Slate: Slow Photography
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hipsterdufus
Photographer?
Wonderful article. Makes me want to think even more before I press the shutter in the future. Really consider my subject, the light, etc. Sometimes too easy to go too fast, even with 35mm.
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Pickett Wilson
Veteran
Good article. Definitely has a point.
Mablo
Well-known
Great article. It made me smile. I'm not a solitary fool on the hill. There are others too 🙂
jsrockit
Moderator
I still photograph, with the exception of chimping, the same way with digital as I did with film. I always wondered how people enjoyed their vacation while photographing every little tourist trinket, treasure, and monument like a mad man.
user237428934
User deletion pending
I don't see the point in this article. Slow photography. This zen-like approach that you don't even have to take the photo after you have thought long enough about the scene. Where is the relation to slow food? Do you avoid eating what you cooked with slow food? No. You enjoy the eating as you enjoy the cooking.
But it seems to be clear that slow photography and street photography don't fit so well.
But it seems to be clear that slow photography and street photography don't fit so well.
ricnak
Well-known
I do slow photography. I thought it was a problem. Next time someone tells me to hurry up, I'm going to tell them where to go!
ampguy
Veteran
good article.
For 2011, my photo goals are leaning towards "slow photography"
One thing I am working on the details of will be that for every photo I take, I will blow that image up to 11x14 and frame it. So it really won't matter about film or digital but knowledge that I only have room and budget for one or two of these a month, and each one, framed is going to be costly.
The exception will be photos for others - family photos, cat photos, lens tests, etc.
For 2011, my photo goals are leaning towards "slow photography"
One thing I am working on the details of will be that for every photo I take, I will blow that image up to 11x14 and frame it. So it really won't matter about film or digital but knowledge that I only have room and budget for one or two of these a month, and each one, framed is going to be costly.
The exception will be photos for others - family photos, cat photos, lens tests, etc.
Juan Valdenebro
Truth is beauty
"If you take a thousand photographs, one or two will turn out great. Professional photographers rely on this logic"
Wow. That guy should see some of us prepare a product scene for hours, and sometimes even for a couple of days, with several experienced people involved, to finally hit the shutter just once and get a perfect film sheet...
Or a good street shooter knowing once he or she is found hitting the shutter by the subject, it all will have ended...
What can a professional photographer be inside that guy's mind? Anyone shooting a lot with a digicam and picking some shots?
For sure he's got the right to an opinion, but in mine, a professional photographer is precisely the other extreme: one who's learned how to shoot few frames and get as good results as can be obtained, based on precise and clear decisions related to the scene and the equipment, but never to the amount of photographs...
Cheers,
Juan
Wow. That guy should see some of us prepare a product scene for hours, and sometimes even for a couple of days, with several experienced people involved, to finally hit the shutter just once and get a perfect film sheet...
Or a good street shooter knowing once he or she is found hitting the shutter by the subject, it all will have ended...
What can a professional photographer be inside that guy's mind? Anyone shooting a lot with a digicam and picking some shots?
For sure he's got the right to an opinion, but in mine, a professional photographer is precisely the other extreme: one who's learned how to shoot few frames and get as good results as can be obtained, based on precise and clear decisions related to the scene and the equipment, but never to the amount of photographs...
Cheers,
Juan
GSNfan
Well-known
Salgado shot 40 rolls of Tri-X 36 exp a day. That is a whole year's supply of film for the slow photography crowd.
Arjay
Time Traveller
Tim Wu, the author of said article admits he's not a professional photographer. Speaking for amateur photographers, he does indeed have a point:
Don't fall for the illusion that the more sphisticated your camera is, the less you as a photographer need to think.
We amateurs were raised on that admittedly genius Kodak marketing slogan 'You press the buttion - we do the rest'. As easy as this may sound, it has always been a lie. Pressing the button has always been the easiest part - what needs to happen before that moment and away from the camera is what's much more challenging.
For a street photographer like me it is recognizing the split-second when a little story is culminating, or when a geometric arrangement falls into place for an unforgettable composition (apart from many other criteria). The photographer won't see this unless he already has some preconception of what could happen. He won't be ready unless he has prepared himself through intense studies by e.g. analyzing pictures from other artisis by reading books or visiting exhibitions etc.
I feel that - particularly for street photography - I would virtually be blind if I wouldn't have a repository of seen and remembered images that I could use to subconsciously identify potential images in the real world as things are unfolding in front of my eyes. But that's not all: I also need to have a clear idea of what the picture I'm about to shoot ought to be like.
To me, that's the hardest part, because I feel I constantly have to work very hard in making an image idea clearer and clearer in my imagination, almost as if I were drawing it on a piece of paper, and I would erase and redraw parts of it until the imagined drawing is perfect. And actually, the best pictures I have shot only happened after I had already seen them precisely like I was going to shoot then a short moment after visualizing them.
Just pressing the shutter machine-gun style and hoping at least one of the shots might turn out well won't cut it. Maybe one of these shots is a winner - chances are none of them is.
I think that's what Tim Wu means. He goes on to talk about the two steps of preparing the shot, and how actually taking it might become irrelevant after he has visualized the picture. While I can clearly understand his reasoning in terms of an exercise, I love the gratification of actually taking that shot and collecting a splinter of time for eternity.
Photography indeed is much less about pressing the button, but about the challenge of previsualizing. Actually shooting the picture is a bit like collecting a trophy, while the fun of the sport really is in the exercise, not in winning.
Don't fall for the illusion that the more sphisticated your camera is, the less you as a photographer need to think.
