Larry Colen wrote:
On Jan 31, 2011, at 1:44 PM, Larry Colen wrote:
While waiting for my backdrop to dry at the laundromat, I had fifteen minutes to kill, so I went
for a short photo walk. On my way back, I realized that the fast majority of my photography is
mostly "finding photos" rather than "making photos" where I set out with a
particular idea planned out.
I'm curious how often the people on this list work from even a rough plan,
versus just going out and seeing what they find.
I suspect that the answers to this question are very different among professional photographers. Especially since several people said that they went into professional projects with a lot more pre-planning than they do photos that they do for fun.
.. or art... or commentary/photo journalism.
Is the thrill of the hunt, and the joy of discovery that much more fun than the
whole process of conceptualization, planning and implementation? Or is it just
a lot less work? Or easier to do when you have a few free minutes?
The thrill of the hunt, for sure. NO less work, becasue afterwards you
have big choices to make. The digital age changes everything.
NOte that Gary Winograd died with hundreds of undevloped film in his
stash, as did Vivian Maier... .. they would have to tell you why.
It's also interesting to me because in so many other of my pursuits, my ideas
and inspirations for projects are orders of magnitude more prolific than my
time to actually implement them. Yet, with a camera, I can go for a walk, see
something that inspires me, and in a few moments compose and take a photo.
Though in those few moments between inspiration and press of the shutter, I
guess I do go through the process of visualization, planning and
implementation, and with digital the process of successive approximation taking
as many shots as necessary until I get the one that I want. I suspect that it
would do my photographic skill a world of good to practice visualizing,
planning and setting up photos before I even grab my camera, rather than my
usual process of just going out in hopes of finding something worth
photographing.
Self-assignments can be useful - pick a subject for the week , etc -
you can take a photo of almost anything and make it interesting if the
lighting is good and you've selected a good angle to view what ever it
is. What is very difficult, i've found, is to have seen something
that in terms of content is fascinating but in terms of light and the
angle with which, for whatever physical reason of the place, I'd have
to shoot from is boring. Then you have to make a photo.
ann
I will definitely have to think more about the difference between making
photos and taking photos.
--Larry Colen [email protected] sent from i4est
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