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https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084j8yq
On Resolutions: A Coda
After writing dyspeptically-slash-humorously about the futility of resolutions yesterday, I felt chastened when I looked up and revisited my actual resolutions from last January. Here's what I wrote then: "Real resolutions are behavioral and spiritual. "One of the reasons I started TOP more than...
Kenneth Tanaka: "Pay attention to what you’re putting in that frame, and where you’re putting it. Everything in the frame matters. Forget 'pretty.' Does it communicate what you want to say or depict? Does it record what you want to remember in, say, years to come? That’s the main purpose for using a camera for most of us."
That's the quote of the week for me. :-)
Eschew Cliché
The urge to make clichés stems from a desire to make pictures that look like everybody else's pictures. Why would anybody want to do this? Personally I think it's because it relieves us from having to rely only on our own judgment when evaluating what we've done. Photographers, far more than oth...
You don't have to take a wrist watch out of your pocket to look at it. Unlike a pocket computer aka phone.
Expensive watches are not timepieces they are jewellery.
You can get a perfectly reliable watch for a lot less that $100 - like under £20.
Open Mike: Why a Watch?
[Ed. note: "Open Mike" is replacing "Sunday Support Group" this week because...well, because I wrote this.] - I write about photographing so I write, perforce, on consumerism sometimes. (I love that old Englishy word "perforce," although I seldom use it. An adverb "used to express necessity or i...
"The majority of the greatest photographers in the medium's history were or are art photographers, and they account for the majority of the photographers the public knows about and cares about. "
Really? I think you are looking at it from inside the photo-world bubble.
In the UK a common comment to anyone with a 'good' camera for many decades (and still for those of a certain age) would be to say, "Who do you think you are? David Bailey?"
Another photographer's name I might expect non-photography people to know here would be Don McCullin. The only others might be Martin Parr and Rankin.
While these might have their pictures shown in galleries I'd class Bailey and Rankin as commercial photographers, McCullin as a photojournalist and Parr as a documentary photographer (although he plays the art game).
One interesting thing about photographs is that depending on their context of display they can fit in different categories. A commercial, reportage or documentary photo can also be an art photograph.
TBH I don't think the majority of the general public give a toss about big name photographers or art photography.
I make Peter Wright bang on the money. Poetry and 'art' really don't have much relevance to the lives of most people.
What Is an 'Art Photographer'?
Art photography, AKA fine art photography, is just a way of doing photography. It's either a mode of approach or a mode of practice. I'll start with the latter first because it's easy to describe. Mode of practice: I'll just sort of sketch the standard traditional post-1970 convention; obviously...
Worse than not knowing what you're good at is knowing what you do best, but not liking doing it and wanting to do something that you know you aren't as good at or even unsuited to doing.
'The Picture That Changed My Life'
David Hurn, now 86 years old, is one of the great "plain-talkers" about how to approach being a photographer. This great interview is packed with simple but profound insights, and is well worth reading carefully. Fron Lensculture, and I don't see a date, although it must have been from some time...
That was all far more confusing than any camera menu I've come across.
How To REALLY Fix the Menu Problem
I really want someone to switch camera setup to interactive screens online which you then transfer to the camera. That way everything could be explained adequately and systematically. Cameras are just too complicated now for paper manuals and mazes of menus. But that's a different post for a dif...
I'm far less interested(as in hardly at all) in how photographs 'look', lenses 'render' and other such airy-fairy matters than I am in the formal construction of a photograph and how that affects what a photograph is a picture of, about and has to communicate.
Open Mike (a day late): The Way Photographs Should Look
This is an awkward subject, and I'm sure my attempts to verbalize it will be awkward and perhaps inept. So please forgive me if my words are insufficient. I'm hoping I'll manage to communicate anyway—that you'll "know what I mean." All photographs translate the visual world we see with our eyes ...
Auto ISO and ISO beyond 400 which isn't a grainy/noisy mess.
The Coolest Camera Features
What would you say are the best features of cameras (or processing software) for you over the years of the digital era? I have a few nominations to list—a few I use, and a few I don't but admire from afar*: Image stabilization Silent shooting (electronic shutter) Fast and easy sharing of pictur...
I think I found it on Facebook after getting the GDPR nonsense.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=234414541362864&ref=watch_permalink
J.B. Forbes Has Retired
[Ed. Note: The primary purpose of this post is a link to a portfolio by an American newspaper photographer, and the link appears to be inaccessible from other areas of the world. The video however is available on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/STLPD/videos/234414541362864 (thank...
KNEE-kon in the UK?
Everyone I know says NICK-on.
German Pronunciation of German Camera and Lens Names
Ever wondered how classic German camera names are actually pronounced in Germany? Here's a nice little video of a native German speaker demonstrating proper German pronunciation. Of course, brand or marque names don't have a proper pronunciation...even if they are of a particular nationality an...
Old joke. Sure I heard it on an archive episode of Hancock recently.
Best Comeback Ever (OT)
The honor belongs to Tina Fey, during a friendly impromptu improv with David Letterman: Letterman: I'm not as dumb as I look. Fey: How could you be? [Audience cheers] That's it. Give her the prize. Speaking of comebacks: having not kept up with football at all this year—haven't watched a single...
“The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band”
― Brian Eno
Sunday Support Group (a Day Late): Idle Question
I told my niece yesterday that the problem with my life during the pandemic is that every day is pretty much like every other day. Then I reflected that most of the excitement in the world is the wrong kind of excitement, so I oughtn't complain. Here in the USA, we have to get through Wednesday....
