On 29 January 2012 13:00, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jan 28, 2012, at 8:36 PM, David Savage wrote: > >> On 29 January 2012 11:02, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> I find a lot of my creativity in pushing the performance envelope of my >>> gear. I find it a lot of fun to look for photos in situations where not long >>> ago it would have been pretty much impossible to get any photos. >>> To do this, I really need to know where the edges of that envelope are. >> >> If all you ever do is test the performance limits of your equipment, >> you end up with nothing but test shots. > > This is true. I don't think that all I ever do is push the envelope. It has > been scarce more than a month since I went out on a photo walk, during the > afternoon, in lighting that allowed me to shoot a low ISO, in the f/8-16 > range, and comfortably hand hold the photos without need of a tripod or even > a monopod. > > I also spend a fair amount of time pushing the envelope just for the > technical practice. For example when friends are playing at dive bars, so > that when I go specifically to take photos, I'm not pushing into uncharted > territory. I know what the camera will do, how to make it do it, and I don't > have to interrupt my creativity by trying to devise solutions to new > technical problems. Thursday night, I knew when I could use a flash, and > when it was better to use the meager available light so as not to disturb > people, and that I could push the camera to 12,800 at 1/10 Second and still > get something decent. It was my practice pushing the envelope that allowed > me to just relax and be creative, even in challenging light. > > Then there's the case that some of my best photos come from just noodling > around when I'm experimenting with what the equipment will do. What happens > if I bounce the flash off the mirror? What happens if I use a slow shutter > speed with the flash, and zoom the lens? What happens if rather than using > the 77/1.8 I photograph the musicians with the 200/2.8? What happens if I use > hi-lighter pens to draw on my model before photographing her in black light
That I can respect & appreciate. >> I recommend focusing less on what the gear is capable of & more time >> on creating interesting images. > > Interesting, because I find your night photos with the D700, where you were > pushing the abilities of the camera to be so inspirational, as a way of > creating interesting images. But those night shots aren't a test of the equipments limitations. They're a test of my ability to take a fun, & somewhat cliched genre of photography, & try & put my spin on it (no pun intended) I can tell you exactly how many test shots I took to test the D700's night photography capabilities. One. As soon as I got a cable release for it I set it up in the back yard pointed it at the sky and took a 23 minuet bulb exposure (I couldn't wait the extra 7 minuets) Once I'd reviewed that test shot, I knew the camera would do what I needed it to do. Every shot after that was just a confirmation. >>> It's kind of like instrumentation in a car. Most people just need a >>> speedometer, an odometer and a big red "motor meltdown light". Oil >>> pressure, temperature, tachometer etc. are completely superfluous. When I'm >>> racing, I use all of those, and often to more accuracy than >>> "good/indifferent/bad". >> >> Using race car driving is a flawed analogy. Driving competitively is a >> very technical skill. A lot of photography is an art. > > I suspect that anybody on this list who has driven competitively would agree > with me that, like photography, while it can be very technical, there is also > a great deal of art involved. I find my mental state can be very similar > when doing a shoot as when driving on the track. It's hard to explain how > for me, they can both fully occupy the intellectual, emotional and intuitive > centers of my brain. Granted, the worry over blowing an exposure isn't > usually quite as visceral as the feeling that you may have just made a > mistake on the racetrack. > >> >> You can learn the basics of how to drive a camera quite easily, I >> know, I help teach people new to photography. After 6 hours most >> people can shoot in Av, & some on full manual, after having always >> shot on program mode. > > I've also taught dozens of, maybe a hundred or so, people the basics of > performance driving in a similar span of time. > >> >> The hardest part is being creative. Focusing on the technical wont get >> you that. > > I agree, but understanding the technical frees you to be creative without > having to use up most of your brain budget on figuring out how to get the > photo that you want to take. > > I'm certainly not claiming that what works for me works for everyone. Hell, > for all I know, it may not work for me. I might be producing nothing but > boring, blurry, cliche' test photos in ridiculous lighting situations, but > I'm having fun doing it. I believe focusing on the creative, the technical will work itself out in time. We're all trying to get to the same point, just coming from different directions. -- 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.
