics look also better than ever before and the process of improving my craft is still going on and won't ever end as I know today.
Thus finally photography could establish itself as a part of my life, now I need it, I get nervous when I cannot shoot for a while, it helped and still helps me through bad and bitter times of disappointments my life generates from time to time , it keeps me in touch with my environment because it has taught me to open my eyes !
And sometimes, when some stuffed shirts at a party ask me what my profession is and I do not feel like talking about any boring IT biz stuff, then I answer "Photographer !" and tho this is a damn lie they believe it and so i do in this moment 🙂))
Best,
Bertram
Beniliam
Out of the limelight
I want participate in this post. But my vocabulary is limited. Sorry if you dont understand me.
In my presentation in RFF I said that I had 19 y.o. Yes, Im 19 now too 🙂. I started in the photography when I was 16-17 years. My father never going with the camera when my family travel (my mother and I, because I dont have brothers) In one occasion I said to my father: Why you never take photos to mom and I? And He said that the camera was heavy and always missed make photos. And I said: Ok dad, now Im going to take photos. Dont worry about the weight. I will take the camera. And it was.
Well, this is the begin of the story.
Now past 3 years. I believe that the photography is one of the most important parts of my personality. I love the philosophy, the literature, the history, the art... But my differences from the rest of the people of my age its who can I feel... the photography. For my the photography isnt only a paper with one image. NO! The photography is a feeling, a passion, that she boils in your own. The words, the literature, the art, the music... all artistic manifestations makes our life and our soul great. But listen me friends. The pictures, the books, the songs, they are created little by little. The painter can rectify, and the writer, and the musician while they create his art. Although when we appreciate its work, we see it like a whole. But a whole, that has been created step by step. The photography, is the only art that I know that it is believed in his totality at the moment. The image is a whole, do not exist traps. The moment is unique. It is a miracle. Can have something purer than our soul?. The art without rhetoric can exist?. Yes, exists, and photography is called.
A long time ago I wrote in a paper which meant for me the photography:
All photography that previously has been caught by more of a glance does not deserve to be exposed before any public. The photography never can be deliberate.
In my presentation in RFF I said that I had 19 y.o. Yes, Im 19 now too 🙂. I started in the photography when I was 16-17 years. My father never going with the camera when my family travel (my mother and I, because I dont have brothers) In one occasion I said to my father: Why you never take photos to mom and I? And He said that the camera was heavy and always missed make photos. And I said: Ok dad, now Im going to take photos. Dont worry about the weight. I will take the camera. And it was.
Well, this is the begin of the story.
Now past 3 years. I believe that the photography is one of the most important parts of my personality. I love the philosophy, the literature, the history, the art... But my differences from the rest of the people of my age its who can I feel... the photography. For my the photography isnt only a paper with one image. NO! The photography is a feeling, a passion, that she boils in your own. The words, the literature, the art, the music... all artistic manifestations makes our life and our soul great. But listen me friends. The pictures, the books, the songs, they are created little by little. The painter can rectify, and the writer, and the musician while they create his art. Although when we appreciate its work, we see it like a whole. But a whole, that has been created step by step. The photography, is the only art that I know that it is believed in his totality at the moment. The image is a whole, do not exist traps. The moment is unique. It is a miracle. Can have something purer than our soul?. The art without rhetoric can exist?. Yes, exists, and photography is called.
A long time ago I wrote in a paper which meant for me the photography:
All photography that previously has been caught by more of a glance does not deserve to be exposed before any public. The photography never can be deliberate.
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Roger Hicks
Veteran
Dear Stephanie,
There's a story behind the Leicas...
When I was about 20 and my girlfriend was 17 or so (about 1970) she wanted a simple, reliable camera. Hand in hand we found her a 1930 Leica II -- yes, 1930 because it had been converted at the factory from an A. It cost GBP 20.
Quite soon she insisted I buy my own Leica (she hardly got to use hers), so I bought a 1936 IIIa for GBP 30. We broke up in about 1972/3 and divided the Leica gear we owned in common such as a 9cm 'fat barrel' Elmar.
The first M followed in 1974, an old M3. Most of the others were the result of wheeling and dealing. For example my new M4P was a direct swap for a black paint M3 bought at GBP 235 -- about a third of the price of the M4P -- and my 90/2 Summicron was a direct swap for a Leica tri-lens turret bought for GBP 86.