"Blessed are the cheesemakers."
Brief Addendum...
...To the previous post: I want to emphasize that my year-long diet experiment didn't require much "willpower." It's not a calorie- or portion-restricted diet. I eat all I want and then some. In fact sometimes I will look at the giant heap of food I've just fixed and think surely I can't eat all...
The ideal companion for a new light - https://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/magazine/articles/billiards-2020#
Dachshund! (OT)
I'm driving to Buffalo today to pick up that pool table light. I'm starting to think I'm just deliberately making this project more difficult than it has to be. It's starting to feel like there will never be a pool table in this shed. It's not like it has to be difficult; but the pool table I wa...
artybollocks.com is looking a little dated to me.
Our work practice must no longer explore but interrogate.
And no mention of narrative?
Sunday Support Group: Catch Fire
I know, it's not Sunday, it's Monday. But I couldn't get down to work yesterday. It comes as a surprise to some of my readers (all of whom are wonderful and above average) when I mention that not every post is for everybody. For example, only 79% of TOP readers are vitally interested in pool. (E...
When were Artist Statements invented? I don't remember them before 1982 when I stopped being an art student here in the UK.
Sunday Support Group: Catch Fire
I know, it's not Sunday, it's Monday. But I couldn't get down to work yesterday. It comes as a surprise to some of my readers (all of whom are wonderful and above average) when I mention that not every post is for everybody. For example, only 79% of TOP readers are vitally interested in pool. (E...
The modern way to isolate subjects is to shoot at f1.2.
No movement or thought required.
It occurred to me recently how using 'slow' lenses forces you to think about the background.
Have 'fast' lenses become a crutch for some people?
Shooting Skills: Contrast for Clarity
Here's a simple shooting skills exercise that might be of use to you if you've never worked on it before. It's best if you give it about two hours. The purpose is to make you more aware of tonal contrast as a way of making a main subject more clear. You can do this with any camera, including a p...
Night time note pads are no good. Cassette recorders are the thing. Ask Keef.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/05/the-technology-that-captured-the-greatest-rock-song-ever-recorded/393254/
An Evening Walk
I should have worked on the Print Crit yesterday, but it was such a gorgeous afternoon I went for a long walk up the hill instead. Welker Hill rises 520 feet in the stretch of a mile, so I take my car up the steepest part and park it on my neighbor Les's field and walk on from there. It's not th...
I'm baffled.
While I do think photographs should be printed I don't get the 'fine print' thing.
Give me a photocopy of a great photograph over a fine print of a crap one every time. I've seen original prints of some of my favourite 'famous' photographs and some have obviously been carefully made, others have been machine prints. The only remarkable thing about them compared to reproductions I've seen on-line or in books and magazines has been their size.
It's all about the pictures for me, and the fact that photographs are pretty much infinitely reproducible rather than unique objects like paintings.
[Well, what's the problem? If you don't care about prints, then you don't. That's okay. Nothing more to say. --Mike]
Print Crit: The 'SPS'
Because last week's print arrived damaged due to inadequate packaging, and I didn't want to discourage myself by confronting that again, for this week I chose a print that came in a box. The box turned out to be oversize, and the print inside wrapped in bubble wrap. Then, there was a crystal-cle...
Border Collies were bred as working dogs. Fetching sheep is in their DNA and they can work out of sight of a shepherd using instinct.
I prefer to watch them doing proper sheep work than demos or trials but I'd rather see this than agility.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpjP3mxv21s
Sunday Support Group: Anybody Wanna Play a Game? (OT)
Hope Friday's second post didn't strike too many people as over the, er, "top." It's true that I'm a health food nut. I have become one. I admit it. But that's only because I feel so damn good. I feel great. I can't get over it. I was experiencing not one but a number of sundry deteriorations of...
All the above seems to me to assume the hunt is for single pictures. Ones I have seen described as 'wall worthy'.
There is at least one alternative: to look to build a body of work in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Picturehunting
I think Michael Perini and a couple of other commenters were right the other day. Sometimes you just need get out with the camera and get the rust off. There's that old expression, "separate the wheat from the chaff." Separating what's valuable from what's worthless. Most of what we do as photog...
Brian Eno and Mark E Smith.
Music Notes: Do You Have a Favorite Musician? (OT)
I suppose a lot of people don't. It's a middlebrow conceit to say "I like everything!" in a chipper voice, which to real music aficionados means that music isn't very important to that person. Nobody who loves music likes everything. Their likes are strong, and their dislikes are strong too—they...
If you aren't precious about prints there's this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofAtJZDJHs
The Luminous Landscape Videos
Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape interviewing Ctein in 2004 Well this is a nice surprise. Josh Reichmann, son of our late friend Michael of The Luminous Landscape, has given us permission to make available the two videos of MR's visit to Ctein's San Francisco area darkroom fifteen y...
Goldilocks chose...
A Very Interesting...
...Size comparison. Mike (Thanks to John Igel and others) Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. Amazon.com • Amazon UK • Amazon Cana...
S'funny. I find photography fun regardless of what camera I use.
As for camera complexity. Turn the dial to 'A' and have done with it if you don't like complicated.
Open Mike: Fun, the Final Frontier
["Open Mike" is the Editorial Page of TOP, expressing Yr. Hmbl. Editor's own idiosyncratic opinions exclusively. Readers are neither required nor expected to agree! Visitors are encouraged not to take umbrage! Open Mike appears on Wednesdays on TOP.] - For the last 20 years we've been amusing ou...
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