Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/10/30

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Subject: [Leica] Talent
From: Alastair Firkin <firkin@netconnect.com.au>
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 10:37:36 +1100

############
In photography, you either have "it" or you don't. If you do, the more
photos you take, the more you work at your craft/art/vision the better you
will get. The less you work at it - the fewer photos you take - and more the
quality will deteriorate.
############

G'day BD,

Of course you are bound to be correct, but give me a break, I don't need to
realize what little chance I have of ever breaking away from the safety of
the job ;-)

I tend to disagree. We all "see" differently. Some are trained to see, some
see by nature, some see without "seeing". Most fall into this group, but I
think many people can fall into the first. One of the great things about
photography, is that it is somewhat technical. If I were to set up my
camera and lens, exposure and film, focus and scene at the same place and
time as Tina, and fire the shutter at the precise same time, the resultant
images would be the same. Big iff? Yes, but you can teach most people [who
have an interest] the technical factors, expose them to images, and then
explain how those images are pulled out of a scene. Then practice practice
practice, and you will find your own personal vision. This vision may
ignite the interest of others, or it may not. If it only ignites your own
interest [see Roger's post] then that is fine, though you will never
achieve fame or fortune. I think that the great photographers, tend to have
the largest bodies of work, combined with the flare that has convinced
society to allow them to work at it long enough ;-)

Now lets contrast this with painting ---- somehow I don't think I could
ever even dream of creating painted images of beauty, but if I can find my
niche in photography, and work hard enough with enough drive and
inspiration, I'm still hopeful of creating a beautiful silver image ;-)

Cheers

Alastair Firkin,

http://users.netconnect.com.au/~firkin/AGFhmpg.html