Thoughts, notes, quotes, and approaches that have helped your photography.

The Tao of Photography is a decent read. I totally agree about looking at others' work and appreciating it, but ultimately forgetting what everyone else does and doing your own thing. That way the years of reading and looking (and loving!) leave a subconscious residue that no longer obstructs the intuitive and original (in the sense of the person and the photograph rather than in the context of the accomplishments of the medium as a whole), but instead aids it. I see a neat correlation between worrying less about what others think and better photography in my own eyes. Really, I only care for people to see what I see (only only a few is enough). If not, I have failed myself, not matter how much they like it. Aim to satisfy others by satisfying whatever it is that drives you and ignoring everything else.
 
In an interview, Manuel Alvarez Bravo once quoted Don Quixote

...Don Quixote is going through the woods with Sancho Panza and suddenly finds an object. He holds it up and says its the helmet of Mambrino. Sancho say 'But does your grace not see that it is a barbers basin?' And Don Quixote replies "for me it is Mambrino's helmet; for you its a barbers basin; and for others it will be something else"
 
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"There's a profound difference between the simple non-reflex, direct-viewing camera (such as a range-finder Leica) and a SLR. With a reflex you tend to make the picture in the camera; with the other, you see the picture and then put a frame around it. The RF camera is also faster, quicker to focus, less noisy, and smaller, but these advantages are much less important than the fundamental difference."

-Elliot Erwitt
 
I have to agree with Al Kaplan. Having recently retired myself I feel that after a year I have become......me again. A very strange feeling .When the worries drop away you can begin to see things clearly again.However not always possible.
That has become my biggest influence of late.
I am enjoying some of these quotes though .
Another geat thread.
 
As Turtle says, The Tao of Photography is a good read - but be careful you don't get it confused with another book called Tao of Photography which I think was written by Tom Ang. The first is good, the second not so in my opinion.
 
Who said: "if your photographs are not good, you were not close enough" or something to that effect.

Thank you for a thought provoking thread.

Foto-factotum
 
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