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

FrankS said:
Bob, I wonder if the same benefit is achieved by using digital, or is it just too quick and easy. Film involves a greater commitment of time and money. Since there is more at stake with film, the process may have a more profound effect. It would be interesting to put this to a test using 2 groups of photographers/students, one group using film, the other digital, and see if there is a difference in effect from this process. Hey, maybe you could apply for a grant! 🙂
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digital is not necessarily quicker or easier if the commitment to getting a good shot is there and film does not necessarily involve a greater commitment. many folks here use film and have never set foot into a darkroom. the 'greats' did not all do their own darkroom work either.
i am really new to digital but my process has changed very little. i can home home from a saturday shoot with 3 frames on my media card.
 
I don't know if there would be much difference in this assignment- as the learning is in the seeing, or the way of seeing. I suppose a card with a similar number of available 'frames' would work just as well. Fill a 512 card in one room in one hour?

Part of it for me was the dread upon loading that second roll of film that there was 'nothing left to shoot' knowing that there was three times more left to do. This bit would be lost with digital- unless one arrived with four 125 cards to fill...
 
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough". Robert Capa.

Talking street photography, this is really good advice. One day I'll get the guts to get in there!
 
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acheyj said:
Of course that doesnt always mean a short distance away !
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Actually, that's a very good point, and one that hadn't struck me, thanks. Knowing the subject is key, you think?
Though I still believe that his best photos are when he's so close that the subject fills the frame - saluting soldiers, gesticulating politicians, etc. And when shooting people, my better photos are also when I'm up close and personal.
 
Talent is rarely distinguishable from perseverance and hard work.

The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.

I'm sorry that I don't remember where these came from but I considered them important enough to write down.

Bill
 
"Your legs are the best zoom..."
"Your tripod is the best lens..."
"If you think whether it worths shooting... better do not...you should be sure it worths..."
... and one moment I do not understand in digital - people shoot and if the card is full, they start deleting some photos... I would never do this. I never throw any sigle slide.
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Richard Avedon summarizes his approach to photography, a sort of philosophy combined with his technique, in three paragraphs in "In The West"...

If you admire Avedon as much as I do (he's one of my Big 3 or 4 with Weston, Penn, and Brandt )you may already have the book..well worth the $40 I just paid for a good used copy...I'll transcribe those three paragraphs when I can take the time 🙂
 
stuken said:
Isn't it 90% of life is showing up?
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That would be Woody Allen: "Eighty percent of success is showing up."

st3ph3nm said:
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough". Robert Capa.
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Believe it. Just watch those land mines...

And, there are too many other worthy quotes that are relevant to this (the OP's post sums it up rather nicely for me). But the quote I keep in mind most is the one most-famously uttered by the gentleman holding my camera below. 😀

BBEly01.jpg

Me and EW (a big-time Leica guy, BTW)


- Barrett
 
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"New images surround us everywhere. They are invisible only because of sterile routine, convention, and fear"
--Lisette Model

"Photography's technicalities are the eternal refuge of the unimaginative camera buff"
--Peter Galassi
 
"When you are younger, the camera is like a friend and you can go places and feel like you're with someone, like you have a companion."
-Annie Leibovitz

"Work alone if you can. Girls are particularly distracting, and you want to concentrate; you have to. This is not anti-feminism; it is common sense. Companions you may be with, unless perfectly patient and slavish to your genius, are bored stiff with what you're doing. This will make itself felt and ruin your concentrated, sustained purpose.
-Walker Evans

"If you are a real artist, you give your whole being to your art. Anything short of that, then you are not an artist."
-Miranda Grey

And my own personal philosophy and what I endeavor to do with my camera. Photograph verbs.
 
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