Re: OK, the results

["Craig W. Shier" <shier@mail1.mnsinc.com>]

At 12:22 PM 11/22/96 -0500, you wrote:
>Maybe the group should consider these threads like the weather: if you don't
>like wait 20 minutes and it will change. Since Leica photography evokes and
>envolves emotion, non-technical issues are relavent. 

        Ah, the weather, the thread.  It does break eventually.

>I am currently reading
>Freeman Patterson's Photography and the Art of Seeing it is recharging my
>creative juices. He goes through a series of exercises which at first seemed
>too simple and almost silly, but I tried some dry runs, and it works.
>Without feeling the subject, whether you have a Leica or a ?, you don't have
>anything that really is other than some exposed film.

I've been slowly digesting this book also.  It is simple.  But simplicity
has a lot to say for itself.  We rarely pause to think what in particular
appeals to us about a particular picture.  The strongest images to me are
usually the simplest.  Patterson makes one think about whether the shape,
color or tones of an image are what strike us.  I think zooms and auto stuff
make people snap happy (it does it to me).  The reason is it makes the photo
possibilities too broad and you stop thinking about the image and just react
instinctively.  Now this has a place, e.g. in journalism where the objective
is to capture as much as possible and give the editor something to work
with.  However, as an amateur who shoots for a) the pleasure of being there
and b) the pleasure of reliving or building on a memory through images, I
find that having a particular image objectives make it more likely that I
will return with something that pleases me.  Thus, many of my most enjoyable
photo excursions have been with a single prime lens, no filters.  Thus also
the Leica, a simple (on the outside) portable machine that does not tempt
one to spasms of the forefinger.

>One can buy the best/most expensive equip., know all the technical aspects
>and NEVER produce a good photograph. I had a student who just knew which end
>of the camera to point towards the subject. Her photography was great. She
>knew how to elicit whatever emotion she felt when she made the exposure. 
>
>We tried to teach her to use the Cokin system she had (I think she had 1 of
>every filter they make) and how to use her zooms and other accys. All we did
>was destroy her ability. We got her back on track when we took all the toys
>away and just let her do her thing. Oh, she ended up with the system as the
>result of a divorce. She got his system and he got her stereo - go figure.
>Brian Levy, J.D.
>Agincourt Ont.
>dlevy@worldy.com
>
>
>