We amateurs were raised on that admittedly genius Kodak marketing slogan 'You press the buttion - we do the rest'. As easy as this may sound, it has always been a lie. Pressing the button has always been the easiest part - what needs to happen before that moment and away from the camera is what's much more challenging.
For a street photographer like me it is recognizing the split-second when a little story is culminating, or when a geometric arrangement falls into place for an unforgettable composition (apart from many other criteria). The photographer won't see this unless he already has some preconception of what could happen. He won't be ready unless he has prepared himself through intense studies by e.g. analyzing pictures from other artisis by reading books or visiting exhibitions etc.
I feel that - particularly for street photography - I would virtually be blind if I wouldn't have a repository of seen and remembered images that I could use to subconsciously identify potential images in the real world as things are unfolding in front of my eyes. But that's not all: I also need to have a clear idea of what the picture I'm about to shoot ought to be like.
To me, that's the hardest part, because I feel I constantly have to work very hard in making an image idea clearer and clearer in my imagination, almost as if I were drawing it on a piece of paper, and I would erase and redraw parts of it until the imagined drawing is perfect. And actually, the best pictures I have shot only happened after I had already seen them precisely like I was going to shoot then a short moment after visualizing them.
Just pressing the shutter machine-gun style and hoping at least one of the shots might turn out well won't cut it. Maybe one of these shots is a winner - chances are none of them is.
I think that's what Tim Wu means. He goes on to talk about the two steps of preparing the shot, and how actually taking it might become irrelevant after he has visualized the picture. While I can clearly understand his reasoning in terms of an exercise, I love the gratification of actually taking that shot and collecting a splinter of time for eternity.
Photography indeed is much less about pressing the button, but about the challenge of previsualizing. Actually shooting the picture is a bit like collecting a trophy, while the fun of the sport really is in the exercise, not in winning.
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nightfly
Well-known
I think this article's title and premise is a bit of a misnomer. It's not really about the speed of shooting or even how much you shoot. It's about people who shoot instead of seeing. Note this always applies to other people.
The basic message is don't photograph things to catalog them instead of experiencing them in real time. Your life should be more important than your photo album. It seems pretty facile and doens't really need to be said.
Also, I think the comparison to the slow food movement isn't really quite applicable and isn't very well expanded here.
However as a photographer, I find that I actually shoot pictures of the boring/mundane things like someone's commute to try and find what's interesting visually there. When I'm traveling while I often shoot photos, they are usually not of the tourist attraction type of things which I could just buy a postcard of if I feel the need, but rather I try to get the more everyday aspect of that different place. This does involve a slower approach or at least taking the time to get the feel of the place and gain a bit of understanding of it.
I guess I feel like the people who would read this article are exactly the people who would already understand it's premise. It's basically preaching to the choir. No one thinks that they are THAT GUY who's too busy shooting to actually experience the place.
The basic message is don't photograph things to catalog them instead of experiencing them in real time. Your life should be more important than your photo album. It seems pretty facile and doens't really need to be said.
Also, I think the comparison to the slow food movement isn't really quite applicable and isn't very well expanded here.
However as a photographer, I find that I actually shoot pictures of the boring/mundane things like someone's commute to try and find what's interesting visually there. When I'm traveling while I often shoot photos, they are usually not of the tourist attraction type of things which I could just buy a postcard of if I feel the need, but rather I try to get the more everyday aspect of that different place. This does involve a slower approach or at least taking the time to get the feel of the place and gain a bit of understanding of it.
I guess I feel like the people who would read this article are exactly the people who would already understand it's premise. It's basically preaching to the choir. No one thinks that they are THAT GUY who's too busy shooting to actually experience the place.
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GSNfan
Well-known
I watched the the HCB interview with Charlie Rose and he says thinking is dangerous when photographing, you just have to be receptive. I'll take what HCB said any day over some bloger who says photography is like "record keeping..." for him.
ChrisCummins
Couch Photographer.
Is this video online? Sounds interesting.
I'm going a bit Bruce-Gilden-mad at the moment, so I'd love to see how a 'slow' photographer copes with the 'happy accident' technique of Gilden. Hopefully they might see that pace is irrelevant, as I do. I used to shoot with my TLR and my SLR almost back to back. I would spend about 3 minutes on each TLR exposure and about 15 sec on each SLR exp (these figures are obviously just made up, but representative none the less!). Were my TLR shots 12x better as the extra time would indicate? No, but then again, were I to spend 3 min on my SLR shots and 15 sec on my TLR shots, both would suffer. It depends on your artistic intention.
I think the author of the article doesn't have a problem with quick or slow shooting, but merely the effort (for lack of a better word) involved. Holiday snappers place little value on the taking of their shots.
Regards
Chris
GSNfan
Well-known
Here, this video might just change your life: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4074157481455007235#
GSNfan
Well-known
Skip to 7:31 min of this video to watch Salgado at work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOUvjLDBym8&feature=BF&list=ULrKvISv15aVU&index=10
his in the zone and that R6.2 looks as if its part of his anatomy.
his in the zone and that R6.2 looks as if its part of his anatomy.
v_roma
Well-known
Interesting article. It doesn't have to apply to everyone nor does everyone have to agree with it but I certainly found it insightful. I've come to realize that one of the (many) reasons why I enjoy shooting film is that it makes me think more/longer before I hit the shutter (because it costs money and because film runs out a lot sooner than a card). I know there's no reason why I couldn't do that with my dSLR but I inevitably don't. Not to say there aren't many occasions when you should shoot like a mad man but I think I could probably use slowing down when shooting.