There's also the question of what you give up. Many years ago, at a camera club, a fellow member said, "I wish I could afford cameras like yours." At the end of the evening he drove off in a new Ford and I drove away in a 14-year-old Rover 105S.
Take what you want, and pay for it, saieth the LORD...
What degree are you aiming for? I have an LL.B., which is effectively a degree in BS, and it's always stood me in good stead!
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com -- and Photo School is now up and running)
There's a story behind the Leicas...
When I was about 20 and my girlfriend was 17 or so (about 1970) she wanted a simple, reliable camera. Hand in hand we found her a 1930 Leica II -- yes, 1930 because it had been converted at the factory from an A. It cost GBP 20.
Quite soon she insisted I buy my own Leica (she hardly got to use hers), so I bought a 1936 IIIa for GBP 30. We broke up in about 1972/3 and divided the Leica gear we owned in common such as a 9cm 'fat barrel' Elmar.
The first M followed in 1974, an old M3. Most of the others were the result of wheeling and dealing. For example my new M4P was a direct swap for a black paint M3 bought at GBP 235 -- about a third of the price of the M4P -- and my 90/2 Summicron was a direct swap for a Leica tri-lens turret bought for GBP 86.
There's also the question of what you give up. Many years ago, at a camera club, a fellow member said, "I wish I could afford cameras like yours." At the end of the evening he drove off in a new Ford and I drove away in a 14-year-old Rover 105S.
Take what you want, and pay for it, saieth the LORD...
What degree are you aiming for? I have an LL.B., which is effectively a degree in BS, and it's always stood me in good stead!
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com -- and Photo School is now up and running)
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Pherdinand
the snow must go on
Benilliam, stop worrying about your english, you made yourself understood well enopugh. I also like yourt photos, there's a certain freshness in them, teh ideas, the approach to your subjects. Keep it up!
R
Richard Black
Guest
Every one's sojourn with a camera into the realm of photography is unique and quite interesting. We all have different paths and some of us met up here to share some of that journey. Mine began watching my mom take family pics with a Kodak Brownie, I wonder how many of us began that way? At the age of 11-12, 6th grade in the U.S., I bought my first camera, a Kodak Starflash, and took it on a school field trip. Still have the phots around here somewhere. There it began. Despite absenses, I always have return and did so when I joined the Navy, 1969.
The neat thing I enjoy returning to my pictures to see what I found interesting at that time and how I related to that subject. I read that some photographers do not review or look at their older work. I find that odd. I check how I did then, have I improved, how could I have improved, and just to enjoy what I thought was important enough to take a picture of.
I'd like to pose this question, it is a bit introspective, but if you do review your older work, how does it hold up to your vision now. For the older group, I'm not talking about your visual acuity. There are a few comics out there! Did your "vision" improve or change or did your technique/equipment get better. For me, I think my is growing and there is a bit more humor in it. At least that is my story and I sticking to it...
The neat thing I enjoy returning to my pictures to see what I found interesting at that time and how I related to that subject. I read that some photographers do not review or look at their older work. I find that odd. I check how I did then, have I improved, how could I have improved, and just to enjoy what I thought was important enough to take a picture of.
I'd like to pose this question, it is a bit introspective, but if you do review your older work, how does it hold up to your vision now. For the older group, I'm not talking about your visual acuity. There are a few comics out there! Did your "vision" improve or change or did your technique/equipment get better. For me, I think my is growing and there is a bit more humor in it. At least that is my story and I sticking to it...
Pherdinand
the snow must go on
Richard Black said:
My vision definitely got better. I see things that went unnoticed before, I can enjoy the colours and shapes out there, a bit more than a few years ago. I will be always grateful to photography, for this, even if my pictures will always suck like they do now.
Technically, i did not evolve much, i must say. I knew the theory, i apply it when i can but i still make the same mistakes like 2-3 years ago (maybe less often, dunno). Maybe - maybe - my exposure-guessing ability developed; last time with the super ikonta i measured the light only once in the whole day, the rest was guessed - and the results are 100% satisfactory.
I got an insight into lots of camera mechanics - not via photography, but via my endeavours in tinkering with cameras.
