Thinking retro

[mysteryscribe]

It is time for me to get off the other boards and hide out again. As usual when I am not involved in writing something fanciful, I pretend that I know what the heck I'm talking about.

While I was out there touring the boards, I found some great looking photographs, and some very nice snapshots. And some snapshots that thought they were great looking photographs. I was surprised by the lack of crap until I realized that I'm the only one posting just about every image they shoot. I would expect my crap ratio to be higher, but then there is no excuse for posting crap. So I can only say, "No Excuse Sir." Er Er or Ma'am.

I will try to do better, but I probably won't, since like everyone else I shoot a high percentage of crap.

One thing that did strike me out there in the digital world was how many pictures, no matter the subject, have the same feel. I know I'm gonna be in trouble again, but it is an almost plastic look. A cookie cutter feel, I guess. Possibly when it is so easy to over work a picture, it is easy to conform to what everyone else is doing.

Careful don't blow out those highlights. What the heck is that all about. A picture is more than the sum of it's parts. It reminds me of the opening of the 6million dollar man. We can rebuild him, we can make him better than he was. We can do this because we can. Just because we can does that mean we should. We can most likely clone humans to, should we. Flash on Gregory Peck and the boys from brazil.

I think that maybe we have gone a little nuts here, but then this is all new. Right now the techies have the keys to the asylum. I probably won't see it, but ten years from now it might just be a little easier to give a real grade to the digital images. For now let's hope the world doesn't go overboard and throw the baby out with the stop bath.

 

[Arch]

hmmm..... blown highlights can be used constructivly.... i.e. high key..... if it is intended there is no creative restrictions. However if there are blown highlights behind the subject matter for example, and the eye is drawn to them instead of the intended focal point then i do see them as a problem.

I understand what your saying about photos having a similar 'finish' to them.... i sometimes go back to my 'creative imagery' which is a kind of mixture between photog and graphic arts/illustration and the results certainly wouldn't last 5 mins in a crit gallery..... they just break too many photography 'rules'..... but i also feel that even tho digital processing can produce similar looking results, it can also be used as an artistic expression in its own right...... the trouble is, is the technophobia about computers and the will to 'want' to learn how to use a computer programme to its full capability........ similar in my opinion to people who just love vinyl records and refuse to swap thier collection for CD's.... theres nothing wrong with that, if you prefer the sound of a record..... and if you have a perfectly good record player, why spend hundreds of $ on a state of the art CD system.
But then you have to stand back and except that while your happy to kick back and listen to the irreplaceable quality of your vinyl......... the guy next door can watch a re-mastered dvd of your fav band in surround sound.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Not to mention all that great porn on dvd....

Let me give you guys this right up front. In a purely business since, I would throw all my other cameras in the trash.

Since you gave me they all tend to look alike, I will give you that when I see how a digital shot shows up on a monitor, I am humbled. If i get them both on paper, I like the film shot better. It has less of a manufactured look.

Blowout if it was there when you saw it, should be there when it is printed. Sorry but I subscribe to the (computer term) what you see is what you get. It's a retro kinda thing.
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[mysteryscribe]

I really like getting into the office (here) early. I get to post such neat things. Best of all it is hours before anyone comes along to point out how stupid they are.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Terri lock the door and do not let me leave again please... A voluntary commitment is for my own good.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Okay this is officially the whiners thread now. I had a flyer advertising a civil war encampment starting today at 9am. I figured these guys are never on time so I spent the morning loading my film holders, half paper and have film. I check the cameras, two of them, printrd up some website addresses to give to the people who I made pics of.

I decided to head on down to the encampment area after noon. When I got there, it was an empty field with one little table with a graveside awning over it. Under the awning of death, sat a little of lady civil war vintage, not her clothes, her..

"Where is everybody?"

"Oh they are on the way. Today is just a set up day. The encampment doesnt open till in the morning.

So of course I did the worlds most stupid thing. I took out the paper and before I thought I said, "That can't be right the flyer says it starts today."

She looked at me like I was a complete idiot, then she raised her eye to the empty field. She gave me a look as if to say, "You have a piece of paper and I have the empty field, who you gonna believe?"

Yes I would like a little cheeze with my whine.

 

[Oldfireguy]

I think “crap” in the eye of the beholder. This forum is made up of people with all sorts of skills from the person just starting to the one who has been shooting for years. When you lump photographs into the categories of photographs, snapshots, and crap then I would expect that everything you post is going to be your best work. Is it? Not so by your own admission. If I look at your work and say it is crap, then is it? What makes you an expert to judge what is crap and what isn’t, or me? How do you define crap?

