What about you?

Bill Pierce

Bill Pierce

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We talk about equipment and techniques because we all have that in common. But talking about subjects is more difficult because one of us for the most part takes pictures of his family, another of news events, another of landscapes and another of street life. I thought it would be interesting starting out in the new year to see what all of us photograph, to see both the diversity and what we have in common.

I checked one of my RAIDS. On it were 5,659 images of family and friends and 6,867 pictures that were a blend of news events, portraits and street work (street work that on rare occasions shows up in galleries and museums so I guess it’s “professional.”). Clearly, even in my later years, I have yet to figure out what kind of photographer I am. What about you?
 
So do I, I take all of the above and buildings in my town. Many have been removed (California, no sense of history). I put one up that has been when I first moved here a home, then many stores, and personal grooming establishments. I don't have all of them but here is one:

First Six Camera (talking about equipment) with its wonderfully bad lens:

Ektar100 by John Carter, on Flickr
 
Every year I select 10 photo that represent my annual efforts. For 2017 I choose: cityscape (4), landscape (2), and nature (4) of which one was a portrait.

Probably a fair yearly percentage would be: 60% land/city...scapes and 40% nature of which 10% of the total include a portrait.
 
Urban scenes, rural scenes, various Americana, roadside ephemera, dead and dying towns, businesses, some railroad/transit, but not a railfan by any means. Fountains! Falls. Night scenes. Etc. Etc. Etc. {dot dot dot} :)
 
News events, high school sports, politics, & quiet scenes of abandonments. The first three for other people, the last one for myself.

And people pictures of my extended family.

Best,
-Tim
 
About me? :)
I'm just cleaning 2016, 2017 photos before sending them as LR catalogs on my DIY NAS with ZFS...
Around 80% if not more are family and friends photos. Should be about 10K photos in total after clean up... While I suck in portraits genre big time...

About me... I feel like image posting addict here. :)
 
Since I decided to change careers and went back to school, I shoot a lot of photos of my girlfriend, our cats and trees. I love landscape and when we travel, I shoot a lot of that stuff too.

Before the career change it was anything goes.

Phil
 
I`m currently re scanning my entire film back catalogue which is giving me some perspective in terms of what I photograph .

I`m combining this with an editing exercise so I`m also learning what I value in terms of images.

No surprise that its family and friends no matter how imperfect the shot may be followed by street shots but with these I`m much more critical in terms of the technicalities.

My conclusion is that the subject matter .... in the broadest sense ... doesn`t matter but it has to resonate with me on a personal level.

So I`m an emotional photographer :)
 
What an interesting perspective from you Bill. I would have described you as a 'Professional' and left it at that and yet there are additional dimensions to your photography that blur the boundaries. Your enthusiasm for the subject and continuing exploration of the state of photography also says something about the scope of your thinking that is perhaps wider then most journeyman photographers and makes this column so interesting.
I took 35 rolls of HP5+ and 1 roll of Portra this year, I finished making the contacts just last week and am busy printing some of the pictures. I don't know how many will make it to prints but I'm guessing 2-3 from each roll. most of these will be seen by my family and perhaps friends and some may make it onto Flickr and otherwise they sit in boxes or occasionally on a wall. In my mind I consider the pictures to be about "this is where I went and this is what I saw". My brother calls it personal documentary. My photography lacks purpose and does not contribute to much other than the personal and selfish enjoyment from the activity, the collecting of pictures that confirm the memories and the love of lovely mechanisms. These occupations, peripheral to surviving and thriving, must be part of our nature in the same way that music is, conferring no evolutionary advantage and yet it can be found in every society no matter how primitive. John Lewis, when asked by a student "how can I make money from Jazz", replied: "Jazz is it's own reward".
For me photography is it's own reward.

Brighton, England 2017
Seagulls by Kevin Yates, on Flickr
 
My mother. I've got an "Explore" for this one this morning on Flickr.

Leica M2, Summicron 50mm f/2 rigid, 400-2TMY.

Erik.

27582954709_779e8afe56_c.jpg
 
My two Gallery album classifications are Shapes, and Theatre. So I take photos of family, friends, but mostly just my own stuff. Shapes is anything where the geometry is the inspiration, and Theatre is where people are up to interesting things. Often, or usually, I don’t even get round to classifying.
 
I'm a generalist. I'm also an amateur--I take pictures only for the joy of doing it. I "retired" from newspaper photography over 25 years ago and then started a new career, working another 20 years before retiring a second, and final, time. My subject matter is varied because I'm documenting the everyday--people, places, objects, pets, architecture and anything that appeals to me.

