Re: [Leica] Talent

[Harrison McClary <harrison@jnlcom.com>]

Alastair,

I have seen your site and I think you definitly "get it".  You get in 
close and photograph what you intend to photograph and do convey the 
beauty of your subjects. 

And there is always hope.  

I am not too good with words...but what I was trying to say was that far 
too often people have a hard time grasping the concept that the camera 
does not "see" what you are "seeing".  Some people show me their photos 
and say this is what I was shooting a photo of and it is some small thing 
in the center of the photo surrounded by a country mile of empty non 
informative space.  GET CLOSER I want to scream at them.  If you are 
shooting a photo of your kid playing with a ball in the yard get the 
finder filled with the kid and ball, not the kid, ball , house, the 
neighbors house, and the damn moon also!

I try to tell people that you have to make the camera see what you are 
seeing.  I think everyone has the ability to recognize beauty in the 
world around them (Keeping in mind that what is beautiful to me is ulgy 
to another).  Just many people have a hard time learning how to capture 
that beauty on film.  Some do it very well and almost instictively, 
others just never seem to be able to learn how to do it.

I know people who are total tech heads when it comes to photography, they 
can talk about D-Max of films and other things way over my head all day 
long, but their photos are just, well, boring.  Understanding the 
technical stuff is important, but recognizing what moves you to make the 
photo and taking a photo of just that thing, be it the light, expression, 
composition, or whatever is much more improtant than which film has the 
highest resolution finest grain, ect.

Alastair Firkin wrote

>Oh dear Harrison ---- you mean there's no hope ;-)


Harrison McClary
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto
new book at http://www.volmania.com