Your breakthroughs in photography?

[mysteryscribe]

Oh i agree you can do most any photograph with the intention to bring all the artist tools with you, but what you shoot is where the Hack part is.

I have not now nor did I ever have any illusions that I was or would ever be a great artist but I was reasonably competent at it. I never had a dissatisfied customer but then I never won any awards either. I was and still am, I hope, a nice blue collar photographer.

I shoot things for my own entertainment now and still am positive that I am no artist. So making money isn't the judge of success in this business. I have no idea where it is though. Maybe you are a success, if something you did is still hanging on someone else's wall 25 years after you shot it.

 

[ksmattfish]

Maybe you are a success, if something you did is still hanging on someone else's wall 25 years after you shot it.

If you are shooting for your own entertainment, you are a success if you are entertained.

 

[mysteryscribe]

In that case i am a miserable failure yet again, since I come here to be entertained as well lol.....

I never considered whether I was a success or not. I don't know if a blue collar worker needs that kind of thing.

I fed my family, put my kid through school, and taught her husband a skill. I suppose that makes me a personal success. At the very least it keeps me from feeling a total failure anyway.

That probably is the difference between the artist mind set, and the Blue color hack. I don't need the awards or the acclaim because I never felt that was a goal. To me photography was a job, one that allowed me a lot of freedom and self expression. However, it was still just a job. I don't think anyone else will ever understand that. I don't fault the people who strive to be great artists, I just didn't. I do resent them thinking that they have a monopoly on the craft. They don't at all. There is room in the tent for the cab driver just trying to make an extra buck as well.

For every Edward Weston there was a hundred Clyde Simmons.

Mostly I had fun with photography, something that is vastly under rated.

Im going to shut up now since I have hijacked yet another conversation.

 

[markc]

That probably is the difference between the artist mind set, and the Blue color hack. I don't need the awards or the acclaim because I never felt that was a goal.

I don't think that's the artist mindset. That's something yet again. I see the artistic way as wanting to express oneself.

I personally think that no one else has the right to determine what path a person should go down. That's their own decission to make.

I don't know if it was a breakthrough or not, but my own decission affected my photography. I decided that I could make money much more easily as a programmer. I left the weight of needing to generate income on my computer skills so that I could march to my own drummer when it came to photography. It suited me more as a art or hobby, since I wasn't very good at delivering the business side of things. Money wasn't enough incentive to pick up the camera for me when I had easier ways.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Careful I have a bad heart... when you and I agree on anything it is a shock. There were no computers and I was just out of the service. I could work in a cotton mill, or be a photographer. Mine was the easier choice.

Photography as a hobby or a profession makes no difference there is room in the craft for us all. I try very hard not to use my yard stick to measure anyone else's motives or work. I try to be objective and I think most of us here do as well. It is best that we don't always agree if we did nobody would bother to come here we would all be the same person.

My business skills suck eggs by the way or I might have taken the business more seriously.

 

[castrol]

This doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but I just thought I
would say...mysteryscribe, I really enjoy reading your posts. Just felt like
throwing that out there.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Thanks and the check for that comment is in the mail.

 

[castrol]

Thanks and the check for that comment is in the mail.

Standard fee applies. As long as you rememebered.

 

[mysteryscribe]

I'm not so much worried about the standard fee as that bad check surcharge.

 

[neea]

I dont know if I've had any MAJOR breakthroughs but I have realized alot of things.

I argue with myself daily about whether or not to get a digital camera.
Yes learning would be quicker. The instant results would be nice.
But eventually I want to have my own dark room (if they still exist by then). Something about watching your picture slowly appear before you. I dont know... seems satisfying.

I usually try not to conform to the latest trends and find it very hard to try and stick with what I believe, which is that digital could never amount to film in terms of quality (this is where everyone throws their argumentative comments in).

I think I've also realized that I should probably learn how to operate the camera I have now. It was a Christmas present and I often feel bad that I dont use it nearly as much as I should be. I'd feel like a trader to myself and my family if I baught a digital and this one collected dust. I know that 10 years from now I'd regret it.

Another major problem I have which will definatley be a breakthrough when I've realized the truth... My close friends and family love my photography (not a surprise) and I ask myself everyday 'Is it that good or are they just biased'.
Especially my boyfriends mom. The comments she's made... I'd pay big bucks to hear strangers say

Those are my personal realizations. I've got lots of technical ones as well of course. Shutter speed, aperature. All of which I'm still slowly learning.

