Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/09/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Esteemed LUGers: Meanwhile, we look, we search we see, we shoot. I use iPhone 4 every day in my Landscape Contracting business for before and after and estimates. But I also see things that I know I must shoot. I can always process in iPhoto or Aperture, later to see what's really there. The little iCamera suprises me. All of them surprise me - not just my own iPhone 4. Often it disappoints. Just as does my 5D MkII and spendy Canon glass. Just as did before my R8 and Rd and even spendier Leica glass. Because of me, not the machine. We try to make the machine do something it can't. Only really works when we are One with the Camera - whatever the Camera may be at that damned Decisive Moment. But we keep shooting. We can't stop shooting, can we? If you play only passable piano or sax or guitar, would you stop just because you/re not good enough for Albert Hall or the Lincoln Center? I don't think so. You can't. Even those of us who live in gloom from October to June on the Northern Hemisphere and the reverse seasons Down Under try to make something work in the mist and rain. Can't help it. I am gobsmacked by the sheer volume of photos on the web and have stopped trying to peruse all the "better" photo sites. Thanks to the LUG and my aging process I know a little more about the art and what's good - or to be accurate here - what I think is good photography. That's the best I can do. It's like Golf, a game I stopped playing decades ago; I only need "one good shot" to feel good about my ability. Then real life rushes in to fill the space and occupy me until a week or a month later, I have some time to take some "studied" shots and think about photography. Already forgotten aout the crap shots. For me, it's enough. Maybe good, maybe not very good. Each of us is the Final Authority on Our Art. I'm saying here that each of us our best/worst critic. We keep shooting and learning and growing and appreciating the good stuff. The rest is, as someone I used to know said, is "distant traffic". So thank you all, ladies and gentlemen for the words and images that have helped to shape my place, my tiny little island in the bit-torrent of images. A torrent that will surely overflow my beaches and eddies and perhaps engulf "my photography island" in time. I've reached a point where the sheer volume doesn't matter. I watch your work, enjoy and learn from it and keep shooting. And if I'm "fiddling on the deck of the Titanic as it slides down between the ice floes", I will still know something about photograph, photographers, art and some fabulous internet friends on the LUG. Cheers to you all. Bob (NOT sent from my iPhone 4?) Bob Shaw rsphotoimages at comcast.net On Sep 9, 2012, at 9:32 AM, tedgrant at shaw.ca wrote: > Hi George, > Thank you for the heads-up on this article! Most interesting! Actually a > very good topic for intelligent conversation these days given the rapid > advancement of iphones and the likes of equipment. > > I attended a friends wedding last week and there was a chap holding-up, at > near arms length? What appeared to be a "slim-line laptop." Strange I > thought, "whatever would he be doing holding a lap top in that fashion?" > > Much to my surprise he was taking and transmitting images instantly to the > grooms' family who live in Chile! > > But here I was with an M8 Leica doing a few happy snaps for fun and just > couldn't imagine doing so with such an outlandish sized capturing machine. > I dare not call it a camera! WHY? Well in reality, it's merely an > "Electronic Instrument for an operator to record some form of digital > image." But then I'm bias about the electronic phones of the day as > "operators snap billions of recordings daily" But have the audacity to > call themselves ... Pardon the expression... "PHOTOGRAPHERS!" > > When in reality they're merely "EIO's"! Electronic Instrument Operators! > :-) Most without a clue of what makes an interesting and moving > photograph! An image of some sort? "Yes!" > > However next week I begin lessons from a very talented professional > photographer who captures absolutely amazing photographs with a > "iPhone-Camera!" :-) And I truly do not refer to him as an "EIO" for fear > of having to eat his iPhone-Camera!" :-) > > Quite possibly my "Old-man attitude" toward the i-phone may well change > shortly. :-) We shall see. > > Thanks again for the "blog-site" on this topic. > > cheers, > Dr. ted > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Lottermoser" <imagist3 at > mac.com> > To: "LUG" <lug at leica-users.org> > Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2012 7:46 AM > Subject: [Leica] About current photography > > >> <http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/in-an-age-of-likes-commonplace-images-prevail/?smid=fb-share#/1/> >> >> a note off the iPad, George >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information