Friday 7 March 2008

PASSION INDEED!

1. NO IMAGE LEAVES MY DIGITAL DARKROOM UNTIL IT IS OF THE HIGHEST STANDARD!


2. THERE IS A PROPER WAY TO HOLD YOUR CAMERA!

3. A FROSTY VIEW FROM OUR NEW STUDIO/OFFICE.

I just read the blog that my husband wrote yesterday see here
http://paulindigo.blogspot.com/2008/03/wheres-passion.html.
Although I fully agree with most of what he writes, I wonder how realistic it is in this day and age, where we are being bombarded with image after image, we're supersaturated!

With all the upload-sites where you see thousands of photos being ‘awarded’ and ‘more awarded’… images that are nothing but snapshots, badly and sadly ‘not composed’, where people do not even care to love their work enough to do a simple bit of ‘cosmetic’ repair, some retouching. Where is the PASSION? I regularly am dumbfounded, do people not SEE anymore?

Numbed by volume? Blinded by excess?

Many photographers have ‘dust-bunnies’ on the censor, do they bother to ‘clean’ the image (elementary)? NO!!!!

Often the horizon is skew, overall the photoshopping has been done BADLY, if you can’t do it properly (and we all started out at some point!), wait, study and ONLY upload your BEST and finished (read ‘polished’) product!

I see great photos that do not get the recognition, what has been lost, besides the PASSION?

Do we really live in this unreal ‘virtual’ world where law is… you scratch my back and I scratch yours? Clique society rather than individualistic and honest opinion?

Sometimes I despair, and I may not have lost my passion for beautiful photography, it is more difficult to remain optimistic.

Where does your passion ultimately take you, except for the self-satisfaction and a few true photography LOVERS.

I am passionate... are you?

1. NO IMAGE LEAVES MY DIGITAL DARKROOM UNTIL IT IS OF THE HIGHEST STANDARD!

Lilium longiflorum.
This plant is native to Japan and the Ryūkyū Islands. It is a stem rooting lily, growing up to 1 m high and bears a number of trumpet shaped, white, very fragrant, and outward facing flowers.
I saw the curves and they looked quite architectural in a close up, also with a sensuality of 'you're making my toes curl'?

2. THERE IS A PROPER WAY TO HOLD YOUR CAMERA!
Here's a pro at work! He knows how to hold his camera 'properly'...
Often that is a dead-give-away, just something to smile about...
One of the things I love is that whole intensity, the 'oneness' between the man and his camera.


3. A FROSTY VIEW FROM OUR NEW STUDIO/OFFICE.
We have moved into our new home!
Moving used to be an easier affair, now with all the electronics and the ZILLIONS of cables!
We started about a month ago! I remember having to move with three kids! Much easier, lol...
AAhh well, almost there now...
This was the lovely surprise one morning, not often to be seen in the city.
Well worth opening larger for the full impact and beauty!

As you see, no matter the 'category' of images... at least IMMACULATE! No excuses!

Thanx, M, (*_*)

PS: Just moved into our new house, hence the long silence.


3 comments:

Brian said...

could not agree more on your comments about how we are now a society of people that feel they have to post the obligatory "Great shot", "Love this one" and "Wow, nice shot" to every little snapshot posted on any of the many picture sharing sites.
Many times I want to be honest about what I see, but then hesitate for fear of being labeled a "flamer" or worse. I see so many with hundreds of pictures most of which would have met with the trash can in my digital darkroom. I have been asked by others "Where are the rest of your pictures" and I have to explain that only the ones I am truly proud of or that truly speak to me find their way to the site. I have hard drives full of images, but very few of them make it to the public site. I want to set a standard, I want to show only the best and for that I get no credit for. In fact I usually get the questions of "why nothing new lately", "are you giving up on photography?". I would love to find a site where people share the best, the one in a million shots that make you pause and say WOW.

Gatesman Family said...

Magda, I appreciate your post. It has become so easy for people to simply upload all of their images from their digital camera. I was looking at some pictures of a recent wedding posted by a family member. There were so many I was overwhelmed, and many of them were not "keepers". On some, the camera read the background light so all the faces of the subjects were seriously underexposed. I soon tired of weeding through all the junk shots that I gave up in tediously trying to find the good ones in that mess of photos.

I have also seen edited photo galleries where someone will post two versions of the same shot. Maybe one is cropped a little bit more, or one is black and white and the other color. I become confused: what is this photographer's vision? Which image best conveys your sense of the subject? By seeing both versions, I don't know which is the best effort and which the throwaway, and that steals the thunder from both of them.

Bill Gatesman
www.wmgphoto.com
www.wmgphotoblog.com

William Gatesman said...

Magda, I revisited your post after a long absence and amazingly, when the first image appeared I literally could smell the flower. Clearly, what I experienced was a strong sense memory triggered by your photograph. So indeed, you have put your best shot forward, an effective work of art to have had such an impact on me.

Bill Gatesman
www.wmgphoto.com
www.wmgphotoblog.com