Photography Post Vol. 2

[opethrapture]

[joelz]

[airfrogusmc]

[joelz]

Airfrog - great stuff, good to see you posting again

[airfrogusmc]

Thanks a lot. Good to have some stuff to post.

[Joe]

the ultra shallow dof combined with mundane objects is becoming so cliche and thoughtless.

[Ma Junior]

the ultra shallow dof combined with mundane objects is becoming so cliche and thoughtless.

+1, you are what you eat. It seems like many people aren't exposed to good work and thus continue to clutter the world with meaningless photographs.

[Rob060]

I'd say if you're FF get a 35L

yea that lens is pretty nice. real nice. i just don't have any pro-grade glass right now, so i was thinking of starting off with something versatile.. pretty much all the shots i've posted in here were done with an 18-50 sigma on a 1.6x crop sensor. next camera will be full frame.

[airfrogusmc]

the ultra shallow dof combined with mundane objects is becoming so cliche and thoughtless.

Yeah Joe we've all been digg'n all those incredibly thoughtful images you've been posting.

[airfrogusmc]

+1, you are what you eat. It seems like many people aren't exposed to good work and thus continue to clutter the world with meaningless photographs.

A few quotes from a few of my favorite photographers.

"Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual."

Edward Weston

"It's the not the subject that interests me as much as my perception of the subject."

Roy DeCarava

"When I make a photograph I want it to be an altogether new object, complete and self-contained, whose basic condition is order -- unlike the world of events and actions, whose permanent condition is change and disorder."

Aaron Siskind

"I hope that these photographs are sterile, that there's no emotional content."

Lewis Baltz

These are but a few that turned their lenses on the mundane and theres nothing cliche about finding something interesting in shape,color or form.

And one of my truly favorite quotes

"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

[Rob060]

part of growing as a photographer is seeing the world differently. you can take a photo of anything and make it interesting with the right eye/equipment/perspective.

it's '365' projects that make me want to choke a bitch. wow, you're going to take a picture every day?! this is totally unheard of and is so deserving of a special title. sheer genius.

[rockon99]

^excuse my drunkenness, but do you mean you do, or do not like "365" projects? didnt catch the sarcasm if you were being so. i'm so dense sometimes. hahh

[twiceashard]

[home]

i've got a virus on my flash and camera memory (lx3). how do i rid them of it?

[airfrogusmc]

part of growing as a photographer is seeing the world differently. you can take a photo of anything and make it interesting with the right eye/equipment/perspective.

it's '365' projects that make me want to choke a bitch. wow, you're going to take a picture every day?! this is totally unheard of and is so deserving of a special title. sheer genius.

Gary Winogrand shot not a photograph every day of his life but is said to have shot at least 2 rolls of film everyday and when he died there were over 100,000 undeveloped images. No thats discipline

[joelz]

Rob060 What's your issue with 365 projects? Doesn't that go with the whole idea of 'practice make perfect' - sure, it's a somewhat public way (and oft exploited in terms of 'hey look at me') to learn, but I think people need the support of others to actually get through it.

I'm going to add/just say that I'm in the middle of my second 365 project - the first one I did was to learn how to use my camera and the second one (that I'm currently doing) is going on because I legitimately love taking pictures now. I can't think of a day where I would prefer to not have my camera with me and (more importantly) I look around at times when I *don't* have my camera with me and I'm often sad that I'm missing a shot.

I think the reality is is that people are lazy - you need something to kick you in the ass, and if it's something like a 365, or the www.daillyshoot.com, or (ideally) getting paid to do it, you need that motivation, so why hate on something that's enabling people to learn?

[Rob060]

because it's so unoriginal and played out now. and 90% of the time the photos people take are completely unrelated and don't even fit in a series together. if you really enjoy photography or it's your trade, you should be taking photos every day because you want to, regardless and slapping some 365 project name on random, unrelated images people take every day to make it sounds like it's some well thought out series is just lame, whether it helps someone learn or not. it's like a big meme for people to put on their flcikr or facebook pages and i just don't like the idea of using it to glorify the random pictures people take.

[poly800rock]

so you have more of a problem people labeling it 365 project?

[Rob060]

so you have more of a problem people labeling it 365 project?

yes, or the misuse of it.

[party pooped]

m6 + 35mm summicron + fuji

[halberdklown]

edit: my bad, always fail to read the bottom of peoples posts thinking its just part of their sig. great pictures party pooped!

[aqhong]

^ Says at the bottom of the post.

[joelz]

[narwhal]

A few quotes from a few of my favorite photographers.

"Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual."

Edward Weston

"It's the not the subject that interests me as much as my perception of the subject."

Roy DeCarava

"When I make a photograph I want it to be an altogether new object, complete and self-contained, whose basic condition is order -- unlike the world of events and actions, whose permanent condition is change and disorder."

Aaron Siskind

"I hope that these photographs are sterile, that there's no emotional content."

Lewis Baltz

These are but a few that turned their lenses on the mundane and theres nothing cliche about finding something interesting in shape,color or form.

