Summer is finally here! I took this image of a friend kayaking on Lake Cassidy. The morning light was great with Mount Pilchuck in the background and the misty fog filtering the sun.
Dandelions Close-up
Dandelions In Black And White
Sunday, June 7, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
May 24, 2015
Galen Rowell, "The best photographs speak for themselves. Attempts to analyze their meaning invariably detract from the special quality that is beyond words in the first place. The photographs that move me the most propel me into an emotional realm where my experience is no longer verbal."
We live creating memories. These memories are our life’s story, our created truth that we were here on this planet and we lived and we died and the only way to preserve them is through picture taking, writings and visual art. These become the artifacts left behind of me and my time here.
In photography, before social media, these images were in family albums and picture frames hung on hallway walls, a shrine to our living in this time and space and our recognition of the continuity between generations, as new images were put in the albums for our family members to see and appreciate especially on holidays.
What is different today in this explosion of social media sites, is that we don’t have a unified place to see our family history but have individual sites that broadcast our memories not just for family members but for the whole world to see, read and judge.
Our real families are fragmenting, growing apart from each other and now correspond in public view on social sites.
We now have an audience other than family to entertain and show our personal lives to. We also have an audience for our on going personal memories and we get noticed, rewarded, and of course we get sympathy and condolences from strangers on theses media platforms and our immediate families are becoming secondary.
Our private inner world is no longer private for family and close friends. We have given access to our world to everyone. We expose ourselves for all to examine, not only our personal thoughts but of course the images we create. We are not ourselves but living a life as a public spectacle. We are becoming actors looking for attention and are reacting to our budding created lives and not focused on truth of memory. We are not allowing things to happen naturally in the moment but instead forcing things to happen for a larger number of views on social media.
We are living our lives through social media. Our personal fragmented truth is a facade of spectacle and not necessarily true to who we are or who we want to become. Social media is a distraction from living life to it’s fullest.
Intimacy through privacy allows us to connect with our loved ones on a one on one basis.Without this we lose our personal past and the ones we trust.
This tsunami of imagery is overwhelming our senses. We are losing our ability to recognize good meaningful photographs. We don’t have the stamina it seems to study an image and enjoy the stillness and calm reflections and interaction we once had with the subject photographed. All is becoming quick and easy surface reading with no understanding or reflection on what we see. We are herded down a narrow path to what is the next and greatest novelty. Not what connects with our inner landscape, our visual talents that reflect who we are.
Photography is becoming a scrap book of forced events posted on social media to make ourselves look more important than we are. This is a false illusion of who we are as a society.
We have elevated the trivial to a stature way beyond understanding and we are missing intimacy which is necessary for relationships to grow and mature and have meaning and purpose.
We are dumbing down our mental chords, as well as our vocal chords by allowing our lives to be hijacked by media outlets which collect information about us in order to sell things to us (just as our imagery is becoming things to be exploited) when we should be interacting with each other and exploring and creating images with focused purpose.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
May 17, 2015
Ralph Gibson wrote, "The content of many photographs is often centred around an event. To make 'event' photographs the photographer must align himself in place and time with the event. One minute late for the execution and his shot is missed, as it were. I'm not interested in recording great moments in history. For me, the great event is when my awareness has risen to the point of perception, a brief but intense moment. At such times one could photograph almost anything... a corner, or a chair, a detail of something normally insignificant, etc.. I crave this feeling because of its greater clarity. One day it occurred to me that it was no longer a question of how to photograph but rather of what to photograph". Ralph Gibson wrote this in the early seventies.
The words of Ralph Gibson have become universally true. We now live our lives through social media. What to photograph now means indiscriminate shots of every little detail of our personal life. It is, as if we have become personalities in our own little life movie. Our snap shot mantra is, these have to be shown to prove that I am living and enjoying my time on earth. These mundane images validate our existence to others. We need this attention from the social media sites because we have become fragmented in knowing who we are and what we want to become. It is easier to take pictures of your life because it gets sticky to examine yourself and find out what really matters to you.
Life's journey is no longer a deep exploration of our inner world along with our relationship with the outer world. The outer world it seems is where the attention now is focused. It has become a distraction from asking hard questions concerning our life. Better to photograph anything, than to think and focus on anything for over a few second.
Our fascination with decontextualizing the world, taking objects, ourselves included, out of context, to be seen by eager eyes on social media sites only enhances the obsession with the now. Since we are wanting our personality to be seen, we are imitating each other, as if we were stars and all eyes were looking up at us.
