As I start to recover from my recent surgery, I begin a (what the docs think is) a two month journey, my advice at the bottom of this post is something I’m struggling to implement for myself and my beaten and bruised body. I plan to focus on digital photography using the smallest, lightest cameras I own. And because my ability to drive is many more months away, I’ll be as the Beatles and needing “a little help from my friends.” I’ll let you know how it goes…
Today’s Introspection by Joe Farace
“A photographer is like a cod, which produces a million eggs in order that one may reach maturity.” ―
One definition of what makes anyone a photographer is simple: A photographer is a person who makes photographs. Or is it? I don’t think that definition includes the woman who jumped out of her SUV last week at the post office’s drive-up mailbox to take a picture of mail pickup times with her cell phone. She’s not a photographer but she was taking a picture, for reference probably.
I’ve been making photographs since I was eight years old and my parents gave me a hand-me-down Kodak box camera. I immediately set out, driven by unknown forces, to document my neighborhood starting with a photograph of a flagpole in a nearby park. I think, anyway, that I became a professional photographer when somebody paid me money to make pictures but was the quality of the photographs I created any better than the images I made the day before I cashed the check. I don’t think so.
How I Made this Photograph: This image was made near Barr Lake Park in Brighton, Colorado and is an unabashed homage to the work of Joe Clark (1904-1989,) “the Hillbilly Snapshooter.” If you are not familiar with his nostalgic and wonderfully whimsical images of America. You’ll need to look around on eBay and in used book stores—where I found my Joe Clark books—to find them but the search will be worthwhile/
This digital infrared shot was made the day before a big storm was due to blow most of those leaves away. The camera used was an IR-converted (720nm) EOS Digital Rebel Xti and the lens was a Carl Zeiss 18mm Distagon T* f/3.5. The balance of the heavy lens (1.03 lb or 470g) on the lightweight Xti body was surprisingly good. I chose the 18mm Distagon instead of a Zeiss 21mm because the Digital Rebel’s 1.6x multiplication factor changes the angle-of-view to the equivalent of a 29mm lens. The exposure was 1/125 at f/16 and ISO 400 with a plus one-stop exposure compensation.
Becoming a Better Photographer?
Robert Frank once said that “When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice.” I’m not sure that’s happened to me many times in my life but it has happened, I think. But sadly those occurrences happened a long time ago, So what;s been going on in the meantime?
Today, I think that I’m —technically—a better photographer than I was just a few years ago. I look at some of the images I made twelve years ago and many of my choices make me cringe. But I constantly strive to improve my skills and vision and these days I’m inspired by the creativity of my friends like Cliff Lawson and Barry Staver. The quality of their work challenges me to become a better photographer. On the other hand, what doesn’t make someone a better photographer? Here’s some highly opinionated thoughts on that subject:
- You don’t necessarily become a better photographer by just reading about photography. But learning about the history and craft of photography and putting what you learn from practice and making new images can make you a better photographer.
- You don’t become a better photographer by talking about photography while sitting behind a desk and speaking into a big microphone like Ron Burgundy. It might make you an engaging conversationalist but you gotta click the shutter, not just your teeth.
- You don’t become a better photographer by writing (or making videos) about photography and while the process might improve your writing and performance skills it won’t necessarily improve your photography unless the process also encourages you to actually go out create some photographs.
- As Douglas Adams said in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, “We’ll be saying a big hello to all intelligent lifeforms everywhere and to everyone else out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together…”
I would like to encourage you to go out and shoot some photographs today, all the while keeping in mind this blog’s motto: Have fun with your photography.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50) click here. And if you do, thank so very much.