And one of my truly favorite quotes

"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

this argument sucks. congratulations, you found lots of quotes. hey that's true, photography is subjective and there is great artistic value to be found in providing bizarre and novel interpretations of mundane subejcts/items

that's not what you're doing!! you're not making these objects altogether new or revealing any perceptions and emotions. you're doing somethign that has been done literally thousands of times, probably more, without adding anything personal or unique or compelling to look at. if you want to explore photography ok fine, everybody starts out small but accept criticism of your pictures instead of saying 'well ansel adams would say you're wrong!'

[airfrogusmc]

this argument sucks. congratulations, you found lots of quotes. hey that's true, photography is subjective and there is great artistic value to be found in providing bizarre and novel interpretations of mundane subejcts/items

that's not what you're doing!! you're not making these objects altogether new or revealing any perceptions and emotions. you're doing somethign that has been done literally thousands of times, probably more, without adding anything personal or unique or compelling to look at. if you want to explore photography ok fine, everybody starts out small but accept criticism of your pictures instead of saying 'well ansel adams would say you're wrong!'

No that argument doesn't suck. It gets to the core of what those photographers were all about. Do you know anything about them or their work?

I do except criticism but if you can't defend your work in an intelligent way then you had better give up early. If you don't like my work thats fine with me but show me something that hasn't been done?

Puppies, sunsets, landscapes with the rocks in the foreground. tilted people, its all been done to death. Everything's been done. EVERYTHING.

So you find nothing interesting about the shape of the boat? I did. I like the way the bokeh and soft shape of the boat is contrasted against the rough, splintery point on the bow. I also think that the repeating shapes of the bottles, the color and the light were very interesting and also worked very well with the shallow DoF and they both fit nicely into a larger series I've been working on dealing with shape and pattern.

Technique for techniques sake which was what was implied I agree is not interesting but I don't feel thats the case with these images. Everything in a photograph is either helping or hurting the visual statement. In these images I feel the shallow DoF is working with the light, shape, color and all the other elements in the frame so thats were my issue is/was. Now if you don't like the images thats a different argument all together and one I could really care less about. They work and say exactly what I was trying to say and fit into a much larger whole quite well.

[twiceashard]

Joelz-first shot is awesome

[eggshell]

Puppies, sunsets, landscapes with the rocks in the foreground. tilted people, its all been done to death. Everything's been done. EVERYTHING.

So you find nothing interesting about the shape of the boat? I did. I like the way the bokeh and soft shape of the boat is contrasted against the rough, splintery point on the bow. I also think that the repeating shapes of the bottles, the color and the light were very interesting and also worked very well with the shallow DoF and they both fit nicely into a larger series I've been working on dealing with shape and pattern.

Technique for techniques sake which was what was implied I agree is not interesting but I don't feel thats the case with these images. Everything in a photograph is either helping or hurting the visual statement. In these images I feel the shallow DoF is working with the light, shape, color and all the other elements in the frame so thats were my issue is/was. Now if you don't like the images thats a different argument all together and one I could really care less about. They work and say exactly what I was trying to say and fit into a much larger whole quite well.

a: there is progressive photography happening as we speak. if you ventured outside of flickr you could see this. so no, not everything has been done to death.

b. ok, so you're saying your photos are good because all the elements in it work together. too bad the same could be said about a photo any soccer mom would take. sure, the lighting/colors/focus/form/etc in your photo may work together, but are you trying to say taking a 'pretty photo' is all you aim for in photography? i have more thoughts on this but i'm curious how you'd answer this

[airfrogusmc]

a: there is progressive photography happening as we speak. if you ventured outside of flickr you could see this. so no, not everything has been done to death.

b. ok, so you're saying your photos are good because all the elements in it work together. too bad the same could be said about a photo any soccer mom would take. sure, the lighting/colors/focus/form/etc in your photo may work together, but are you trying to say taking a 'pretty photo' is all you aim for in photography? i have more thoughts on this but i'm curious how you'd answer this

I never said they were good I said they work for my intent. They work within a series of personal images. A series thats about loss and memories. One thing most good photographs do have are those things I mentioned and those things usually all need to be working together to enforce the visual statement.

I don't try and make pretty pictures. I try to stay true to my vision. Its up to every photographer to take all the visual information you've been exposed to and make it your own in some way.

"A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety."

Ansel Adams

Also I said everything has been done and it has. Puppies, sunsets, landscapes with rocks in the foreground have been done to death. There are plenty of good photographs being made today but there is also a lot of crap. I was responding to the statement that was saying my work was just a cliche, shallow DoF exercise and my response was if it were merely that it wouldn't have other elements such as the contrasts I mentioned and repeating shapes or the personal response that I had that compelled me to make the exposures and the fact they work in the context of a larger whole.

Now if you like my work or not thats a different issue.

[eggshell]

................

Now if you like my work or not thats a different issue.

you'd already said that

now in regards to the rest of your post:

i had something in mind to ask you, and you posting the ansel adams post makes this easier for me.

I'd like to know how this is a "true expression of what [you] feel about life in its entirety":

[airfrogusmc]

I never said it was a great photograph but it is an accumulation of all I have seen and lived as are most of the photographs we take. This image for me is about days of youth and fading life. Its about contrasts and extremes.

Again its part of a series and one piece of a puzzle of a larger whole. But this represents a loss. Its upside down to show its spilled its contents. Its weathered that represents a passage of time and in some cultures small boats are used for funerals. So this image represents a painful passage in my life.