My equipment did not get 'better' just more varied, the 10 cameras i own now are from a very wide range. I am sure, in fact, that this variety works against improvement of my photography; one cannot get used to such an arsenal of cameras and lenses. I wish i could stick with one and be a master of it, but temptations everyday, everywhere. RFF is NOT helping with this, of course. 🙂
That's my short answer, hehe.
vha
Isn't it coffee time ?
For my part photography has been a part of my lifestyle for the last 8 years, an before that more like a hobby, so iv been carrying a camera for the last 14 years ( i am 28).
Started as so many others as "the annoying kid with a slr", you seen them ? The one that takes photos of everything that moves . .
then i got in to the darkness with rodinal and D-76, Came out some years later with a Nikon FM. That helped a bit for the understanding of photography, could not claim the automatics for messing it up. Slowly it improved, studied television, then some informatics, started working in a local photo store in 97 and that was my point of no return.
Finally i could afford what i´v liked doing, developing your own stuff is really nice, and i have learned a lot from it as well. And of course a job meant more money for cameras.
FM, FM, F4, F3, F3p, F4, F801, Rolleiflex planar 3,5, Contax G2, Hasselblad 500 CM, and some filmcameraes to be ignored (super8 and 16mm) sold almost everything, and now waiting for a Leica M6 to be send over to me with a 28mm summicron. Still wondering if I am going to buy the FM back for the 3rd time . . . even thug a Contax and a Leica should bee enough, if someone can tell me the meaning of the saying . .. 😉
So for my part photography is a part of me, not something that i think about, well some day next week I´ll take my camera with me and take some photos . . .
A camera is always in the bag and things to frame is seen everywhere.
What fascinates me most is that we all see the same but different . .
Photography makes it possible to show my point of view.
And also to admit ; things with knobs and buttons are fun 🙂
vha.
Started as so many others as "the annoying kid with a slr", you seen them ? The one that takes photos of everything that moves . .
then i got in to the darkness with rodinal and D-76, Came out some years later with a Nikon FM. That helped a bit for the understanding of photography, could not claim the automatics for messing it up. Slowly it improved, studied television, then some informatics, started working in a local photo store in 97 and that was my point of no return.
Finally i could afford what i´v liked doing, developing your own stuff is really nice, and i have learned a lot from it as well. And of course a job meant more money for cameras.
FM, FM, F4, F3, F3p, F4, F801, Rolleiflex planar 3,5, Contax G2, Hasselblad 500 CM, and some filmcameraes to be ignored (super8 and 16mm) sold almost everything, and now waiting for a Leica M6 to be send over to me with a 28mm summicron. Still wondering if I am going to buy the FM back for the 3rd time . . . even thug a Contax and a Leica should bee enough, if someone can tell me the meaning of the saying . .. 😉
So for my part photography is a part of me, not something that i think about, well some day next week I´ll take my camera with me and take some photos . . .
A camera is always in the bag and things to frame is seen everywhere.
What fascinates me most is that we all see the same but different . .
Photography makes it possible to show my point of view.
And also to admit ; things with knobs and buttons are fun 🙂
vha.
R
Richard Black
Guest
I really like this group! 😀 This discussion is evolving in the manner I hope the founder intended. We all have the some of this same traits, "my photography isn't that great". We probably are our toughest critics. I am the first to admit that I am not AA. I should attend aa for my camera addiction, but that is another part of this forum. I have seen your names there too.
I also have a wide variety of cameras and lenses and I believe they help me become a better image maker. Here is my explaination and maybe try it sometime. Say I'm out using the Bessa R and have a picture I really like, and one that can be repeated, say a landmark, a pond, any object that can be taken over and over. I return with the Rollei or the Fuji or Mir or ???. Different film, different light, different experience. Looking through a waistlevel finder vs Rf. Later compare the two images, in my case more than two images from a whole lot of angles. By doing this I find what I like better in composition and I hope using that improves my skills with all the equipment I use.
My frustration is a local statue of a cowboy mounted on a galloping horse. I'll post one some time. I just can't get it "right".
Enough rambling, keep shooting and look at your work with a different eye.
