back alley
IMAGES
my apologies...i was being a smart ass...sarcastic about the amount of encouragement that happens here at rff.
back alley
IMAGES
much appreciated...
Landberg
Well-known
Landberg
Well-known
99% of us suck at taking photos (compared to the legends we all want to be like), and often the one that suck the most is the one that hate the most. I just think that we can help each other not to suck! We can help each other to be really great! But then we need to start giving some love and constructive criticism! Who cares if some photos are more common or cliche? Who here has only taken original photos that no one have never seen before?
Rick Waldroup
Well-known
Rikard, I visited your blog. Great stuff there.
airfrogusmc
Veteran
Thought this worth a repost. I posted this early on in this thread.
What some of the greats had to say about rules:
"Photography is not a sport. It has no rules. Everything must be dared and tried!" - Bill Brandt
"There are no rules and regulations for perfect composition. If there were we would be able to put all the information into a computer and would come out with a masterpiece. We know that's impossible. You have to compose by the seat of your pants." - Arnold Newman
"When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches." - Edward Weston
"Anything that excites me, for any reason, I will photograph: not searching for unusual subject matter but making the commonplace unusual, nor indulging in extraordinary technique to attract attention. Work only when desire to the point of necessity impels – then do it honestly. Then so called “composition” becomes a personal thing, to be developed along with technique, as a personal way of seeing." - Edward Weston
"There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs." - Ansel Adams "
To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible." - Edward Weston
"And in not learning the rules, I was free. I always say, you're either defined by the medium or you redefine the medium in terms of your needs." - Duane Michals
"What I write here is a description of what I have come to understand about photography, from photographing and from looking at photographs. A work of art is that thing whose form and content are organic to the tools and materials that made it. Still photography is a chemical, mechanical process. Literal description or the illusion of literal description, is what the tools and materials of still photography do better than any other graphic medium. A still photograph is the illusion of a literal description of how a camera saw a piece of time and space. Understanding this, one can postulate the following theorem: Anything and all things are photographable. A photograph can only look like how the camera saw what was photographed. Or, how the camera saw the piece of time and space is responsible for how the photograph looks. Therefore, a photograph can look any way. Or, there's no way a photograph has to look (beyond being an illusion of a literal description). Or, there are no external or abstract or preconceived rules of design that can apply to still photographs. I like to think of photographing as a two-way act of respect. Respect for the medium, by letting it do what it does best, describe. And respect for the subject, by describing as it is. A photograph must be responsible to both." - Garry Winogrand
And this to your other point. BTW I agree with you as you can see.
I believe as Ansel Adams believed:
"No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit."-Ansel Adams
Colin Corneau
Colin Corneau
I'm talking specifically about photographers who don't do that -- not suggesting that any and all photography of the homeless etc. fall automatically into that category.
I think there's something to be said - a lot, complimentary - for documenting reality...the social condition, whatever you want to call it. It boils down to motivation and respect, I would suggest -- quick and surreptitious grab-shots are just that, quick and surreptitious and nothing more.
I think you can do so while preserving a person's inherent dignity...heck, I'm positive there's examples of candid photography that displays that, too. But I know there's a lot more that are basically a form of tourism and that's not respectful of the subject and I'd suggest it's lazier, too...it takes work to talk to a stranger and you run the risk of them saying "no". But I think that people who do that create images that are different than people who don't.
Colin Corneau
Colin Corneau
If an internet thread is going to stop someone from making images then they shouldn't be out making them in the first place...clearly they're fragile pieces of icing sugar who aren't made for this harsh old world.
I was just browsing through Frank's mobile phone inspired thread and the first thing that came to mind (as well as thankfully being surprised by a few of the images in there) was, what is the general consensus on certain trite street photography subjects? You know, the ones we have all been guilty of at some point, but generally have been done to death and rarely offer anything really engaging for the audience?
Examples?
People just walking.
People walling with bags of shopping.
People on mobiles (cell phones)
People walking, using mobiles.
Buskers.
That same street performer who appears to be in every city in the world, no matter where you go.
People selling huge bunches of balloons.
And, arguably, the homeless (perhaps deserving of its own thread at some point?).
This is, of course, by no means a definitive list, but with the absence of any other additional factor, be it lighting, composition or content etc, that may set them apart from being decidedly ordinary or at the very least, subjects that overly saturate the genre, do you still consider these subjects worthy of constant documentation?
I realise there will be no right answer. Like everything else, this will be subjective. The list above, I am guilty of shooting every one of them, but equally, its what I avoid now (though I am mulling the last entry as a possible occasional exception) as I just don't engage with them. Do you? And, if so, why do you, for example, engage with an image of someone simply walking, perhaps in profile, in public?
I'd be interested to read everyone's thoughts
Nope, not at all. I don't subscribe to your list or even have a list. I shoot first and let the chips fall where they may.
My suggestion is you press the button more and do a lot less worrying and quitting before you even start. Almost everything on your list are pix I've shot that are in many museum and public collections round the world.
http://danielteolijr.tumblr.com/image/41198046638
http://danielteolijr.tumblr.com/image/41195534285
http://danielteolijr.tumblr.com/image/41366644596
http://danielteolijr.tumblr.com/image/41726318358
http://rangefindercamera2.tumblr.com/image/110813121862
Ranchu
Veteran
According to you.
easyrider
Photo addict
Sorry to be disagreeable (well, maybe not ) ) but the list is meaningless. Let me deal with just one item on the list: "People just walking." Surely it is still possible to come up with an original angle, original light source, an unusual person, an unusual composition, an unusual background, etc. to make such a shot original and eye catching? Or, am I out to lunch?
) ) but the list is meaningless. Let me deal with just one item on the list: "People just walking." Surely it is still possible to come up with an original angle, original light source, an unusual person, an unusual composition, an unusual background, etc. to make such a shot original and eye catching? Or, am I out to lunch?Colin Corneau
Colin Corneau
Yes, which is why I said it and not you. Sort of what conversation's all about.
fotographz
Established
Sorry to be disagreeable (well, maybe not
...amen! (I agree)
You go out to photograph the street and you get what is there AT THAT MOMENT...your choice is how you go about capturing
your vision in a photograph.
Almost everything out there has been photographed and then someone finds a new way to re-photograph it again.
...you may not know you might have liked something until you've seen it.
Ranchu
Veteran
I just wanted it clear that you weren't speaking for all of the Cool Street Photograpers Who Never Do These Things, or even more than one of them, only for yourself, when you made your announcement.
Colin Corneau
Colin Corneau
jky
Well-known
Sure document all these over and over again... put your own spin on them... mix and match.
ie: backs with great light framed through a coffee shop window with reflections of people walking and crossing the street...
...but please, please don't watermark them
ie: backs with great light framed through a coffee shop window with reflections of people walking and crossing the street...
...but please, please don't watermark them
jean-bob
Established
fireblade
Vincenzo.
Would you classify indoors as street?............but not your own home.
Michael Markey
Veteran
Landberg
Well-known
Often the things we hate the most are things we used to do ourselves.