 

[mysteryscribe]

The last post made me realize something. Everyone here deals with different sets of logic to come to their own conclusions. A lot of us have been kicking about this craft so long we forget what it was like to be making decisions without what WE think are the facts. The struggle must be so much harder when you are coming into this all new and confused about the technical and mystified by the artistry. (God I like that sentence)

It's so much easier when you are old and can just ignore the new and cling to what you know. I know a lot of old guys have jumped into digital with all their heart and soul. (Sold out to the evil pixies I say) Some of us just take enough of the new stuff to keep the old stuff in competition.

For instance, I can remember a time when touch up was so difficult that nobody even thought about doing it, unless the mistake was drastic. Now even I want to scan negatives so that I can edit them on the computer. I have traded my oil tints for a computer program, so i might still do things that I aways did, but in a sometimes drastically different way. No more painting out scratches on a print. Now it is paint them out of the digital file.

The truth is (In my opinion for those of you who want waivers) that the techy stuff isn't really all that different. I mean the light still does what light always did. The light sensitive material is a different composition but it still makes the recording. Some things have changed for the better and some for the worse (again in my opinion). But we can still look back and appreciate what came before I hope without ignoring what is here now.

I like a lot about digital imaging. I don't like a lot about you young whipper snappers. Then when did us old guys ever want to make room for you kids. In my opinion of course. I can still remember the 35mm vs mf fights.

So whatever decision you come to it will be the right one because the craft of photography is all about being lonely. What's that you ask? When you put that camera to you eye there is no one else in the world who can help you. When you trip that shutter you have made you own decisions nobody else did it, just you. When you sit at your enlarger or computer and crop it, when you choose which areas to emphisize. It is all on you. So you live or die by (overly dramatic here) the choices you make. At least in the craft you do. If you had a reason for the choices you made then you should defend them, if they were random you should learn from them, if you are past that, then you say. They are what they are. no more no less.

So make your choices but remember tomorrow you can undo it all and buy a Nikon dslr. (spit)

end of editorial

 

[neea]

mysteryscribe, I often envy you (and your entire generation) for a number of reasons.
But regarding photography: Sure there were ways of editing photographs but it probably took more of your time and dedication.
Now a days, in this digital world, everyone's a 'photographer'. Almost everyone has some sorta of webpage with all their pictures. Advertising is telling the masses that if they buy this new hip camera they can have 'professional quality photos' (photos.. as in printed final results. it says nothing about subject or having a good eye for things that look good).
And with photo editing programs easy to buy and operate everyone thinks they can do it.

I remember reading a book about the history of photography. It seemed so pure back in the day when you needed to hire someone to take a family portrait.
Majority of people still need to hire mechanics to fix their cars. What happens to mechanics if every tom, dick and hairy can fix their own.

Just my opinion

 

[Alex_B]

neea.
true that these days almost everyone has some sort of digital camera. but most people do just very mediocre snapshots with them.

so the number of people taking photographs has risen maybe from 0.01 percent of the population to maybe 70%. but the number of people taking good photographs has risen only to maybe 0.5 % or even much less... at least that is my personal experience and what i see every day. That is a huge increase, but nothing threatening in total numbers.

so there will always be a market for good photography.

BTW, there are many people who can sort of fix their cars, still many of them they hire mechanics because they either don't have the time, or becasue they want it to be done better than they can.

 

[neea]

alex b.
I wasnt saying I felt 'threatened' or whatever by everyone with a digital camera.
I know theres still a market for good photographers.
And yes many people do sort of fix their cars. However, being a girl.. I know lots of girls and most of them cant check their oil never mind change it or a tire... or a thermostat or a fuel filter (my bfs been rebuilding engines most of his life so I've learned alot about cars since meeting him).

Maybe I'm just too traditional but I've always liked the way things 'were'.
Why fix it if it aint broke?

Perhaps 10-20 years from now I'll be one of the last developing my own pictures. And I imagine it will be extremley satisfying.

 

[mysteryscribe]

Perhaps 10-20 years from now I'll be one of the last developing my own pictures. And I imagine it will be extremley satisfying. Yesterday 06:07 PM

even if you have to learn to make your own film first. Cool thinking kiddo...