Like hitting in baseball, failure is a part of any successful photographic technique. The experience of missing (countless?) photos over the past year has made me a better photographer. The trick is learning how to fail better.
(One can still fail—at failing.)
Once again, back to the infamous "don't think, just shoot." As a way of life, a doctrine? Unsustainable, insufficient. As a motor of development, a mental stimulant? Undeniable, imprescindible.
It's been too long since I posted some good images to this blog. I've been doing most of my image curating in MCV MCV magazine, also known as my Google Reader shared items feed. Every so often I'm going to post a set of 5 images that I'm enjoying. The nice thing about Reader is that you can throw in really large images without a problem. If you're interested in getting the feed added to your 'friends' section on Reader, email me.
Many Same is a simple site which displays a series of galleries, where each gallery is made up of a bunch of collected photos of the same thing. (Ex. cats with deers, cop cars and donut shops, people on camels in front of the pyramids) I'd love to have RSS feeds for the individual groups, they would each constitute a perfect blog.
Authorship on this site is sacrificed to the motif. I like motifs.
I am pretty sure that they built their site using Indexhibit, a free tool that you can use to build a gallery site.
[from you call this photography?]First (maybe last) installment, somewhat inspired by Keith Gessen's tumblr:
do you always have a camera with you
I recently bought a book by Nobuyoshi Araki, Subway Love. At the store, I flipped through another one of his books, in which he made the remark that he would feel more naked if he were in the street without a camera, than without pants. I'm not at that point yet, but I do try to bring a camera with me as frequently as possible. I end up taking almost all of my pictures while I'm out and about.
I'm not always up for the task of bringing out my SLR, so toy cameras can come in handy since they're small and don't require as much mental effort. I've thought about getting a phone with a nice camera (the Nokia N82 in particular) but it's too expensive to justify. On the whole, though, I think the idea of always carrying a camera is a productive one, to keep your eye in practice.
This is so obvious as to be comical to a 'serious' audience, but:
I am writing down the exposure and apertures I’m using. Bracketing more. Going back and adding the exposure/aperture data to files when I scan the picture.
Result: knowing more about how to best capture a certain kind of light. Damn, I wish I hadn't lost the receipt on which I wrote down the exposure/aperture for this one! I'm guessing f/11.
My last year in school I had to write a thesis to graduate. After months of reading, I sat down to actually write it and was a disheartened to find that beautiful prose did not magically flow right out of my pen. (I wrote everything out on sheets of paper before transcribing it on the computer. There’s a similar reason for using film, analog forces you to slow down.) I made myself write entire sentences that were completely repellent to me, just to start writing something. I cringed even as I wrote them out, knowing I’d strike them as soon as I made a first edit, but they were necessary just to get ideas on the page.
I’m at a similar point with photography, and writing this blog too. I’ve done plenty of thinking about photography over the past months, but without a whole lot to show for it. I do have to admit this is somewhat discouraging, but I also know that this is a stage of development. I can’t hope to wake up one morning as a brilliant photographer, but if I do small things to make myself better, I can get there. Maybe while I take these steps, I should continue to publish things, even if I have to cringe when I see them. That way I can see my own progress.
Posting stuff online is different from writing a thesis though, because with the thesis I was the only person to see my errors. Online, you get an invisible, mostly silent audience. I don't have any harsh critics I.R.L., so I'm taking that task up myself. Let's see how much gets through. Suggestions (post a lot/post only good stuff) welcome.