Interspersed
> [Original Message] > From: William Robb > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "frank theriault" > Subject: Re: Digital profligacy > > And I'm not saying that taking piles and piles of photos with a > > smaller ratio of "winners" is a bad thing - it's always been said that > > taking lots of photos is a key to improving. > > Usually, by people who take bad photos. The way to improve is to look at > pictures and analyze why they work, and more importantly, why they don't > work. Indeed. This is what a number of very well regarded and well known photographers say they do when they get together with their peers. They don't bring their "good" prints to show them off, but, rather, they show the prints that may need improvement or with which they are dissatisfied. Some time ago I brought a few prints to a photography teacher who is well known in this area, and who studied and worked with WES. I brought prints that I thought would show off my skill and that would surely garner some praise. Frank just ripped them apart, one almost literally <LOL> I learned more about what constitutes a good photograph in one half hour with this man than I'd learned the entire couple of years before. > Taking lots of pictures used to be advised because it made the photographer > more adept with the equipment. Just taking pictures has little value, as you noted. Last year I read an article about practicing making photos. I don't recall the photographer's name - he was a well known Czech photographer staying at the home of, I believe, David Hurn. This photographer was not very well funded, but every day he was out and about making photos without there being any film in the camera. He was keeping his reflexes sharp, practicing composition, and learning nonetheless. > That was when you actually had to operate a camera to be a photographer. > Now, all you have to do is point the camera in the general direction of what > you want to shoot and push a button. This doesn't take any skill. Doug Brewer mentioned the film Pecker earlier. At one point in the movie an art agent introduces a blind photographer to the group. No more need for focusing, no need to waste time on framing and composition ... it was a funny scene on many levels. I'd like to suggest the Stevie Wonder School of Photography as an alternative to the old methods of practicing and learning to work with light. Shel
