I’m appearing on 3 episodes this week of the 52 Pickup podcast, a members only podcast, from the excellent tech blog 52 Tiger. If you support great writing and unobtrusive tech blogs, it’s worth becoming a member (I did on day one).
We’re talking photography, tech and Van Halen.
My best friend, Tom, had a house fire in the 90s that destroyed all of his photos and negatives (during his most prolific period as an enthusiastic young hobbyist). As a result, he developed an entirely different way of approaching archivism and we all could learn something from it.
Recently, I was talking about my own archives from that same period and how I was going to deal with scanning the thousands of negatives I had amassed. I wanted to create a digital archive I could easily back up to avoid the same destruction Tom faced.
Tom advised me to revisit the places in those negatives and produce something better than I had produced back then. Then, throw away the old negatives. He gave me a few hundred new projects in under 5 seconds and I couldn’t wait to get started.
Life is fleeting and you can’t take your archives with you. Chances are, no one will tend to them even a few years after you’re gone. The real value in photography is an appreciation of the present.
Do not automate your creativity.
I can see why photographers love the thought behind this ad, but what does it have to do with the camera? Last time I checked, a camera like that does the thinking for you. (via photojojo)
“Don’t worry about being better than anybody you know personally or whose work you admire. Simply try to be better tomorrow than you were yesterday. You are not so much in competition with others as you are with yourself.”
Keith Green points us to this New York Times article on Kwaku Alston:
“‘I just got back to basics,’ said Mr. Alston, 40, who has divided his time between Venice and New York for nearly 10 years now. ‘I had been just pumping out commercial images all day long, that when you looked at it, you said, ‘There’s something missing here.’ The passion wasn’t there. I didn’t enter this to take pictures of celebrities. I had a passion for the things I saw when I was walking down the streets.”
If you ignore what you’re naturally best at, the product will either become boring or, if it makes money, a business. It isn’t art anymore and it isn’t much of a life anymore.
This is not a touchy-feely sentiment. Follow your passion into business, without the background of Kwaku Alston, and you may end up homeless.
But, ignore your passion (as a hobby or business) and you’ll continue to see diminishing returns on your creativity until your work is just like anyone else’s. That’s the kiss of death in both art and business.
I treat every blog I read as if I have a lot to learn from the author, as if the writer is my teacher. It’s a high standard, but it needs to be. My time and attention are my most valuable possessions. I have a limited supply and can’t buy more.
There are so many photography blogs riddled with so much nonsense, it’s hard to imagine this kind of filter is being applied much by our community. The blogging industry is filled with those who’ll sacrifice what’s best for their readers for what’s best for their advertisers. Consider who you’re giving your time and attention to and whether you’re learning anything new. If you wouldn’t consider your blogger much of a teacher, move along. If you don’t find a suitable replacement, you’ll regain precious time and maybe learn a thing or two on your own.
Far too often, we equip ourselves to stumble upon a photograph. We get lucky occasionally and that carries us through the next several failed attempts.
For years, my biggest photographic failing was my tendency to commit the crime of drive-by photography. I jumped in the car in search of as many inspiring scenes as possible within a 100-mile radius of the city, as many weekends as possible. 9 times out of 10, I came back disappointed. It was a waste of several prime years.
It wasn’t until I started I started searching for stories, instead of scenes, that the 9 out of 10 decreased to maybe 6 out of 10. I targeted specific places, with a specific angle (story angle, that is).
Failure is still a requirement for growth, but now I judge failure based on the story I bring home, not the technical aspect of the images.
Where would you go today, if your goal was to seek out the most interesting story in your area?
Life happens between frames. If you don’t put down the camera to experience your subject, how can you bring anything uniquely personal to the subject?