When you are connected with your subject and exploring the opportunity to compose an image with purpose then you are creating and making a personal statement. These images will show your personality in an honest and unique way.
Remember that when you are creating images it is not only you coming through in the final image but the subject as well. If it was only you, then we would be back to creating more of the over saturation of me photographs.
Ralph Gibson wrote, "The content of many photographs is often centred around an event. To make 'event' photographs the photographer must align himself in place and time with the event. One minute late for the execution and his shot is missed, as it were. I'm not interested in recording great moments in history. For me, the great event is when my awareness has risen to the point of perception, a brief but intense moment. At such times one could photograph almost anything... a corner, or a chair, a detail of something normally insignificant, etc.. I crave this feeling because of its greater clarity. One day it occurred to me that it was no longer a question of how to photograph but rather of what to photograph". Ralph Gibson wrote this in the early seventies.
The words of Ralph Gibson have become universally true. We now live our lives through social media. What to photograph now means indiscriminate shots of every little detail of our personal life. It is, as if we have become personalities in our own little life movie. Our snap shot mantra is, these have to be shown to prove that I am living and enjoying my time on earth. These mundane images validate our existence to others. We need this attention from the social media sites because we have become fragmented in knowing who we are and what we want to become. It is easier to take pictures of your life because it gets sticky to examine yourself and find out what really matters to you.
Life's journey is no longer a deep exploration of our inner world along with our relationship with the outer world. The outer world it seems is where the attention now is focused. It has become a distraction from asking hard questions concerning our life. Better to photograph anything, than to think and focus on anything for over a few second.
Our fascination with decontextualizing the world, taking objects, ourselves included, out of context, to be seen by eager eyes on social media sites only enhances the obsession with the now. Since we are wanting our personality to be seen, we are imitating each other, as if we were stars and all eyes were looking up at us.
When you are connected with your subject and exploring the opportunity to compose an image with purpose then you are creating and making a personal statement. These images will show your personality in an honest and unique way.
Remember that when you are creating images it is not only you coming through in the final image but the subject as well. If it was only you, then we would be back to creating more of the over saturation of me photographs.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
May 10, 2015
The redundancy in image creation is stifling original ideas.
Social media can paralyze your perception of the world and how you interact with it. Creating shallow moments not of insight but of obnoxious self interest.
Freeman Patterson, "A photographer should resist every temptation to codify the principles of visual design or create pictorial formulas, because such attempts will stifle intuition, reduce emotional input, and put technique ahead of expression".
The redundancy in image creation is stifling original ideas.
Take for example the selfie. This mundane snap shot, which belongs in a family album, has now infiltrated the consciousness of our youth. It is a separation from, not an invite to participate in the life environment, we need to create original images. If we are only looking at ourselves in a scene then how can we explore our external subject when we are selfishly becoming an object to ourselves.
You know that the selfie is corrupting our ability to interact with nature when the ad agencies are now imitating this as a way to sell products.
To experience the world on a deeper level we must throw out these stifling stereotypes and open up our minds to seeing the world with fresh eyes. We must be willing to take a new step toward our internal interests and find our individual creative spirit.
Social media can paralyze your perception of the world and how you interact with it. Creating shallow moments not of insight but of obnoxious self interest.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
May 3, 2015
Photography is changing faster than the mind can adapt to the free for all content frenzy with no real structure to find a path back to a cohesive reality we all share in. Reality is being fragmented and destroyed by the ease of snap shot captures and then the ego posting of these images that you hope make you feel that you are alive and participating in a shared reality. But you are being duped by the social media cartels. These snapshots have become emotional cushions to shore up an empty life without meaning.
The moment now is taken out of the real flowing moments of the present. A time line that once had purpose because it gave us a cohesive perception of this shared reality. Is now a helter-skelter escape from time. Everything now happens at once and at hyper speed.
We have become the objects in our life to take snap shots of. The visual snapshot has become the source of our fulfillment. Experiencing nature first hand is forgotten, replaced by the obsession to document every second of our life through a mechanical device.
The picture now stands for our experience not words describing our experience to a friend. Our vocabulary is diminishing as we rely more and more on the quick pic to be the only representation of that moment for us. It is easy and cheap now to indulge ego, that all to common stride toward banal self indulgence.
We are becoming the Look At Me personalities, actors in our own lives. Not authentic people but a series of posted snap shots of what we think others will like.
Good photography is focusing your intensity on the subject not on yourself. I am not the physical subject of my photographs. My feelings and personality show through when making images. That is how I connect with my subject. The camera is a conduit to a deeper reality. Intense focus on your relationship with your subject is necessary in order to create an image with depth and visual understanding. When you see through focused attention your true subject revealed you begin to see the undercurrents of your life intersecting with your life's theme.
There is a purpose I seek in choosing this subject over another. And as you dig deeper in the environment to select visual elements to represent your inner feeling you begin to loose track of time.
You are now fully involved using your chosen talents in the present moment not reflecting on yourself and then onto the subject. But one with the subject you are creating. It is a detective story of finding the scattered pieces of visually exciting elements of the scene and using your growing confidence in your abilities and putting the image puzzle together and creating an image worthy of other's attention.
Photography is changing faster than the mind can adapt to the free for all content frenzy with no real structure to find a path back to a cohesive reality we all share in. Reality is being fragmented and destroyed by the ease of snap shot captures and then the ego posting of these images that you hope make you feel that you are alive and participating in a shared reality. But you are being duped by the social media cartels. These snapshots have become emotional cushions to shore up an empty life without meaning.
The moment now is taken out of the real flowing moments of the present. A time line that once had purpose because it gave us a cohesive perception of this shared reality. Is now a helter-skelter escape from time. Everything now happens at once and at hyper speed.
We have become the objects in our life to take snap shots of. The visual snapshot has become the source of our fulfillment. Experiencing nature first hand is forgotten, replaced by the obsession to document every second of our life through a mechanical device.
The picture now stands for our experience not words describing our experience to a friend. Our vocabulary is diminishing as we rely more and more on the quick pic to be the only representation of that moment for us. It is easy and cheap now to indulge ego, that all to common stride toward banal self indulgence.
We are becoming the Look At Me personalities, actors in our own lives. Not authentic people but a series of posted snap shots of what we think others will like.
Erich Kahler, "What has happened is not so much a greater readiness, or capacity for understanding on the part of the public, but a radical transformations of art as such, an approximation of avant-garde work to the level of daily experience: our fragmented existence and its patent discordance's, the prevalence of life machinery over life itself, and hence its increasing mechanization."
There is a purpose I seek in choosing this subject over another. And as you dig deeper in the environment to select visual elements to represent your inner feeling you begin to loose track of time.
You are now fully involved using your chosen talents in the present moment not reflecting on yourself and then onto the subject. But one with the subject you are creating. It is a detective story of finding the scattered pieces of visually exciting elements of the scene and using your growing confidence in your abilities and putting the image puzzle together and creating an image worthy of other's attention.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
April 16, 2015
January 13, 2017
Burt Uzzle wrote, "Work gains in depth and importance as more and more aspects of life experiences and eloquence are apparent. Slavish, ill-proportioned devotion to limited offerings and compensating distortions suggest limited capacities and formula work. Growth and depth are required on life's zig-zag course as we take visceral risks and extend ourselves within the medium. We reach out."
Each of us has an individual talent no one else has. When we acknowledge it and develop this talent we begin the journey of our inner discovery. When we are present in the moment and accomplishing through purposeful effort our skill we enter a unique state of mind.
We have all at one time or another tapped into our unique genius and found that time was not an external force imposed upon us but rather we were separate, outside time's limits and our moments of doing what we enjoyed expressing seemed infinite. Time wasn't necessary for us to organize our lives. We didn't have the constant pressure to reflect on our actions to see if we were measuring up to external standards.
Time does not have to be linear, trapping us with narrow expectations, limiting our ability to open up and express our stories. When we are present in the moment, we then find outside ourselves, subjects worth our attention.
We must have the courage to see differently. Accept feelings more than words. Words confine us to sterile boxes of mundane repetition. Learn to see around corners not in a straight line. Don't be directed by the word police telling you what to feel and how to feel.
Become inquisitive, we know very little about the undercurrents in our lives dictating our thoughts and reactions to events and lessening our ability to follow our own vision of how we want to see and create photographs in this world.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
April 4, 2014
Arnold Newman when discussing his portraits wrote, "I am convinced that any photographic attempt to show the complete man is nonsense, to an extent. We can only show, as best we can, what the outer man reveals; the inner man is seldom revealed to anyone, sometimes not even to the man himself."
I think the same can be said of all images created whether they are of people, a still life, scenic, documentary, etc...
We look at a two dimensional photograph of a person as if this represents reality. When it actually is an image marker of the split second of exposure that symbolizes the ego of the subject or the ego of the photographer.
What we seem to get caught up in when looking at the world is the abstract concepts of things, the symbols they represent not the thing itself. When we look for the background details of a subject only then do we begin to approach the subject honestly. We begin to see the undercurrents of subject impressionism. That is the subjects willingness to be discovered on a deeper level through your intuition, timing and interaction. And the subjects willingness to give more of themselves to you.
Arnold Newman when discussing his portraits wrote, "I am convinced that any photographic attempt to show the complete man is nonsense, to an extent. We can only show, as best we can, what the outer man reveals; the inner man is seldom revealed to anyone, sometimes not even to the man himself."
I think the same can be said of all images created whether they are of people, a still life, scenic, documentary, etc...
We look at a two dimensional photograph of a person as if this represents reality. When it actually is an image marker of the split second of exposure that symbolizes the ego of the subject or the ego of the photographer.
What we seem to get caught up in when looking at the world is the abstract concepts of things, the symbols they represent not the thing itself. When we look for the background details of a subject only then do we begin to approach the subject honestly. We begin to see the undercurrents of subject impressionism. That is the subjects willingness to be discovered on a deeper level through your intuition, timing and interaction. And the subjects willingness to give more of themselves to you.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
March 29, 2015
It seems in this ever competitive photo market place success wins happiness and failure an overwhelming feeling of defeat. This belief that failure is an ending is based on the illusions of success. Success is exploitative, it creates illusions of accomplishments but these achievements are only for an external gratification. We all can look successful but an appearance like authenticity is an illusion. With each success our ego grows more narrowly focused and our willingness to explore other avenues of interest brings a risk of failure, so we stick to our prideful script and take photos of similar subjects to keep the success train rolling.
Failure is not something to be afraid of but to be embraced. If you fail you have a template to look at and find out what happened. I have always taken images that weren't quite finished and ready for publication. Something was missing in the composition and the quality of light that made the subject lack significance. It was my inexperience and youthful know it all attitude that made me ignore the potential of the subject in front of me and made me leap toward the lure of next greatest image just over the horizon.
When I edit some of my older slides for scanning, I find some of these image failures were actually trail markers I wasn't paying attention to and I ended up on dead end paths that did not inspire me at all. There was something I wasn't connecting with in these earlier scenes but still deep down I must of had an intuition, a gut feeling that this subject needed to be expressed.
You can chase success but success is actually chasing you, making you see only what it wants you to see and you are missing the subjects that are under your radar just waiting to be discovered. And these ignored subjects are actually the ones that could inspire your life and others, if only you could wake up and see them.
It seems in this ever competitive photo market place success wins happiness and failure an overwhelming feeling of defeat. This belief that failure is an ending is based on the illusions of success. Success is exploitative, it creates illusions of accomplishments but these achievements are only for an external gratification. We all can look successful but an appearance like authenticity is an illusion. With each success our ego grows more narrowly focused and our willingness to explore other avenues of interest brings a risk of failure, so we stick to our prideful script and take photos of similar subjects to keep the success train rolling.
Failure is not something to be afraid of but to be embraced. If you fail you have a template to look at and find out what happened. I have always taken images that weren't quite finished and ready for publication. Something was missing in the composition and the quality of light that made the subject lack significance. It was my inexperience and youthful know it all attitude that made me ignore the potential of the subject in front of me and made me leap toward the lure of next greatest image just over the horizon.
When I edit some of my older slides for scanning, I find some of these image failures were actually trail markers I wasn't paying attention to and I ended up on dead end paths that did not inspire me at all. There was something I wasn't connecting with in these earlier scenes but still deep down I must of had an intuition, a gut feeling that this subject needed to be expressed.
You can chase success but success is actually chasing you, making you see only what it wants you to see and you are missing the subjects that are under your radar just waiting to be discovered. And these ignored subjects are actually the ones that could inspire your life and others, if only you could wake up and see them.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
March 20, 2015
I need to go beyond my redundant habits in shooting the same old subjects over and over again. I need to expand my horizons by taking on subjects that are new, challenging and inspirational.
For one thing by doing the same camera set up over and over again my interest in the subject is lessened. I become disinterested in the subject and my images will reflect my bored mood.
Good photography is finding the note in your subject and playing your music along side it, using the elements of composition to discover new chords in the image being created that can move and inspire.
You need to build a composition that expresses not only your subject but your inner design which is constructed through your interaction with your subject. Start exploring deeper to find that composition that expresses your subject truthfully and expresses through your photographic character your connection with your subject.
Finding this new muse and expressing more by finding other chords and building your composition you create a new music, a new image, an instrumental, that gives you motivation but also confidence in your growing awareness of what you like to express in your photographs and gives the listener/viewer to those practiced chords an appreciation of your effort to explore new territories.
I need to go beyond my redundant habits in shooting the same old subjects over and over again. I need to expand my horizons by taking on subjects that are new, challenging and inspirational.
For one thing by doing the same camera set up over and over again my interest in the subject is lessened. I become disinterested in the subject and my images will reflect my bored mood.
Good photography is finding the note in your subject and playing your music along side it, using the elements of composition to discover new chords in the image being created that can move and inspire.
You need to build a composition that expresses not only your subject but your inner design which is constructed through your interaction with your subject. Start exploring deeper to find that composition that expresses your subject truthfully and expresses through your photographic character your connection with your subject.
Finding this new muse and expressing more by finding other chords and building your composition you create a new music, a new image, an instrumental, that gives you motivation but also confidence in your growing awareness of what you like to express in your photographs and gives the listener/viewer to those practiced chords an appreciation of your effort to explore new territories.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
February 16, 2015
Imagination, Fantasy, Dream practice, Meditation... all of these bring forth the fundamental gift all humans have and that is the desire in living life to transcend this sticky reality we all share. Sometimes we get caught up with distractions that move us away from a purposeful life and into a herd mentality of imitation. The art culture wakes us up to this wonderful world of personal expression.
We are becoming distracted by the shallow social media entertainment industry that doesn't have at its core inspiration but moves us like children to a candy store of fragmented scrap book imagery.
These images were never meant to be posted relentlessly on the web. Their authenticity is with family members that enjoy getting together during the holiday season and invariably these photo albums would come out to be reminisced about with family friends and relatives.
We are less inclined to appreciate the great images if we are dumbed down into thinking an instant thoughtless snap shot can equal the intensity of a studied subject through a connected photographer with his subject.
The art of photography is a gift to the world, a manifestation of the artists intent, to stimulate the viewer into thinking about this world in a deeper way. The great images of the past and the great images being created today are being overwhelmed by the banal content being supplied to the web. Everyone is an artist. And the more we see of this mediocre everyday snap shots we miss the important subjects being created that can give us a deeper understanding of our lives and our future. But just maybe that is the whole purpose of the social media websites to distract us into becoming more look alike nondescript personalities, all thinking in shallow pools of a common mediocrity. The more mindless information we are exposed to the less we know. Images that have a purpose need to be looked at more than a few seconds. They need to be studied and thought about. We are not image jumpers, we are focused eyes on works of art.
Separation now is part of the image creation. We don’t experience reality we take pictures of it and then post our results as we would put money into a parking meter. With only a few seconds of viewing time allowed.
Ernst Haas wrote, "You will have to decide for yourself what kind of works you want to create. Reports of facts, essays, poems-you want to speak or to sing? There are almost too many possibilities. Photography is in direct proportion with our time: multiple, faster, instant. Because it is so easy it will be difficult. Since we can photograph almost anything we are again at a new beginning. There is a photographic explosion in the world. Its the glamour profession. Everybody takes pictures, everybody can copy trends or styles... Only a vision-that is what one must have." This quote by Ernst Hass was from the book 'World Photography' edited by Bryn Campbell, published in 1981.
In creating meaningful imagery all you need is complexity of thoughts reduced to light play on your camera sensor.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
February 8, 2015
Photography is all about being visually alert to the potential subjects that are present everywhere. And photography is also about asking questions concerning your subject and studying your subject so you can create an image that expresses it's true nature.
How much do we really see and comprehend once we have filtered the scene in front of us through our prejudices? I think most people would be surprised how much their environment in childhood formed strong structured perceptions of their world. I use to ignore details that I thought were not grandiose enough. I wanted the big dramatic landscape so I overlooked potential imagery right in front of me.
It takes time to be in tune to your surroundings and I am still working on being more perceptive in my choice of details and then composing those details in such away that gives the viewer a sense of the subject beyond any homegrown labels.
Macro photography is a good way to present a subject in such a way that creates mystery and gives the viewer a different perspective on a subject we might just take for granted and ignore.
Photography is all about being visually alert to the potential subjects that are present everywhere. And photography is also about asking questions concerning your subject and studying your subject so you can create an image that expresses it's true nature.
How much do we really see and comprehend once we have filtered the scene in front of us through our prejudices? I think most people would be surprised how much their environment in childhood formed strong structured perceptions of their world. I use to ignore details that I thought were not grandiose enough. I wanted the big dramatic landscape so I overlooked potential imagery right in front of me.
It takes time to be in tune to your surroundings and I am still working on being more perceptive in my choice of details and then composing those details in such away that gives the viewer a sense of the subject beyond any homegrown labels.
Macro photography is a good way to present a subject in such a way that creates mystery and gives the viewer a different perspective on a subject we might just take for granted and ignore.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
February 4, 2015
An important element in preparation when going out to shoot is to have an informal plan of attack. You have the main subject in mind. For me this means that the lighting conditions in the morning or evening are well suited for this particular subject, whether it be a skyline, landscape, street scenes, etc...
I am not going out with a rigid mental purpose, that this subject and only this subject I will shoot. Weather changes and your eye is hungry with excitement to be out shooting so you are open to serendipity.
Yesterday I was out for the sunrise. I wanted to get the Seattle Skyline with low fog surrounding the base of Space Needle and taller buildings in the downtown corridor. The day before the fog was just perfect for this effect and I was hoping that we could get a repeat. No dice, the clouds came in and the fog didn't hug the surface but rose to block any view of the city.
At the base of Queen Anne hill in Seattle I had already scouted a small park lit with neon lights. The park had metal tables, chairs and small trees silhouetted against this bright neon. So I headed their and set up to shoot. About half way through shooting the neon lights went out as morning approached. I packed up and went to another area I had scouted and set up to shoot there. I got a couple of frames taken of these wonderful street lights lining a curvy road. And then suddenly those lights went out. The good news is that the city is conserving energy by putting timers on their lights.
I went to a third subject and this time the light stayed until I was done.
You get the picture. We have our mental lists of subjects we are interested in shooting. When we go out to shoot, hopefully, we just go with the flow and are not driving crazy searching for a subject to put in jaw dropping beautiful light. This works in theory but we know that as image creators we are never satisfied and are always looking to improve the subject with better and better light.
An important element in preparation when going out to shoot is to have an informal plan of attack. You have the main subject in mind. For me this means that the lighting conditions in the morning or evening are well suited for this particular subject, whether it be a skyline, landscape, street scenes, etc...
I am not going out with a rigid mental purpose, that this subject and only this subject I will shoot. Weather changes and your eye is hungry with excitement to be out shooting so you are open to serendipity.
Yesterday I was out for the sunrise. I wanted to get the Seattle Skyline with low fog surrounding the base of Space Needle and taller buildings in the downtown corridor. The day before the fog was just perfect for this effect and I was hoping that we could get a repeat. No dice, the clouds came in and the fog didn't hug the surface but rose to block any view of the city.
At the base of Queen Anne hill in Seattle I had already scouted a small park lit with neon lights. The park had metal tables, chairs and small trees silhouetted against this bright neon. So I headed their and set up to shoot. About half way through shooting the neon lights went out as morning approached. I packed up and went to another area I had scouted and set up to shoot there. I got a couple of frames taken of these wonderful street lights lining a curvy road. And then suddenly those lights went out. The good news is that the city is conserving energy by putting timers on their lights.
I went to a third subject and this time the light stayed until I was done.
You get the picture. We have our mental lists of subjects we are interested in shooting. When we go out to shoot, hopefully, we just go with the flow and are not driving crazy searching for a subject to put in jaw dropping beautiful light. This works in theory but we know that as image creators we are never satisfied and are always looking to improve the subject with better and better light.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
January 24, 2014
I wrote this back in August 2007
I wrote this back in August 2007
Its a numbers game and you can't fight capitalism, supply and demand economics. The more similar products that businesses sell the less a business can charge for those products, unless the business shows the consumer something special and valuable in his product. Lets look at this from another perspective and see why I am not as enthused as I once was about the future prospects of the Independent Photographer. Lets look at the Stock Industry and the increase of imagery and the decrease in pricing.
Clip sealed our fate and ever cheaper clip only exploited the Manifest Destiny of images on the web. Photos along with videos are the perfect eye candy that propelled the internet into our homes and business. At the same time this was happening for good or bad we had a monumental shift in businesses exploiting the middle class ( in the photography world this middle class was the Independent Photographer that was the Stock Industries backbone) and its every increasing drive to cut costs and increase shareholders profits.
What was our main bargaining chip when it came to getting a better contract and respect and fair commissions from our agencies? Our images and how could they undermine this. They could promote RF over RM and focus on its simplicity and cost effectiveness on the web namely no overhead, clients/consumers could use their credit cards for purchases badda bing badda boom. They offered subscription fees to access a larger amount of clip imagery. They could lower the price of RM giving bulk deals to big clients and undermine the rights managed aspects of the usage by allowing 5 -10 year usage contracts. They could introduce new licensing models that began to look alot like RF usage rights granted. They added other companies imagery on their site to compete directly with their own photographers, they bought up business and put those on the site as well. They hired photographers to shoot for them, thus creating wholly owned imagery and on and on we all know the story the point is that they destroyed our bargaining chip even before micro-sites became a blip on the radar. Coupled with this every increasing amount of imagery being produced business big and small were as I stated above looking for a way to cut costs. They were looking for bargains and were telling their art buyers to wring out a few more dollars in profit by buying cheaper imagery. Its not that micro-sites are the cause of our income declining its only the biggest manifestation of a trend that began a decade ago. However, the development of micro-sites and the fees they charge for imagery are in fact the ominous creation of the business mentality of cost cutting and micro-sites ( filling the final price point businesses want, cheap and or free) have the biggest detrimental impact on the Independent Photographer's ability to make a decent wage for his/hers efforts in all the years I have been shooting.
But not only does this effect the photographer but the overall industry suffers because as this content grows and the prices drop the perceived value of photography declines to a point where it can not demand higher prices for quality imagery.
An example of this problem in perceived value is the decreasing sales of TRM (Traditional Rights Managed) and TRF (Traditional Royalty Free) imagery. This has hurt the stock prices of Getty and Jupiter Media. Corbis I am sure has the same problem but won't share info on their declining TRM and TRF sales.
Why do you think these agencies are broadening their revenue streams. They have to because of the micro-site effect. Getty is into all sorts of other photo related enterprises including just off the top of my head:
1) Celebrity imagery
2) Digital Management
3) Assignment
4) Rights Clearance
5) Video
6) Trend Papers for sale including Edit Magazine
7) Music
8) Office Space Rentals
9) A new Consumer site called ViewImages
10) Pay to Play Schemes
And I am sure more to follow. Other major distribution Portals are doing the same because they know for a fact TRM and TRF their bread and butter is an endangered species.
January 23, 2014
The world of Stock Photography certainly has changed. I have touched on this topic before but I think it is worth mentioning again. The art culture is deteriorating and losing its ability to sustain itself financially. As we move forward in this new landscape of snap and post we are overwhelmed with content. Most of this content is given away free of charge.
In stock photography the standard selling model is royalty free at micro prices. They claim that you will make up for the low pricing with higher volume of sales. I have been in this business a long time and have tried this RF model (briefly) and my experience is that the agencies win out and the photographer is left with pennies on the dollar with no chance of controlling the unlimited usage of their images after the sale has been made.
There is no turning back we are marching forward herded by the multi billion dollar social media websites. We empower them with free content. And they make their money off the visual art we worked hard to create.
You can hide your head in the sand and hope it will change but it won't and can't. People are social animals and want to be seen and heard. Social media grants us a momentary spot light on a dull stage to be liked or disliked. You do not have to know anything about art, all you need is a camera phone, special effects and magically you are an artist.
A culture needs a cohesive identity in order to feel a belonging to something more than themselves. Art has always expressed our deepest thoughts and emotions in a way that can visually stimulate the dull brain to see more in this life than what is present physically. It can make us aware of our inner selves and our relationship to the external forces that manipulate us.
We need to examine our motives for continuing in this media climate of manipulation and homogeneous snap shots. How can our images be seen when each second millions of images are bursting forth onto the Internet? The truth is most of your images won't be seen. You can have your own website. You can submit to the agencies. But this will not guarantee sales. As a matter of fact the agencies have always been social media websites. We give our images to them free of charge and they post them and try to attract buyers and then take a bigger and bigger percentage of our image sales.