I also have a wide variety of cameras and lenses and I believe they help me become a better image maker. Here is my explaination and maybe try it sometime. Say I'm out using the Bessa R and have a picture I really like, and one that can be repeated, say a landmark, a pond, any object that can be taken over and over. I return with the Rollei or the Fuji or Mir or ???. Different film, different light, different experience. Looking through a waistlevel finder vs Rf. Later compare the two images, in my case more than two images from a whole lot of angles. By doing this I find what I like better in composition and I hope using that improves my skills with all the equipment I use.
My frustration is a local statue of a cowboy mounted on a galloping horse. I'll post one some time. I just can't get it "right".
Enough rambling, keep shooting and look at your work with a different eye.
Honu-Hugger
Well-known
Beniliam said:
This is a wonderful story, Beniliam. You are a photographer in the truest sense of the word.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
It always amazes me what a rotten photographer I was for the first 5-10 years. I'm still not great but I'm vastly better than I was. There are probably only about half a dozen good pics that I still treasure from that period. I get more good pictures in a good week nowadays than I got in a year then.
Incidentally, Beniliam, where in Spain are you? I get down to Catalunya intermittently -- I live in central France, about 600km from Perpignan. If my Spanish (or Catalan) were as good as your English I'd be a happy man.
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
Cheers,
Roger
Incidentally, Beniliam, where in Spain are you? I get down to Catalunya intermittently -- I live in central France, about 600km from Perpignan. If my Spanish (or Catalan) were as good as your English I'd be a happy man.
Cheers,
Roger (www.rogerandfrances.com)
Cheers,
Roger
Beniliam
Out of the limelight
Thanks Pherdinand, Honu Hugger 😉 I enjoy meeting persons like you in this forum
Roger, I live in Madrid. The catalan is a lenguage that I believed that the french would have facility to speak, more than the spanish.
Roger, I live in Madrid. The catalan is a lenguage that I believed that the french would have facility to speak, more than the spanish.
Y
yankeedoll
Guest
I feel true photography is an artistic expression, sometimes capturing a moment & sometimes making a personal statement.
Regarding personalities, I'm wondering if negative or pessimistic people have a more difficult time finding subjects. Could it be that those of us who still "ooohh & aaahh" over things like rainbows are better able to see the beauty in simple things & therefore find more subjects to photograph?
Regarding personalities, I'm wondering if negative or pessimistic people have a more difficult time finding subjects. Could it be that those of us who still "ooohh & aaahh" over things like rainbows are better able to see the beauty in simple things & therefore find more subjects to photograph?
R
RML
Guest
yankeedoll said:
I'm a bit of a grumbler myself, and sometimes a slightly pessimistic one (I'm a "half empty" man), but I don't have trouble finding subjects. As long as I'm not shooting people I'm fine. If I get confronted by a "subject" I tend to get agitated: I don't know how to explain myself, and I'm not one who quickly gets along with others. That part of my character, however, is something that seems to be reflected in my work: I often shoot townscapes with very few people in them, and then mostly unrecognisable and definitely not as the main subjects. I'm also not very surprised about many things (anymore), having seen quite a bit of the world and of nature. But I do enjoy beauty, in all its forms, and this gives me joy. I often try to capture that joy but I still mostly fail.
Y
yankeedoll
Guest
I think that any subject can make a great picture. One doesn't always have to be looking for a National Geograhic quality shot.
I also think you take better shots of subjects you feel comfortable with. Thus becoming an expression of the "artist" like any other artform.
I also think you take better shots of subjects you feel comfortable with. Thus becoming an expression of the "artist" like any other artform.
Early on, in the 60's & 70's, I too tended not to have people in the photo, at least not usually the main subjects. I read Modern Photography and tried to do photos like the ones seen in the magazine. In the 80's I took a lot of art & photography courses at the university, with two themes predominating. First was shadows as solid objects and their geometry, and second was store mannikins.
I think it was the mannikins that led me toward people as subjects, as the mannikins seemed to stand as examples of what some people wanted to look like... or what the fashion folk thought we wanted to look like. "Buy these clothes and you will look like this!" Cultural icons? And I became interested in the discrepancies, and started to include more real people in the frame too. Their reactions to the mannikins, and the contrasts. I think this helped me overcome shyness, a reluctance to confront others with the camera.
