-Dorothea Lange
The Annoying Cousin and Photography
I was recently told by someone that I was a "good" photographer. I want to look at that comment without ego sticking its big swollen head in. That isn't easy because I still have one heck of an ego hanging around like one of those annoying cousins who doesn't know its time to leave. :)
All the photographs you find on this blog ( with the exception of the odd graphic used to illustrate a point [hopefully well cited but I think I may have goofed there from time to time] are mine...Well not mine, really...they came from one of my cameras and I was the one to push or guide the push of the shutter release...but they do not belong to me.
Creating an Image
I sometimes want others to think they are mine and that I am the creator. (If they are half way decent...that is lol) I may include the specs, from time to time, for ego reasons. I still want to look like I know more than I do. I still have so very much to learn and I goof up much more than I get things right. Still I want to create the image of a photographer.
I feel I can create a professional image if I use the right lingo when in honesty the math and physics part of photography still confuses me. I finally understand what aperture is and how it effects the image. I can almost understand what shutter speed, ISO and White balance are and how they effect the image. I understand the histograms a little better every time I shoot. But I still get tripped up on exposure compensation and always throw my camera settings off when I venture to use that. I still don't know what shutter speed to use if I adjust the aperture or vice versa in a given situation. I follow my gut more than I follow any tech know how. That doesn't always work out for me lol... I shoot far more pictures that I feel are not worthy enough to share than ones that I do. There is still so much to learn.
A Natural Inclination
I naturally love light and beauty (the internal and external kind). My camera, following my eye, is always taken there so I suppose that helps with composition. I shoot not so much what I think will make a good picture later on but what catches my eye in the moment. ( I have to note her that it has to be quite dramatic if it is going to catch my eye...I do not see clearly lol) . I want to still that moment as if I can capture time in a jar of megapixels. Illusionary of course. Like Dorothea Lange who shot the most beautiful and life altering pictures of the depression years, I love to capture the reality of light and life I guess. Whether or not I do...is another story.
Aperture Priority, f 9, SS 1/2000, ISO 200 55mm
( Had to include the specs. Otherwise I would be trying to hard not to appease the ego lol. My learning brain is saying: I could have gone manual here, widened the aperture to an F5, sped up the SS and or increase the ISO to brighten it up...but I like the way this feels. How it will look off the screen I am not sure.)
Passion and Willingness
I have the passion and the willingness to hold the camera to my eye and shoot at some moment I feel compelled to do so. It is a random thing...not well planned or orchestrated. I don't fret over how people are standing or how perfect they look...I just shoot what feels "real" to me. It is the "realness" I want. For that reason, I am not practiced or polished and it shows.
Just the person who pushes the button
So can I actually call myself a "good" photographer? Can I even say I am a photographer? Can I use the term "good" when I so much want to get beyond duality? A good photographer is viewed as one that shoots "good" pictures I suppose. What is a "good" photo? Just like art that is so subjective. what I think is good, someone else may call 'awful'. I am just a photographer...hey...I am using "I am"... I need to change that. I am someone who likes to take pictures; I have a good camera to take pictures with...that is a better description.
A Real Compliment
Another person once told me my pictures move like they are alive. Now that is a compliment I ( the real me...not the little egoic me) can sink my teeth into. That is what I want to do...bring a moment to life again and again and again. And there is no judgmental descriptor there so it appeals to something deep within me as validation for what I unknowingly set out to do. Sure the ego likes it too. :)
It is all good ....even if I just bored you to tears with my talk about photography. I did not mean to go on about that but I did. My bad:).
All is well.
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