Geez, Bill, That sounds like a comment I'd make! Surely there's only room for one self-deprecating slob on this list. <vbg>
However, your little joke (much like yesterday's Kelvinator Kwote) sets me off on a tangent. The first thing is, taking a good shot is lucky, but it's not. I'm not sure what dying soldier we're referring to in this thread, but my guess is that it's likely Capa's Death of a Loyalist Soldier - but that doesn't matter. How much of what we photograph (especially, but not always, action shots) is ~anticipation~? How many of us have been taking photos for years or decades? Surely we use that experience to try to anticipate what's going to happen a split second after we depress the shutter release. Does it always work? Obviously not. But I'd wager that it works more often for the experienced than the tyro. Could Capa have known that the soldier he was aiming his camera at was about to be shot? Probably not, but on some gut level, who knows what Capa felt or anticipated. (I'll ignore the fact that maybe we're ~not~ talking about that photo - I am! I'll also not speculate on whether the shot was real or a staged fake) It may feel like luck, and sometimes it may be, but I'd like to think that most good photographers make their luck, by knowing where to be, by knowing where to point their camera, and by ~feeling~ when to press the button. The last comment comes thanks to a list member who has (off-list) exhorted me to stop berating my abilities - something I tend to do when I'm among people whose talents I'm in awe of (ie: many on this list!). So, my New Years resolution is to repeat the mantra: I'm a good photographer, I'm a good person, and ~people like me~! - until I actually believe it. <vbg> cheers, frank Bill Owens wrote: > Anytime I get a good shot, it's mostly luck :-) > > Bill -- "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer
