Thanks for all the commentary on yesterday's photo. While it was being looked at and discussed, I was out for another walk and couldn't resist a few more. ;-)
I dislike the notion of trying to "defend" my photographs: I see no reason to do so. And having read various discussions of 'art' on this mailing list in the past, I do not feel that it is a sensible venue to engage in such a discussion. Consider the work that I show to be for enjoyment and entertainment, or ridicule as the case might be. I capture and save all comments offered, they are all valuable to me, and thank you all for them. Whether you like or dislike any particular photograph of mine, or all of them, is not an problem to me nor does it cause me any pain if you express your intense dislike for them. However, I do have a question to pose to Tom C: You occasionally post landscape photographs which, in your words at various times: 'Out my front door, I saw this fog in the trees and grabbed my camera... ' 'Driving on the way to town, the light was very nice and I thought this looked beautiful....' etc. In other words, you are seeing something that you find lovely, beautiful, intriguing ... not something that necessarily has any "meaning", "message" or "story" ... capturing it well, and posting it for the enjoying and entertainment of others. You are responding to something which you consider to have great natural beauty and be worth sharing. You compose and focus it carefully, set the exposure as well as you are able, and render it to the best of your ability. You are acting as a photographer. How is this different from my being on a walk, camera in hand, and out of the thousands of minute by minute impressions on my vision of the things around me, I see shapes, forms, curiosities of flotsam and jetsam that I find intriguing, beautiful, and worthy of sharing? That I spend ten or twenty minutes composing in the viewfinder, setting focus, exposure, and capturing, then spend more time rendering as well as I might ... acting as a photographer ... in order that I might share them with you? If what I am doing "does not rely on the eye or skill of the photographer or the quality of the image necessarily to be successful", then the same must be said for what you are doing. Whether the subject matter of my interest is appealing to you, whether I have any "message" or "story" to tell with it, whether it is representational or abstract is all irrelevant, just as it is with what you present. We are, in essence, doing *exactly* the same thing with our individual perceptions of the world: seeing that which captures our interest and sharing it with other people using photography as the medium of that expression. Acting as photographers. What else might be made of it, well, that's beyond any purpose I have in showing my work to this subscriber community. http://homepage.mac.com/ramarren/photo/PAW7/46c.htm Comments, critique, etc always appreciated. enjoy Godfrey -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
