Next time you work hard at getting pictures of landmarks

[The_Traveler]

Next time you work hard at getting pictures of landmarks, remember this picture.

 

[Buckster]

Next time you work hard at getting pictures of landmarks, remember this picture.

Ummm... Why?

 

[astroNikon]

Yeah,but those take the fun out of it Lew.

 

[molested_cow]

Those are waaaayyy to expensive. Mine's FREE! Like FREEDOM-FREE!

 

[480sparky]

...waiting for removal of image for TOS violation (they're derivative works!).....

 

[The_Traveler]

Fair use claimed under exception for editorial purposes.

 

[amolitor]

I never muck around taking pictures of stuff I can buy a postcard of. Some people, though, take great pleasure it trying to reproduce existing things or minor variations on existing things, and more power to 'em.

I'm never going to be one of those guys with the GPS putting my tripod exactly where St. Ansel did, but I don't hate 'em. I don't understand 'em, either, but there's lots of stuff I don't understand.

Still, I think it's worth pointing out occasionally that, in general, you can buy a postcard of <thing> that has a better picture than anything you're gonna take. Not everyone is conscious of the fact that they're duplicating effort, and not everyone is satisfied to be duplicating effort when they realize that they are. To those people, this is a useful tip.

 

[terri]

Exactly right, Lew. Not exactly a dime a dozen, but close enough.

I think this might be the point Andrew was trying to make in another thread about "important" images. Unfortunately, the word "important" means different things to different people so the suggestion didn't go over very well. There might be a better word - what could it be?

Regardless - this image from Lew says it all. There is not one of those cards that doesn't have a perfectly executed image on it, is there?

 

[The_Traveler]

When I see people trying hard to do something that has been done before so many times, like these above, I see that as an ego thing, a competitive thing, 'I can do it.' emphasis on the 'I".

OTOH, I prefer when someone tries to create something new, to find a new way of showing something.
For me, that is like uncovering a new treasure that didn't exist before. Not that I did something but that I found something.

That is how I feel when something I've taken is finalized and good (in my own estimation); the picture is no longer my end product but it exists on its own.

 

[terri]

When I see people trying hard to do something that has been done before so many times, like these above, I see that as an ego thing, a competitive thing, 'I can do it.' emphasis on the 'I".

Possibly, but if they are really trying their hand at a certain technique over an image they admired, they really might want something they believe to be perfect to compare it to. So I can excuse that aspect of it...though I get this other element, the "I" thing, too.

I don't do classic "landmarks", per se, but hell the majority of what I do is try to find an alt technique that helps me express what I've seen in a different way. Not really just the sight of it, but the feel of the place or the emotion it evoked, if that makes sense.

 

[The_Traveler]

absolutely.

I want to say something again, only this time as a question.

When you create something that is really 'good', does it seem to you to have a life of its own, that, like a child, is something separate from you?

However 'good' my pictures are on some absolute scale, when I do something at the top of my creative arc, that's how it seems to me. Like the picture in my signature, because it seems to me to have so much emotional resonance and depth, it seems to be independent of me.

That sounds inadequate to what I am thinking but as close as I can get on the fly.

 

[ronlane]

I can't really say that I've experienced that Lew. I guess maybe in my bubble photo, it kind of took on it's own life. This may be a case of me not having what I would consider really good stuff. (A confidence thing.)

 

[limr]

It was probably about 11 years ago when I was visiting a monastery called Batalha in Portugal. I was taking pictures, of course, including a few of a statue of Nuno Alvares Pereira in front of the building. When I got the pictures back from the lab, I saw one of the statue that I really should have been thrilled with - it was sharp, exposed well, composed well...everything was great, but there was something that just bothered me. Couldn't figure out what.

A few days later, I was showing the prints to someone, and when they got to that picture of the statue, she said, "This one is great! It's just like a postcard!" That's when I realized what was bugging me. It was at that moment when I realized that I had gotten skilled enough to take pictures 'good enough' for a postcard, but that I never wanted to take another generic postcard picture ever again.

 

[terri]

However 'good' my pictures are on some absolute scale, when I do something at the top of my creative arc, that's how it seems to me. Like the picture in my signature, because it seems to me to have so much emotional resonance and depth, it seems to be independent of me.

Well, it's a more challenging thing to express, but I think Lew's use of the words: "independent of me" here does a pretty good job. None of us seem interested in tooting our horns around here; we accept we are learning and growing, etc. But....! Every now and then, when something does turn out beautifully, yes, it seems apart from me. Like, appreciating that it is something that could have come from another artist/photographer who is well regarded, and not from our own creative spark. In that sense, we may come as close as we possibly can to viewing our work objectively (almost impossible to do), on those rare occasions we think, "I really did create that...and it's really something I'd admire no matter who did it!"

 

[Derrel]

When I see people trying hard to do something that has been done before so many times, like these above, I see that as an ego thing, a competitive thing, 'I can do it.' emphasis on the 'I".

OTOH, I prefer when someone tries to create something new, to find a new way of showing something.
For me, that is like uncovering a new treasure that didn't exist before. Not that I did something but that I found something.

That is how I feel when something I've taken is finalized and good (in my own estimation); the picture is no longer my end product but it exists on its own.

images of Horseshoe Bend - Google Search