Re: [Leica] Under yer finger nails

["Sandy Carter" <sc-photo@home.com>]

Anyone interested - truly interested - in photography should read these
points! (I love the point one about paying attention to the wrong things:
"printing manipulations rather than what's worth printing")

thanks Mike

sandy
temporary web site:
http://www.portfolios.com/sc-photo


Mike Johnston wrote:

> In general, people:
>
> --Don't shoot enough, not nearly.
>
> --Pay way too much attention to what their technique *is* rather than
> mastering it.
>
> --Don't look at enough good work.
>
> --Don't look very carefully at their _own_ work.
>
> --Pay attention to the wrong things, i.e.,
>     --printing manipulations rather than what's worth printing;
>     --resolution and granularity instead of tonality;
>     --what camera they use rather than how they use it;
>     etc.
>
> --Don't push themselves. That is, they have a couple of strategies for
> making pleasant pictures (in their own terms) but they never challenge
> themselves to stretch their skills.
>
> --Don't take pictures of things they're interested in. They think they're
> out "taking good photographs" when what they're doing is demonstrating
that
> they don't care enough about any particular thing to really be a
> photographer. David Hurn and Bill Jay have some excellent thoughts in this
> in their book _On Being A Photographer_.
>
> --Skip all over the place from one technique to another, as though _that_
> were the point.
>
> If people don't want to believe me, that's fine, but I'll bet I've looked
at
> more portfolios (and more original prints in museums and archives) than
> 99.9% of all the amateur photographers out there. One _does_ observe a few
> things in the process of doing that, after all (unfortunately you can
hardly
> help it).
>
> --Mike
>
>