RustyBug Offline Upload & Sell: On
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gdanmitchell wrote:
There are a lot of folks who photograph with great feeling and there are a lot of folks who are very adept at technical matters, but the number who master both is much smaller.
Indeed.
Mastery of each one is indeed challenging, mastery of both is rare.
I often liken it to a master cabinet maker who can tell of the many flaws (character) and technical errors in each piece crafted, that may or may not be detectable, yet has presented a piece that lets its beauty shine through whatever flaws are present. Being a master cabinet maker is one thing, being a master finisher is yet another. Here again, being both is very rare.
It is challenging to teach both sides of the brain simultaneously and that is why a true mastery artistic craftsmanship of any kind takes such a lengthy time to be developed to a mastery level in both areas. Today's world (old dinosaur warning) is filled with productivity that is a shortfall of mastery, but can still be popular. Brittney Spears and Justin Bieber are popular and made $$$ that most of us will never know ... but that isn't the same thing as having the craftsmanship of Mozart or Bach.
For many, today's camera / software is their ticket to being devoid of the painstaking development of a mastery for image making. Ask most photographers today about the tenets of light, hue, human vision, emotive response, scale, mass, balance, message delivery, etc. or which painter has most influenced their image making and they struggle to put them all together. Ask them what the difference is between using multiply blend mode, instead of curves and they are rarely aware of the mathematical operatives that underlie what PS is doing to make those adjustments.
Some would argue, what does it matter ... as long as the end product looks good? What does it matter how the Mona Lisa was painted or how Damascus blades were produced or how a Stradivarius was made or how David was chiseled. Sadly, those are masteries that we don't have true answers for. Having the command & control of applied process is part of the artisan mastery, but having the vision to create them is as well. No two Steinway piano's will truly play/sound the exact same way, yet they are made with a mastery that understands how to put all the pieces together in a way that delivers an unyielding excellence.
Being a master craftsman to make/tune a piano is a far cry from being a master musician to play such a fine instrument. Nary a person lives today that can both build such a masterful piano and play it with a likewise mastery that touches the emotive response of others as strongly. Ansel Adams understood how to build the instruments (process) that would yield the responsive interplay of light. While the musical notes are merely a matter of physics, and light is as well, the craftsmanship of interplay (execution and composition) in those tenets to deliver emotive (message) response is that which distinguishes mastery over competency.
To all the master artisan craftsmen, past, present and future ... though the masses of the world may never fully appreciate your works, may there always be those who do.
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