Working about Life Photography concept. New Blog.

[Ornello]

Look at page 384 here. I spent about 1/2 second thinking about it, just shot. Afterwards, I came to recognize some interesting aspects. The building is light, the girl is dark. The building is 'classical' and orderly. The girl is disheveled, barefoot, with torn jeans. Tradition vs rebellion. Age versus youth. Dark versus light. None of this was in my mind at the time I took it. Because the girl's long hair is hanging in her face, she is anonymous. She represents college youth in rebellion. This was taken about 1971. There is nothing 'affected' about it at all.

Of course you're right, editing has a great importance. I never said that it's necessary to be always total aware of all the meaning of the photograph when you shoot. This awareness can gel also during editing.

This has nothing to do with 'editing'. Quit trying to twist and distort what I say! There is no 'editing' on that photo. It's a straight print. What I am talking about is something completely different. What I am saying is that you can often identify a good photo possibility without always understanding it at the time you take it. It can later turn out to have more 'meaning' than you saw at the time. The point is to take the damn photo first and ask questions later. Don't think, just shoot, just 'react'. If you think too much you ruin everything. You can 'train' yourself to do this, to 'recognize' photo opportunities without thinking. I did. This is one of my favorite photos, simply because it's so simple yet effective, because of the rich interpretive possibilities, none of which occurred to me at the time I took it. It's not luck, it's the aptitude to identify and capture things that make good photographs, and do so instantly.

 

[Benjo255]

This has nothing to do with 'editing'. Quit trying to twist and distort what I say! There is no 'editing' on that photo. It's a straight print.

Calm down my friend. Nobody is twisting and distorting what you say. By "editing" I mean choosing a photo over the other. I can shoot 5 photographs of the same subject, but, when I look at them, I feel only one is worth the social sharing. That's what I mean with editing. I edit my photos (separating the keepers from the crappy ones), not a single one. It has nothing to do with processing.

What I am saying is that you can often identify a good photo possibility without always understanding it at the time you take it. It can later turn out to have more 'meaning' than you saw at the time. The point is to take the damn photo first and ask questions later. Don't think, just shoot, just 'react'. If you think too much you ruin everything. You can 'train' yourself to do this, to 'recognize' photo opportunities without thinking.

I agree with this.
In fact I said:

"I never said that it's necessary to be always total aware of all the meaning of the photograph when you shoot. This awareness can gel also during editing.". With editing I mean the review of your own photographs, as I said before.

 

[Ornello]

This has nothing to do with 'editing'. Quit trying to twist and distort what I say! There is no 'editing' on that photo. It's a straight print.

Calm down my friend. Nobody is twisting and distorting what you say. By "editing" I mean choosing a photo over the other. I can shoot 5 photographs of the same subject, but, when I look at them, I feel only one is worth the social sharing. That's what I mean with editing. I edit my photos (separating the keepers from the crappy ones), not a single one. It has nothing to do with processing.

What I am saying is that you can often identify a good photo possibility without always understanding it at the time you take it. It can later turn out to have more 'meaning' than you saw at the time. The point is to take the damn photo first and ask questions later. Don't think, just shoot, just 'react'. If you think too much you ruin everything. You can 'train' yourself to do this, to 'recognize' photo opportunities without thinking.

I agree with this.
In fact I said:

"I never said that it's necessary to be always total aware of all the meaning of the photograph when you shoot. This awareness can gel also during editing.". With editing I mean the review of your own photographs, as I said before.

Your language is odd, so I misunderstood you. I would not use the word 'gel'. Most people today use the word 'edit' to refer to Photoshop manipulation. The printed reproduction is all I have of that image today (I have the negative somewhere, but it would probably take weeks to find it). Unlike most of my favorites, it was taken in softish light. There are no big dark shadows that I often incorporate in my photographs. It is therefore 'atypical'. What makes it work, what makes it interesting is the symbolism, not the shadows. As I said, this is not my typical work. I will attach some more 'typical' ones here. Bear in mind these are scans from printed reproductions, which unfortunately were way too contrasty. The prints were just fine. I was quite angry with the publisher, but that is ancient history now. I think you can recognize a consistency of style here, do you agree?

 

[Benjo255]

I like the portrait of the guy with the corn cob pipe.
May be my english is quite odd (I am an italian stranger in an english mother tongue forum, so I do the best I can), but in all the other forums on the web the expression"edit your photos" is different from "processing your photos". Also here, when I posted some pictures for C&C, somebody told me "I like how you processed the image" or "too heavy processing". Nobody ever told me "I don't like how you edit your photograph".
And if I look here:
edit Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
The meaning is closer to what I said.
May be the difference is between "editing a photograph" (PS manipulation) and "editing your photographs" (choosing which ones are the keepers).

 

[Ornello]

I like the portrait of the guy with the corn cob pipe.
May be my english is quite odd (I am an italian stranger in an english mother tongue forum, so I do the best I can), but in all the other forums on the web the expression"edit your photos" is different from "processing your photos". Also here, when I posted some pictures for C&C, somebody told me "I like how you processed the image" or "too heavy processing". Nobody ever told me "I don't like how you edit your photograph".
And if I look here:
edit Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
The meaning is closer to what I said.
May be the difference is between "editing a photograph" (PS manipulation) and "editing your photographs" (choosing which ones are the keepers).

You are correct, you would use the plural to mean selecting negatives to print or slides to keep. Today, 'edit a photograph' means to play with it in Photoshop or a similar program.

I had to ask the guy with the pipe not to move when I approached him, just to stay the way he was. I used a 20mm lens.

Do you see what I mean about 'style'? It is pretty easy to see these photographs are all by the same hand. The girl under the tree and the guy with the pipe were both taken on the same day, I believe, on the campus green (called 'The Oval'), just a few feet away from one another, with the same lens.