Many people can spot something that looks beautiful or interesting and then make a snap of it. But 99% of the time it won't work as a photograph, it's just a "photographic document" of where I was or what happened.
Real photographers, though, have a feeling for how something looks as a photo, and they either find a good way to photograph it in the right way (right focal length, right lighting, right DOF, right composition etc.) or quickly dismiss it as not suited for a photo.
We all know the situation when we are in a really beautiful landscape but have to admit that there simply is no photo to be had. ...Show more →
Agree. This is a photograph I recently took on a trip to Paris. It was a beautiful church near where we were staying and we walked by it every day. I wasn't sure exactly how to photograph it but decided on a a 28mm lens and thought it would look nice wide open at f1.4 to slightly blur the church with the statue in sharp focus. I took many different images but the wide open one I liked the best. It was a cloudy day and the mood seemed perfect for what I wanted to capture.
gdanmitchell wrote:
I have long wished for a forum about photography that is not geared-centric.
This Minor White has long been a favorite: “One should not only photograph things for what they are but for what else they are.”
I love that quote.
Yes, things have gotten rather stagnant around here lately unless a new lens or camera is announced. Hopefully this thread in a gear forum will be a great place to learn how to be BETTER and not just what lens is best. Thinking about photography philosophically and with our own uniquely human way of seeing is something I love to discover from others. 👍🏻
I'm not a photographer and therefore find much about photography to be pretentious.
The most important things I have learned are to capture what is of interest to you, not to care what others think about your photos, and don't delude yourself that equipment does not matter. One has to work backwards from the final output and that will dictate the level of equipment needed. Many times it is less than the best, but sometimes it should be state of the art.
EB-1 wrote:
I'm not a photographer and therefore find much about photography to be pretentious.
The most important things I have learned are to capture what is of interest to you, not to care what others think about your photos, and don't delude yourself that equipment does not matter. One has to work backwards from the final output and that will dictate the level of equipment needed. Many times it is less than the best, but sometimes it should be state of the art.
EBH
My BS detector goes up to 10...
You have LOADS of gear and nearly 40000 posts in this forum, but claim to be "not a photographer"?
Yes, things have gotten rather stagnant around here lately unless a new lens or camera is announced. Hopefully this thread in a gear forum will be a great place to learn how to be BETTER and not just what lens is best. Thinking about photography philosophically and with our own uniquely human way of seeing is something I love to discover from others. 👍🏻
I don’t know if it a new thing. Most online photography forums are very gear-centric.
And I’m not complaining that Sony gear is the subject of a Sony forum, for those who might imagine that. This actually is the place to discuss that brand of equipment.
It is more that in general forums haven’t figured out how to organize and sustain forums that are simply about universal issues of the medium of photography without linking them to brands.
There are some understandable reasons that this happens, of course — but it would be wonderful to find a way to add a brand-free focus on the art/medium of photography to the mix somehow.
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EB-1 wrote:
The most important things I have learned […include…] don't delude yourself that equipment does not matter.
EBH
I don’t think that many believe that “equipment does not matter” to photography. That would, of course, be an absurdity in a medium that specifically requires equipment in order to exist. (There’s a long discussion we could have about how equipment shapes creative media in general, but I’ll spare us. You can thank me later… ;-) )
What many do understand — and I’m among them — is that the specifics of exactly which equipment/brand we use (the “Best Gear” syndrome”) matters less than we might think and that other things that are not directly equipment/brand focused matter a lot more than we sometimes realize.
"Photography is the simplest thing in the world, but it is incredibly complicated to make it really work."
Martin Parr
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase"
Percy W. Harris.
I read an interesting article several times ago stating that there is nothing more detrimental to personal photographic development than wasting time in photo forums.
I certainly agree.
One thing I miss is photography clubs. Pre-covid there were several here and now they have disappeared. There was nothing like going out and taking photographs with your peers and then meeting to shoot the breeze.
Imagemaster wrote:
There already is, it is called a library. Hundreds or thousands of books and magazines about photography.
Then there is the Internet.
Then there is one's own experiences from getting out and shooting instead of relying on advice of others.
All of those sources will have a massive amount more of info than one will get from a thread on this site.
Kevner wrote:
One thing I miss is photography clubs. Pre-covid there were several here and now they have disappeared. There was nothing like going out and taking photographs with your peers and then meeting to shoot the breeze.
For years I was part of a small group — more a group of friends than a club — that met monthly at someone’s home to share photographic works-in-progress, offer (the good kind of) criticism, and talk about photography stuff. (We always began with shared food and a half hour of general socializing before adjourning for the critique session.)
The experience was so different from the photo forum experience. I think the latter has value, or I would not be here, too — but this direct meeting was so useful and rewarding. Yes, we did talk about gear, but we never got into the personalized brand wars stuff. Nobody was nasty or insulting to anyone else. And the focus was always the photographs — actual photographs presented for discussion by a group of peers who were will (and trusted) to note issues and note strengths.
While I’ve formed some important and valuable real-world friendships with other photographers that started in the online world, it was the in-person relationships that went beyond typing short and pithy replies that have meant the most.
Kevner wrote:
One thing I miss is photography clubs. Pre-covid there were several here and now they have disappeared. There was nothing like going out and taking photographs with your peers and then meeting to shoot the breeze.
Have they disappeared? I’m a member of a club here in Austria, partly because they also offer studio space. It’s one of many in Vienna and they’re quite active. My problem is that I speak German, but hardly understand the Viennese dialect which they always use when the discussion gets animated.
Swiss German would like a word or two… but I feel your pain.
johnvanr wrote:
Have they disappeared? I’m a member of a club here in Austria, partly because they also offer studio space. It’s one of many in Vienna and they’re quite active. My problem is that I speak German, but hardly understand the Viennese dialect which they always use when the discussion gets animated.
One of the favorite sayings of my back-country ski group is, "You never know until you go!" We often say this to push ourselves when waffling about plans, worried that weather/snow conditions won't be good. While that may be true, if you worry too much you won't end up skiing very much (and the powder is best on storm days). Same is true for photography - you won't get many good landscapes in your house (unless you are rich and have a great view from your living room)!
Nifty Fifty wrote:
I read an interesting article several times ago stating that there is nothing more detrimental to personal photographic development than wasting time in photo forums.
I certainly agree.
There are plenty of ways to achieve personal photographic development outside of being online. I come here to get some info on the hardware and software. That does not preclude the other and both can be complementary.
johnvanr wrote:
Have they disappeared? I’m a member of a club here in Austria, partly because they also offer studio space. It’s one of many in Vienna and they’re quite active. My problem is that I speak German, but hardly understand the Viennese dialect which they always use when the discussion gets animated.
Clubs started dying out in the late 20th century in my region when the internet became the popular way to communicate and then after that everything went digital and online. For example there was one club in my local library, but they tore dowen the building for replacement and the club disintegrated after that. There were none closer than 20 miles away, but that was not very practical, and I lived in a poulated area at the time. Maybe there were more clubs in small towns.