A few years ago I reviewed back over old contact sheets and prints, discovering that it was the people-related pictures that I now liked best. The shyness is easier to push aside if I have an idea or plan that can be easily articulated. I set out to concentrate on people as subjects, starting with those I know, or recognize, and/or have occasional business with. And that has been my recent "people at work" theme, which is easily explained in a few words if the subject wonders why I'd be interested in pics of them.
I think this has been beneficial to me in leading to more conversation and interaction with others in my community, and documenting the community in a small way. In some ways it helps that it's a small community, but it lacks the intensity and variety that can be found in the city. The youngsters think our community is "dullsville" where nothing interesting happens, but I think it's like most others in that there is plenty of interest; you must just learn to see it!
I think it was the mannikins that led me toward people as subjects, as the mannikins seemed to stand as examples of what some people wanted to look like... or what the fashion folk thought we wanted to look like. "Buy these clothes and you will look like this!" Cultural icons? And I became interested in the discrepancies, and started to include more real people in the frame too. Their reactions to the mannikins, and the contrasts. I think this helped me overcome shyness, a reluctance to confront others with the camera.
A few years ago I reviewed back over old contact sheets and prints, discovering that it was the people-related pictures that I now liked best. The shyness is easier to push aside if I have an idea or plan that can be easily articulated. I set out to concentrate on people as subjects, starting with those I know, or recognize, and/or have occasional business with. And that has been my recent "people at work" theme, which is easily explained in a few words if the subject wonders why I'd be interested in pics of them.
I think this has been beneficial to me in leading to more conversation and interaction with others in my community, and documenting the community in a small way. In some ways it helps that it's a small community, but it lacks the intensity and variety that can be found in the city. The youngsters think our community is "dullsville" where nothing interesting happens, but I think it's like most others in that there is plenty of interest; you must just learn to see it!
Y
yankeedoll
Guest
Yes, it's like learning to see the cup as half full rather than half empty. Your perspective can really make a difference.
R
Roman
Guest
RML said:
I'm also more of a pessimistic, cynical type of person (I don't know who said that, but I like it: 'Cynics are romantics disappointed by reality.'), and I also don't feel comfortable taking pictures of strangers - not only because I don't want to get into confrontations, but also because I'm simply not interested in 95% of the people I see on the streets, and their lives; as for the other 5%, I often feel that taking their picture would be kind of exploitative or condescending, 'social pornography', taking away something from them. I would like to shoot more documentary, subject-focussed type of pictures, working with people in their environments, but that is hard unless you have the right contacts and personality to connect with those people in the first place, and it is extra-hard with little free time and lots of pressure from job & personal obligations outside of photography. I do enjoy taking pictures of my clients at work (= a place where mentally handicapped people live), documenting their everyday activities, but unfortunately, I cannot show those pictures in public, because of privacy regulations.
So, what's left is taking pictures of inanimate stuff. I really got into photography seriously through looking at classical landscapes (eg. Ansel Adams work), and dabbled at that for along time - but at the end of the day, most of the pictures in that field have been done before, and it is hard to surpass the masters and avoid cliches in that field. Also, I like bleak, barren, rough landscapes, deserts, windswept plains, bare hills with decrepit buildings, etc (which might reflect on my personality a bit 😉 ) - but unfortunately live in a country dominated by lush rolling hills, majestic mountains and romantic forests, so I only was able to take the kinds of landscapes I wanted during a few days on my yearly vacations.
I finally pretty much gave up landscape photography, and that's why I kinda moved away from MF SLRs to rangefinders - now I like to take pics of interesting modern buildings, abstract stuff, shadows, pictures that are only interesting due to the light in them, brooding night-scenes pictures of kinda semi-witty scenes, stuff like that - but that's hard in a backwards-oriented city full of touristy cliche monuments, a place that is all tidy and gussied up for visitors, where romantic, nostalgic cliches are abundant on every other corner, where 'pretty' scenes and sights are much more common, and where the types of urban, modern, rough, 'hyper-realistic' types of scenery I like are hardly to be found. If I wanted, I could take a 'pretty' picture every other 10 steps, but precisely that I don't want - I don't want to take yet another 'romantic' pretty picture of a city I don't love, yet don't have the money and guts to move away from...
That's why I take less and less pics these days, and sometimes get the feeling I should give up photography and just find something else to do.
Maybe I should go easy on the liquor this evening, and get back to developing those focus-test shots with the new screen in my Rolleicord...
Roman
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