From: epona (acolyta@napc.com)
Date: 08/29/02-11:04:36 AM Z
Ha!
That may be the smartest thing I've ever done -
Humbly bow out of a religious discussion with a lawyer! ;>)
Good luck getting that picture in October, Jeff. It must be nice to be able to
depend on a quality of light to return, because as far as I'm concerned, the
quality of light can make or break a photo. Here in unpredictable New England,
you can't depend on anything. Sometimes, a quality of light is all I'm chasing
after. I wonder what it's like to internalize about an image you are going to
make for an extended period of time?
Cheers,
Christine
jeffbuck@swcp.com wrote:
> What I typically do is a little different I guess. First of all, I do a fair
> amount of portraits and similar. That involves seeing a face or an expression
> (often quite an "instantaneous" recognition of the impressive face or
> expression etc.), and then begins what can be quite a laborious process of
> arranging to get it in front of the camera at my house. I hardly do any
> environmental portraits (I'm interested in the face or the expression
> typically and don't want anything interfering). So that's that stuff. More
> germane, I guess, to this discussion is seeing things out of doors. I see the
> thing in a certain light and I imagine how it might look as a platinum print.
> If I think I can do it, I return at a later time w/ the equipment. Because of
> the considerable predictability of the climate and weather around Central New
> Mexico, this is more practical than you might suppose. For instance, I know
> of a certain 7x17-able scene (including the very quality of light) that's
> going to present from a certain bridge on the south end of town here around
> the middle of October. I'm just waiting for it. You could say that the
> essential creative part of all this is basically over -- I saw the scene,
> projecting the look in mid-Oct, about a month ago, and ran the processes that
> I think will produce the platinum print I imagined over the next day or so.
> This whole business fails often enough, due to my lack of skill and
> experience and other causes. I've shot a certain building on three occasions
> this summer and am probably heading back for a fourth. BTW, and this responds
> to Judy to an extent, I really enjoy tweaking the prints. I practice law all
> day and, no matter how incomparably jolly that may sound, there's little I
> like better in my life than getting into the darkroom in the evening, lighting
> a cigar, looking around myself, and thinking, "Now, let's just see what may be
> done with that smug negative of the beautiful desert weed ...." -JB
>
> Carl Weese <cweese@earthlink.net> said:
>
> >
> >
> > > I do not believe I EVER took a picture of
> > > something I thought was "beautiful" & was happy with the result.
> >
> > One of the dealers who handles my work once said that he understood my
> > pictures of beautiful things--the Connecticut woods and rivers, the hills of
> > western Virginia--but couldn't quite get his head around my pictures of ugly
> > things--corrugated metal buildings, abandoned drive-in movie theaters. He
> > was all the more puzzled when I explained that I only photograph things that
> > strike me as beautiful. In fact, that's all there is to it, I Iook for
> > beautiful things and photograph them. But my perception of beauty is quite a
> > bit more catholic, more inclusive, than his.
> >
> > I also don't understand the business of view cameras being slow. Of course
> > they aren't as fast as a 35mm, but the notion that it takes hours to make a
> > photograph with a view camera is nonsense. When I teach view camera
> > technique I tell students that you should be able to see something from the
> > car at 70 mph (or while hiking with your gear in a packback) and be pulling
> > the darkslide within ninety seconds. They usually think I'm kidding, but I'm
> > not. (How do you get to use a view camera fast? Same way you get to Carnegie
> > Hall--practice!) When I spend a day out looking for pictures, I take forever
> > looking at things, deciding whether I want them or not. When the decision is
> > yes, I seldom spend more than a couple minutes making the picture whether
> > it's done with my 5x7 or my 12x20 or something in between. If I want to
> > respond to subjects _instantly_ I work with Leicas, but using a view camera
> > doesn't prevent you from working fast.
> >
> > ---Carl
> >
>
> --
-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." -Albert Einstein
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