on photography

[dakegra]

Three step guide to photography: 01: be interesting. 02: find interesting people. 03: find interesting places. Nothing about cameras.

~ @claytoncubitt


Discuss.

Comments

[elmyra.livejournal.com]

Having seen what Kyle Cassidy can do with an iPhone camera, I'm inclined to agree. Alas, I'm not very good at it (yet?).

[bloodlossgirl.livejournal.com]

I second that - it's not the camera, it's the photographer. Kyle Cassidy is amazing no matter what he's working with.

[bloodlossgirl.livejournal.com]

I agree. Witness here, the blog of David DuChemin, Really Awesome World/Humanitarian Photgrapher, whose tagline is "Gear is Good, Vision is Better":

http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/2010/03/a-crazy-idea/

[miss-next.livejournal.com]

That makes perfect sense. I might also add 04: Cultivate a gift for putting nervous people at their ease.

The best photo I've ever taken in my life is brilliant not for any technical reasons, but because I have captured a normally intensely camera-shy person looking absolutely natural and like himself. I basically did 02 above and then got him to the state where the camera could show it. Even some professional photographers have done a lot worse with him.

I will probably never, ever take another photo that is so good, but that's all right. I'm happy I got that one. :-)

[martinoh.livejournal.com]

There's an underlying truth in it, in that it a badly chosen or composed shot is rarely rescued by the choice of hardware. Also, a photographer who really understands what they're doing can often get a more impressive result out of a poorly specified phone camera than one who has five grand's worth of Nikon kit slung round their neck but only has an averagely good eye. There's a lot of comparisons to be drawn with musicians; Jeff Beck for example can legendarily make pretty much any guitar he picks up, irrespective of how cheap and/or nasty sound good.

On the other hand, that's where it all begins, not where it ends. There are shots that you can only take with certain types of camera or film and many others that are at least significantly enhanced by choosing your hardware/media appropriately. Learning about cameras probably won't make one a good photographer but ultimately, not learning about them is likely to make one a poorer photographer than one could otherwise have been.

[(Anonymous)]

I dunno, but do you think this would make a good T-shirt?

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4565340604_4ebdc32ca9_o.jpg

- Sloopjonb

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

to paraphrase EB, that wouldn't make a good t-shirt. That'd make a *brilliant* t-shirt.

I'd buy one. Heck, I might even buy three.

[(Anonymous)]

... and then again I might get sued off Transport for London, so maybe not ...