Comments on: One shot

By: Lori Witzel

Lori Witzel — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 04:15:59 +0000

Well, Dave — you may have succeeded, at least in a tiny way, in your nefarious plot. I’m now on vacation…

;-)

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 02:19:51 +0000

That’s interesting. I wish I could say it happened that way for me, too, but in fact I usually don’t think of the words to go with the photos until I have them up on the screen.

By: Larry Ayers

Larry Ayers — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:19:03 +0000

Photography stimulates my writing and vice versa. After a couple of years of doing both daily I’ve developed an intuition; when I capture worthwhile images I often know which ones they are before scrutinizing them on the computer screen. Then of course there are the complete surprises, when an image shows details I didn’t consciously notice while taking the shot.

Often while I’m photographing there is a part of my mind which is putting together sentences and paragraphs to accompany the images. Words and images potentiate each other.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:40:57 +0000

Lorianne – The comparison with taking notes is interesting. Of course, apostles of the cult of the moleskine say the same thing about sketching – but they usually add that one’s sketching will improve with practice. I dare say the same is true of point-and-click photography – and of note-taking. (Very few people really know how to take effective notes, ya know.)

the delete key is my most useful photo effect

Ha! Yes, indeed.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:32:45 +0000

Thanks for all the comments. I’ll try and respond to a few of the points in a moment.

First, though, if folks are wondering what the first commenter was talking about, the latest story about her niece’s missing husband is here. Liz, I really hope the guy is still hanging on. He sounds like a real fighter.

robin andrea – I liked your conclusion,

I see photography as part journalism and part art. It’s a combination that I particularly like because I feel that way about my own writing as well.

And yes, like you I think the camera has led me to pay attention to different things, especially smaller things, in the same way that maintaining the Smorgasblog has led me to become a more attentive reader of blogs.

marja-leena -

as long as one is really immersed in the moment and not just randomly snapping without looking deeply

“Immersed in the moment” sounds about right, yes.

I’m glad you liked the banner.

fog – Ditto. I really enjoyed reading your blog and checking out your photos from Peru this morning.

i’m not sure what to make of this—some shots ARE good because you consciously try.

Yeah. But sometimes conscious trying gets in the way of a good shot, too. That is perhaps the most puzzling situation: you know it’s photogenic; why can’t you take a good photo of it?

Lori –

need to get ready for the working world day

Rats! My plan to cripple the American economy by destroying the productivity of its workers fails to find another victim!

Nevertheless, I like your lessons and the quote, and I can’t improve on your conclusion:

Maybe those of us who strive to write well, draw well, find photography a gift because its immediacy rewards those habits of meditative looking we’ve cultivated.

beth – I think we’re very much on the same page. Thank Whomever for Photoshop! Re: “more purely fun,” if writing helps me procrastinate on other things, messing with photos helps me procrastinate on writing.

roger – Thanks for reminding us of what photography used to entail (and still does for some professionals, I guess). At one cent per print, I could almost afford to do that myself (cost was the main reason I had never considered taking up photography before), and I must say you make it sound kind of attractive!

I know what contact prints are, but until this moment I’d never thought of the poetic possibilities in the phrase: contact prints. Hmm.

By: Lorianne

Lorianne — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:30:18 +0000

I hesitate to say I’ve “learned anything” from photography because that suggests there’s something consciously intellectual going on, and my snap-shooting isn’t that calculated. When I see something interesting, odd, or unusual, I snap it. I guess in my mind it’s more like taking notes than taking pictures: you don’t have to have much/any technical skill to scribble something in a notebook.

I guess the only thing I’ve discovered through the process of taking blog-pix is that the “numbers game” applies. If I take at least a handful of pix almost every day–and some days more than a handful–almost every day there will be at least one worth sharing. The rest, then, were “just” practice for that one worthwhile shot…but I never know which shots are throw-aways and which are keepers until I’ve taken them.

So I guess the delete key is my most useful photo effect.

By: roger

roger — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 17:08:28 +0000

i am demonstrably not a writer, but i can take good photos sometimes. i learned with film. black and white. many years ago i had a darkroom. i would take about 100 shots every day, three rolls of bulk film loaded into resusable cartridges, and develop the film and make contact prints. so one 9 x 11 print would have a lot of tiny pictures to inspect with a magnifying glass. at first i would look at my results and wonder what it was i was trying to take a picture of. while i could see something in my mind as the subject, even through the lens, the printed image had no focal center. i don’t mean out of focus, just not showing what i wanted. i did learn frame and pay attention to light after a while.

aside from the cost of equipment, the chemicals and film and paper cost about one cent per image for contacts. now digital images are free. not counting the camera and computer.

contact prints—-just lay the developed film on the paper and expose to light. then develop the paper.

By: beth

beth — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:47:59 +0000

Good post. I like photography because I just do it and don’t worry too much about getting it “right” – I don’t think of myself as a photographer the same way I think of myself as a writer. And like you I love the spontaneity and surprise of it – I often don’t know if I’ve gotten anything usable or good until I’m in Photoshop. It’s more purely fun than writing or design, which I’ve spent my life doing, and having an outlet for it on the blog – especially for the more abstract or emotionally-illustrative images – has been a great pleasure.

Liz – will be thinking about your family and hoping for the best possible outcome.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 13:55:08 +0000

I can’t bear to look!

By: Lori Witzel

Lori Witzel — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 12:13:56 +0000

Well, I could go on at length on this most interesting and resonant post, but will have to be succinct — need to get ready for the working world day.

What have I learned from photography?
That my “corner of the eye, semi-conscious attention” is sufficient in many cases for catching the most salient detail.
That my “seeing” is most literally embodied in my flesh — move my head a bit one way or another and the composition changes, tightens, unravels. It takes “point-of-view” to an almost mystical level…
That a complex, inscrutable machine can be a pellucid filter.

I like what Cartier-Bresson had to say:
Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing a meditation.

I’d extend his thought to my way of writing as well. Maybe those of us who strive to write well, draw well, find photography a gift because its immediacy rewards those habits of meditative looking we’ve cultivated.