Tag: creativity

2009-06-05

Duane Michals Thinks Most Photographs are Extremely Boring

I heard a snippet of this quote yesterday from photographer Duane Michals, and liked it so much, I found it online and will share it here.

“The best part of us is not what we see, it’s what we feel. We are what we see, we are not what we look at. We are not our eyeballs, we’re our mind. People believe their eyeballs, and they’re totally wrong. … That’s why I consider most photographs extremely boring–just like Muzak: inoffensive, charming, another waterfall, another sunset. This time, colors have been added to protect the innocent. It’s just boring. But that whole arena of one’s experience–grief, loneliness–how do you photograph lust? I mean, how do you deal with these things? This is what you are, not what you see. It’s all sitting up here. I could do all my work sitting in my room. I don’t have to go anywhere.”

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2009-05-27

Changed My Mind About Budget Radio Flash Triggers

It is called the Cactus. Why so, I have no idea. They are about $40 for a pair, and once you have them, you attach a radio transmitter to your flash hot shoe and the receiving to your flash. Place the flash anywhere you want and you have wireless radio flash triggering.

Of course, you could just buy the unnamed, expensive radio triggers, and they really are worth the $400 or so if you need super reliability and other kinda groovy features, but those kind of folks will not read this anyway! I had given up on my pair of Cactus triggers. I had debated giving them away and just sticking with optical triggering (using the light of a flash to set off another flash wirelessly), but everything changed the past couple days. Here is what happened.

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2009-05-11

Photography Not Just For My Fancies

A few days ago, I put up a tweet referring to my article here about my new photographic journey (the focusing on telling stories thing). Of course, I was too brief, because it is Twitter after all, but it started a strange series of replies that brought up another topic entirely, one worth thinking through here, in case it might be of benefit to any of you.

Cooper Strange I feel like I am starting a whole new photographic journey. WHY do I shoot? http://bit.ly/klT7Y

****** I feel like I am starting a whole new photographic journey. WHY do I shoot? (via @CooperStrange) Whatever makes you smile and feel satisfied

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2009-04-13

LensBaby Photojournalism

The day has finally come: I saw a news photo that used a LensBaby. That is just too rad for words, at least for words besides “rad”. I love the LensBaby lens concept. It gives us a very different approach to photography and helps us break out of our auto-focus, tack shap, wonder world.

I just noticed a thumbnail of this photo in Google Reader. I was not even reading the news, this was just on the very top of the page because it was recent. So, I could easily believe others have used LensBaby in photojournalistic work, but I just have not seen it.

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2009-04-06

How Normal Amateurs Develop Their Shooting Skills

This post is for a friend of mine, who, like many of us, really wants to improve his photographic skills, but cannot seem to find the time to do so. How do we improve our photography when we already have a busy life? Well, I am in the same situation, really: just another amateur who wants to improve. Here was what my friend said:

I took the camera out to Big Lake with us Saturday and saw some really good shots, yet somehow, I took no shots. There is going to have to be a shift for me to do more shooting. I don’t have extra time on the weekends to go out and shoot like I would like to. So, I’m thinking that as I go and do the many things that have to be done I need to set in my mind that I’m going to have to slow down and take some shots. There was a town that we passed through that was like we just stepped out of Texas and into Old Mexico. The building architecture shifted. Would have been some great shots, but alas, I was in too big a hurry to get home.

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2009-03-18

Closing the Creative Gap

Chase Jarvis mentioned the “creative gap” in an interview the other day, “creative gap” being the “difference between what you want your pictures to look like, and what they actually look like.” It is the gap we need to jump to take that next step in the development of our creative muscle. Basically, we have to be out there shooting a lot, trying new things, chasing down that story, creating that photo in our heads, or doing whatever needs to be done to actually create the photos we are trying to create.

I guess there is a lot more to it than just “shoot a lot”, though that is a huge component. In that interview, Chase even said that (taking a lot of pictures) is the most under discussed aspect of our development. We have to know what works, and for the most part, that is learned through looking at hundreds of your own photos that just did not accomplish what you wanted and then going back out and figuring out how to make it work.

One of the first questions I had after thinking that through for a few minutes was this: “if we need to be shooting a lot, are we prepared with the tools necessary to actually go through those photos?”

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2009-03-13

Photographer More Important Than the Tools

It all starts with that new camera in your hands. You got sick of your point and shoot and wanted something faster and better, or maybe you wanted to rekindle that long lost desire to be a photographer that the cost of film and developing had extinguished out of your junior high budget.

Now, you have your new camera and the sky is the limit…until you start taking photos. You just cannot get it right somehow. They are still blurred, out of focus, too dark, too bright, boring, and everything but what you had imagined. Fear not. There is hope.

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