Bruce, I believe Larry copied-and-pasted a post from his Facebook. Therein I suppose lies the rest of the context. I should be able to read his message properly when I am on my way home in the train today.
On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 12:25 PM, Bruce Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > tl;dr > > It's missing an intro. There's no clear reason why it would be > fruitful to climb that mountain of text. I got three paras in and gave > up. > > Simply leaving a blank line between para's would also help, a bit. > > Tell 'em what your're going to say. > Say it. > Summarize what you said. > > > On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 4:06 AM, Bob W <[email protected]> wrote: >> Nobody's going to read that, whatever it's about. Several long blocks of >> text - why should anyone want to read it? >> >> Whatever it is you want to say, say it in less than 7 short sentences. >> >> B >> >>> On 7 Oct 2013, at 08:56, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> This is somethingt that has been brewing in my mind for a while. I didn't >>> have time to do more than just spew it out, without editing. And it >>> was a real challlenge trying to phrase it as "there are people out there >>> doing a lot more work than you realize", and not come across as "I do >>> all this stuff for you, what are you going to do for me?". I hope >>> I succeeded. >>> >>> If you are reading this, chances are that I've taken photos of you. I have >>> nearly 1,600 people on my friends list, and I'm pretty sure it's not >>> because of my sparkling personality. My social awkwardness is not >>> legendary, but it is no secret. The reason that most people connect with me >>> on social networking sites is because I'm one of the people that gets >>> decent photos at those events where the cell phone photos always look like >>> crap. In just about any social group there are a few of us, generally >>> three or four, that you see at the various events, taking photos. >>> Something like half of the photos ever taken, have been taken in the past >>> year or two. To a first approximation, everybody now has a camera with them >>> all the time. You might call it a phone, but it's also a camera. >>> Meanwhile, the performance of dedicated cameras have improved at the >>> exponential rate that Gordon Moore noticed several decades ago. So, not >>> only can just about anyone take a photo at any time, but there's a decent >>> chance that photo will look OK, or at least the objects in it will probably >>> be recognizable. But in our various social groups, there are three or four >>> of us who fairly regularly hear someone admit that their photos don't turn >>> out as well as ours. >>> There's a dirty secret that the people who make cameras won't tell you. >>> While cameras have advanced to the point that you no longer need to have a >>> good grasp of photographic fundamentals to take a pictures that is >>> reasonably well exposed, and even has subjects in focus, if you don't know >>> your aperture from a hole in the ground, chances are you won't take many >>> good photos. >>> Sure, you'll get lucky now and then. Throw enough darts in the general >>> direction of the dart board and a few of them will hit the bullseye, but >>> quite frankly, most of your photos will be crap, particularly in anything >>> but favorable light. >>> What camera companies will tell you is that to get good photos, you need >>> good (read expensive) cameras and lenses. This is true to a point. A good >>> photographer can get beautiful artistic photos with just about any working >>> camera that you put in their hands, but there are times when you simply >>> need the right tool for the job. If you want pictures of people dancing in >>> a room that is too dark to comfortably read in, you are going to need a >>> pretty good camera body, a decent lens, and in addition to knowing how to >>> use them, you're going to need a decent computer for processing those >>> photos. You can get these things on the cheap, relatively speaking, but if >>> you're passionate about photography chances are that you've spent well over >>> a thousand dollars on your kit. Actually, chances are that you've spent >>> quite a few times that on your kit, but if you're creative, you might be >>> able to take and process good photos in challenging light for under two or >>> three thousand dollars. >>> So, those people getting better photos than you did so because they spent >>> the time to learn the basics of photography, and they spent more time >>> practicing, and they spent a fair chunk of money on decent camera and >>> computer gear. I'm not even going to start on the time, expense and effort >>> involved with film and darkroom, I've Been There, Done That, and while it >>> has it's appeal, it is beyond the scope of this discussion, and possibly >>> even sanity in this day and age. >>> These are arguably reasons enough to appreciate the people taking those >>> photos of you dancing, riding bikes, playing guitar. racing cars or >>> whatever. But we've barely even started. >>> If we're taking photos at an event, there are things that we're not doing, >>> and most of them are the reasons that we started going to those events at >>> the first place. If it's at a dance, and I'm taking photos, there isn't a >>> pretty girl in my arms moving to the music. If I'm at a class and taking >>> photos, I'm missing a lot of what the teacher is saying, because while the >>> teacher is talking, I'm also looking at the light, thinking about when >>> something interesting is going to happen, taking care not to disturb class >>> myself and very little of my brain is left over to absorb what is being >>> taught. >>> I'm not saying that taking photos isn't fun. It is a lot of fun, or we >>> wouldn't be doing it on our own time, and giving away the photos for free. >>> There are a lot of reasons to give them away for free. The big one is that >>> most of us do this as a way to give back to the community and our friends. >>> The other reason is that if we tried to sell our photos, we wouldn't get >>> any money for them anyways, in no small part because we'd be competing >>> against the people who are giving them away. >>> But, we aren't done yet. Taking the photos is the easy part. Remember >>> that I mentioned computers. The difference between crappy photos and >>> decent photos may be skill and equipment, but the difference between decent >>> photos and good photos is polishing them up in post processing, and the >>> difference between good photos and great photos, is spending the time to go >>> through them and deciding which 90-99% of them to throw away. >>> If I spend an hour taking photos, and I'm just doing a quick and dirty job >>> to post them on facebook, I can probably process them in an hour's work at >>> home. I upload them to the computer, do rough exposure and color >>> correction, pre-render them so that I can scan through them quickly, take >>> several passes throwing away the worst ones, and then spend a bit more >>> time, making another pass through them to throw out all but the best. >>> LIke I said, for something like facebook, I generally do a quick and dirty, >>> because most people seem like they'd rather have a decent photo of them >>> doing something they love, than no photo, and a lot of people would rather >>> have even an embarrassingly bad photo, than no photo at all. For the >>> serious photos, I tend to spend as much, or more time, going over the ones >>> that are left to pick the few really god that make it to the next cut. >>> So, where you might think that each photo you see posted on facebook only >>> represents the ten seconds it might take you to pull out your cell phone >>> and take a snap, even ignoring the time and effort spent hauling the (very >>> expensive) bag of camera gear around, each photo that you see, actually >>> represents several minutes of work waiting for the right moment, taking >>> that photo, and the other then that got thrown away, plus at least that >>> much time, generally late at night, working on the photos so that the ones >>> you see are better than pretty decent. >>> And, if you actually run events, and appreciate having good photos of the >>> event so people can see how much fun it is, think about ways to make the >>> people who put the effort in to take those photos feel appreciated. >>> -- >>> Larry Colen [email protected] http://red4est.com/lrc >>> >>> >>> -- >>> 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. >> >> -- >> 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. > > > > -- > -bmw > > -- > 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. -- Boris -- 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.
