[Leica] Re: You only have to do four things to be a good photographer

[dlridings at gmail.com (Daniel Ridings)]

On 12/17/05, B. D. Colen <bdcolen@comcast.net> wrote:
> No, Daniel - I'm not full of bullshit;

Well, yes, you are, but that's beside the point.

> after all, I'm not the one producing
> nursery rhymes about what makes a photographer.;-)

Being of a simple mind, as you are, I doubt that you realize the
complex operations and reactions that are beind the simple words frame
it right and push the shutter at the right time.

Photography, the technique, is simple. The aesthetic capacity to apply
that technique so that you find the right things in your frame at the
right time, is not.

> Having vision is not a
> simply matter of knowing when to push the shutter release, how to read an
> exposure meter, how to read a formula for developing film - who needs film?

"Processing" was left intentionally ambiguous. I never mentioned film.
You are the one with a childish fixation aimed at disparaging film.

I didn't say you had to know how to read an exposure meter. I rarely
do now-a-days. Not implying a good photographer, but if you are, I
certainly am.

> - or how to frame an image. There are 10s of millions of people who have
> your 'list' memorized, and with it they churn out utterly banal crap.

Then they, like so many others, framed an uninteresting shot. They did
not fill the frame with a good photograph.

> There
> are a handful of people who turn out photographs worth looking at - and 
> many
> of them often ignore one or more of the items on your list.

Then they have it in their spine. They don't need the list. It is second 
nature.

Correct exposure etc need not be measured with scientific instruments.
It is just correct for the shot being taken. It works for it, not
against it.

> And btw - "f8 and be there" is equally foolish - except that it's obvious
> that if one isn't 'there,' one can't get a particular image.
>
> End of discussion as far as I'm concerned.

Thought so.

Daniel