For the past year or so, I've had some health issues that have prevented me from traveling. I thought that would slow down my photography but instead it allowed me to take the time to appreciate my surroundings and document my boring commonplace life. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), I've discovered this commonplace life is rich in visual treasures.
 
When I first took photography "seriously" (maybe 12 years ago), I went through a growing / learning phase when I shot mostly coffee house pictures - stuff that was generically interesting to others and had some visual intrigue.
A few of those also hung in local Art Museum exhibits.
But I've passed through that desire.
Realizing that my personal favorite pictures have always been pictures of my life, family, friends, etc etc, that is pretty much what I photograph these days.
No one outside of my personal circle would marvel at the content I shoot these days, but that's fine. The world has trillions of wonderful pictures to look at.
 
In Ho Chi Minh City, a rapidly changing megapolis, I shoot: one-third street; one-third cityscape, and the remainder, urban nature. Of the three, street is the most demanding and whenever I don't have the energy and courage to deal with the masses, the motor bikes, the heat, and the manic inner-city vibe, I go to the suburban development areas which provide a landscape previously unknown to this fascinating city.
 
I took my first photograph at age five. From age 5 thru age 19 I shot friends, family, and interesting locations.

At age 20, I started my professional photographic career as a photographer for a newspaper where I shot people, places, things, and special events in a variety of locations, conditions, and situations.

I worked for two studios where I shot portraits, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, fraternity and sorority parties, and other social events.

I worked for a medical college where I shot medical, scientific, and macro subjects.

I worked for a training division of the United States Department of Agriculture where I produced still and video images for training purposes.

Even though I have two underwater cameras, I have not yet had the opportunity to shoot underwater.

Even though I have photographed cruelty, riots, civil unrest, accidents, and death, I have not yet had to shoot in a war zone.
 
These days with the kids grown and not a lot happening in central Iowa between presidential elections it's mostly dogs for my wife's efforts (we bread entlebuchers) and different lighting and things that catch my eye. Leaves, clouds, barns, farmers, crops and a few around campus as I walk from the car to class/office.

When I worked in Chicago I would shoot at lunch time and when I walked to and from work every day. Street, architecture, events, not as rich as NYC was but a lot more than here in Ames.

B2 (;->
 
Well cheese, never considered what I shoot. I like construction sites, odd or funny signs, too cowardly to do street photos of people. Put a narrow angle lens on sometimes and look for interesting (for me, anyway) shots. Sometimes lines of shopping carts and other worn out, done to death, cliché photography. Sometime I see shots while driving but when I return I find I'd have to stand in the street with a tripod so that often don't work out to well.
 
At present I'm 'testing' the cameras I've bought over the past year and a bit, so few of them are anything more than dull shots to see if the things work or to see if my old lightmeters work etc. Most of the shots are benches, pathways some wooden scuptures and a house with a path leading up to them and recently I've been taking pics of tree bark to see if the lenses can show any 'sharpness' and to see if I can hold the cameras still enough. So far one pic I did with my Ricoh 500GX has come out 'good' although the framing could be a bit better. A couple of others show some improvement over the original efforts.

I did try to see how much movement 1/8th of a second could show when I was in a local cafe, but due to the fact that some people with kids turned up (after I'd got set up by placing the camera on the table) it was automatically assumed that I was paedo, and a woman on the other side of the cafe quite loudly said "I hope you're not taking pictures of us!" I wasn't aiming at any kids and even though they did show up in a couple of the pics you'd only see therm with a magnifying glass. I wouldn't mind so much but neither she, nor anyone else would've noticed if I'd used a mobile phone to take photos while pretending to send text messages, but use a camera in an obvious way which actually shows what your doing and so have nothing to hide...

Anyeay, the only photo which did show any noticeable movement when a customer walked from the counter to her table wasn't as good as it would've been if I hadn't slightly moved the camwer when pressing the button.
 
For the longest time, I mostly photographed sports, softball mostly, because my daughter played. She was usually the star player which sometimes gave me better access to the field, which was great. But those days are over now and I am scrambling a bit, trying to figure out what to focus on next. I have gear to support any sort of photography so that's not the issue. I always carry a small camera with me but pick it up less and less frequently. I need inspiration. Plus, I moved to Kansas (from Arizona) and am having a heck of a time finding inspiration. Help!? :)
 
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