Everyone here is taking photographs be it on film or digital. If you or I think it is crap it does not matter. It’s still a photograph taken by someone who liked it enough to post it. I have no right to judge the merits of someone else's photographs unless I’m damn good and even at that, you still might think my work is crap. So again I say, crap is in the eye of the beholder.

Enough crap on crap.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Im going to assume this is a joke, otherwise I will begin to believe you think everyone has to have YOUR opinion and attitudes toward photography. That would be akin to mind control and I know you cant believe that.

In this world there are saints and sinners and im a sinner. If I offend the saints, im sorry as can be, but I still have the right to be a sinner. So I would suggest if you are serious, don't read what I post. Otherwise talk to the site operators and have them ask me to leave. because that is the only way i am going stop calling thing by their proper names. Im sorry,now you said how you feel and now I said how i feel. Thats about all I can do.

 

[mysteryscribe]

ooops terri you didn't lock me in quick enough lol....

 

[Oldfireguy]

Okay this is officially the whiners thread now.

So I can't whine? That's not fair!

 

[mysteryscribe]

Rofl okay you win

you are right ... If i can whine then everybody should be able to
and honestly i didnt say any particular thing was crap

But since nobody ever comes here and it wont be seen, let me tell you what I think is... What I was refering too. You might remember I said I was surprised by how much good photography there is out there... And in one thread if you read them all i said photography is at its best as a snapshot media,., So I didn't put down snapshots... However the quality of cell phone pictures is garbage (note the different choice of words) ... It has a place sure, to send your mom a picture of the new computer on her cell phone, but it isnt serious photography Maybe someday but now the quality is awful I find it hard to believe anyone would disagree with that.

As for digital photography I have said about ten times, what it is good at: it is better a than anything else... What it is bad about it is giving new photographers the idea that shooting 200 cheap pictures is better that stopping to think about what you are doing.

There was a kid who posted a note saying there as a new chip that let you shoot non stop and how great it would be for him as a student. What BS...

I digitalize my film and i have a digital darkroom ie ten editors. But that doesnt mean I think everybody who buys a 2k nikon is an artist... Ask max about the man who critisized his film camera, then admitted he didnt know what an fstop was,

So come on in and whine you are welcome aboard. Hell we are all mistreated somehow... and if i mistreated something you worked hard on I apologize, but there is gargage out there and we are saying attaboy. If i see trash I dont comment at all on THAT specific picture. I can lump them all together and say there is trash on this site.

As for my work, I'll make anybody on this site a deal. You re-edit anything I put up, any place, any time, but let me do it back at you. I bring 30 year pulling triggers to every picture I take, but they arent all, or any of them pulitzer pics.

What makes me qualified to call something garbage, just my own opinion which is no better or worse than yours. If you are one of those super nice guys who never saw a picture or a sinner you didn't like, you have my absolute and real respect. If you are one of those guys who looks at a picture for ten minutes to find something good to say about it, then no I don't respect that much. You see we learn by having someone stand up and say "Hey the emperor is naked."

I can remember a picture I commented on when I first came here. It was an obvious crop mistake. I said i would have done this. And suddenly everybody came over to defend their friend. That's fine, but I guarentee you he is still making pictures that are less than they could be simply because he doesnt know to look for the natural frame that is there most of the time. Some of the guys here went to art school, some of them have years of photo experience and some are new. The guys who have been there should help the guys who are new, but "atta boy jeff" Is nice and I'm doing it on a one to one basis now, but that isn't teaching anything to anyone.

Now I'm whining lol

I'll get the cheeze and crackers and you ice up the white whine. NO no make it red it is much better for the heart.

 

[Oldfireguy]

I don't disagree with you and I enjoy your work. Someday (who knows how long) I am going to build a pinhole camera and I still want to see some of your reenacting photos.

 

[mysteryscribe]

If i can bring myself to go back to the encampment tomorrow, and face the old lady who thinks i am possibly the worlds dumbest man, Im going to shoot some. Paper negs and film as well. I have two cameras set up and a box of cut film holders. I just have to be willing to chew a healthy amount of crow. But then with a nice chianti anything is possible.

 

[JamesD]

Someday (who knows how long) I am going to build a pinhole camera....

YESSS! Excuse me while I do the cha-CHING motion.

Pinhole is awsome; I seem to be making it one of my primary shooting modes, and I'm glad to hear that someone else will be joining us! I just need to finish up my calibrations and techniques so that I can work on getting some decent shots.

And dag-nabbit, I forgot to order sheet film when I ordered stuff from B&H earlier....

 

[mysteryscribe]

You should try the arista films from freestyle. The arista edu is what I shoot it is cheap and has great contrast. With the size negs we are talking here the grain is not much of an issue. I haven't found grain to be a problem anyway.