On Jan 27, 2011, at 6:23 AM, Boris Liberman wrote: > Excellent pictures, Larry.
Thank you Boris, and to everyone else who commented. > You were selective enough in my eyes. I should say that your write up > intrigued me. In fact, I have to realize that I would surely like to invite > more people from the list to come over if even just to be shown the country > so that we can take pictures together. I would be very interested and > fascinated to see what kind of pictures you might produce should you be here. > It seems to me now that my eye has become tired, too used to the > surroundings, unoriginal... To that end comparing the notes with someone > who's a better shooter than me with fresh eyes would be most interesting. I won't claim to be better than you, but I do think that am better than I was two years ago when I joined this list. The concepts that I'm working on are the differences between being better at taking photos, taking better photos, and looking to other people like you're a better photographer. It seems that on one hand you don't want to miss any good shots, but on the other hand, you don't want to keep any bad shots, or less than great shots. As to becoming a better photographer, it would be interesting to read what other people do to improve their skills. Here are some things that I do. One exercise that I like is to go out photographing with a lens that is "too long". When taking photos my natural inclination is to compose it so that I don't miss anything that might be important. On the other hand, I try to photograph detail shots, where I don't care if I miss something that might be important as much as that I cut out everything that isn't important, or anything that isn't pretty. I live in an area with a lot of natural beauty, but which is difficult to photograph, because there is also a lot that isn't pretty. Interestingly, one thing that taught me to do this was spending a couple of weeks shooting primarily with my 20/1.8. Another thing that I do when photographing a scene is to think about how various people on this list would photograph it. There are several people on this list that are experts at one type of photography, and while I can't call them up and ask for advice, I can think about how they have photographed similar scenes. I've got my own stylistic themes that I also try to keep in mind. I like to juxtapose different objects, preferably incongruous objects. I also try to keep in mind my theory that photographs are like sentences, the best ones have both subjects and verbs. To look like a better photographer, I'm working on my skills at throwing out a higher percentage of my photos. One thing that helps is to have someone else look through and rate my photos, that way it's harder for a photo to get multiple thumbs up. You can't do this with too many people, because the best pictures seem to be the ones that some people love and others hate. I'd love to hear what other people do to either take better photos, or to become better photographers. I need to learn what other people do to look like better photographers. > > Boris > > > > On 1/26/2011 10:00 PM, Larry Colen wrote: >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157625912266578/ >> >> or if you prefer the flickriver interface >> >> http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157625912266578/ >> >> Candice got this picture of me taking video of the mud volcanos: >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ccmonty/5379329441/ >> >> -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
