- Joined
- Dec 11, 2006
- Messages
- 18,743
- Reaction score
- 8,047
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic US
- Website
- www.lewlortonphoto.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
I had lunch yesterday with a good friend. He is a good photographer, not great, but good and improving all the time. We talk about lots of things, but usually end up talking about pictures. Well, after lunch we were sitting having coffee and he asked me if I remember a certain picture of his. I said that I did, that I thought it was as good as he had ever taken and it would stand up well anywhere.
He replied that he thought it was the best picture he had ever taken, and he always has these lingering fears that he will never get to that height again.
He is, like me, someone who doesn't care much about the skills issue.
I have another friend who is very, very good at making pictures of flowers and landscapes, etc. His pictures are in the top 5% of flower pictures that I have even seen but, after a short while, his pictures have a boring sameness to them. He has added new looks to his repertoire but these looks getting boring and slide into the same old stuff. He seems not to mind and will gladly return to the same field of lowers year after year to shoot what looks to me like the same thing. He is amazingly skillful but not creative.
These two people represent to me the different poles in photography, the one who prizes the technical accuracy and skill of making something; he knows if he can find something vaguely photographable, he will get a well taken image. The other who, every time, he or she goes out, faces that long slog up Mount Creativity, never certain the he or she will get anywhere.
I can look at pictures I've taken and it is very easy to discount my part in them by saying the situation was there and all I had to do was press the button. THe actual skills I bring to it are minuscule compared to others who know every jot and tittle of photo science.
But pictures are sort of like children in that a good picture seems to be more than the product of a process, a good picture embodies something more and has a life of its own. I look at pictures I've taken that I think are good, and in reflection, feel good about my ability to get that picture collected.
But, inevitably, when I go through a down period, where I can't get out to shoot or do shoot but collect nothing worhtwhile, that same fear of never producing anything good pops up again.
He replied that he thought it was the best picture he had ever taken, and he always has these lingering fears that he will never get to that height again.
He is, like me, someone who doesn't care much about the skills issue.
I have another friend who is very, very good at making pictures of flowers and landscapes, etc. His pictures are in the top 5% of flower pictures that I have even seen but, after a short while, his pictures have a boring sameness to them. He has added new looks to his repertoire but these looks getting boring and slide into the same old stuff. He seems not to mind and will gladly return to the same field of lowers year after year to shoot what looks to me like the same thing. He is amazingly skillful but not creative.
These two people represent to me the different poles in photography, the one who prizes the technical accuracy and skill of making something; he knows if he can find something vaguely photographable, he will get a well taken image. The other who, every time, he or she goes out, faces that long slog up Mount Creativity, never certain the he or she will get anywhere.
I can look at pictures I've taken and it is very easy to discount my part in them by saying the situation was there and all I had to do was press the button. THe actual skills I bring to it are minuscule compared to others who know every jot and tittle of photo science.
But pictures are sort of like children in that a good picture seems to be more than the product of a process, a good picture embodies something more and has a life of its own. I look at pictures I've taken that I think are good, and in reflection, feel good about my ability to get that picture collected.
But, inevitably, when I go through a down period, where I can't get out to shoot or do shoot but collect nothing worhtwhile, that same fear of never producing anything good pops up again.