I feel people do not want to have to think and work at creating meaningful photographs. They want an instantaneous gratification, a selfish desire to be praised just by their finger pressing a button and a snap shot is born.
These pictures reinforce simple, mundane experiences that attract like minded viewers that
appreciate a certain compatibility with what is going on in their owns lives. And this allows the hollow details to become transformed into the meaningful, the way of the crowd source. This limits a persons ability to think out of the box and create imagery with substance and meaning.
We are becoming voyeurs of life and not participating in life. Without a connection to nature we accept a shallow expression on a small screen to be elevated to the state of the real deal. And thus we are losing our ability to empathize and connect with others on a truly deeper level. We live in a vacuum of our own creations. We accept reality on a screen and have put a barrier between us and life.
The world of Stock Photography certainly has changed. I have touched on this topic before but I think it is worth mentioning again. The art culture is deteriorating and losing its ability to sustain itself financially. As we move forward in this new landscape of snap and post we are overwhelmed with content. Most of this content is given away free of charge.
In stock photography the standard selling model is royalty free at micro prices. They claim that you will make up for the low pricing with higher volume of sales. I have been in this business a long time and have tried this RF model (briefly) and my experience is that the agencies win out and the photographer is left with pennies on the dollar with no chance of controlling the unlimited usage of their images after the sale has been made.
There is no turning back we are marching forward herded by the multi billion dollar social media websites. We empower them with free content. And they make their money off the visual art we worked hard to create.
You can hide your head in the sand and hope it will change but it won't and can't. People are social animals and want to be seen and heard. Social media grants us a momentary spot light on a dull stage to be liked or disliked. You do not have to know anything about art, all you need is a camera phone, special effects and magically you are an artist.
A culture needs a cohesive identity in order to feel a belonging to something more than themselves. Art has always expressed our deepest thoughts and emotions in a way that can visually stimulate the dull brain to see more in this life than what is present physically. It can make us aware of our inner selves and our relationship to the external forces that manipulate us.
We need to examine our motives for continuing in this media climate of manipulation and homogeneous snap shots. How can our images be seen when each second millions of images are bursting forth onto the Internet? The truth is most of your images won't be seen. You can have your own website. You can submit to the agencies. But this will not guarantee sales. As a matter of fact the agencies have always been social media websites. We give our images to them free of charge and they post them and try to attract buyers and then take a bigger and bigger percentage of our image sales.
I feel people do not want to have to think and work at creating meaningful photographs. They want an instantaneous gratification, a selfish desire to be praised just by their finger pressing a button and a snap shot is born.
These pictures reinforce simple, mundane experiences that attract like minded viewers that
appreciate a certain compatibility with what is going on in their owns lives. And this allows the hollow details to become transformed into the meaningful, the way of the crowd source. This limits a persons ability to think out of the box and create imagery with substance and meaning.
We are becoming voyeurs of life and not participating in life. Without a connection to nature we accept a shallow expression on a small screen to be elevated to the state of the real deal. And thus we are losing our ability to empathize and connect with others on a truly deeper level. We live in a vacuum of our own creations. We accept reality on a screen and have put a barrier between us and life.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
January 18, 2015
Authentic definition:
entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience, reliable, trustworthy, not fake or copied.
The appearance of posed, young and old good looking people in a photograph doesn’t mean authentic. It seems to me that imagery is becoming more and more homogenized in this look a like selfie culture.
Authentic, real, natural looking people are all advertising descriptions that companies want to see in their ads to sell their particular product. If you have to describe your experience while living it you are not experiencing it as authentic you are putting words as a barrier to that experience and thus losing authenticity.
Authentic is a symbol and abstract concept disguised as the real deal to appeal to a perceived lifestyle and to be exploited and commercialized by ad men to sell their products. Just like the American flag is used to sell patriotism and loyalty etc…
The ad men laugh at authenticity because they know the end game in using these real looking subjects is sales, period.
Authenticity is living in the present tense and enjoying the moment. Opening your senses to the sounds, smells, light and feelings that are brought forth when in the presence of natures beauty. And connecting with your subject first hand not through a hand held device. You don’t get authenticity through the appearance of authenticity in a photograph but only in the intense relationship with your subject.
A photograph is a copy. It is a copy of a scene, an artifact of something that happened. It is a copy of a live experience not the experience itself.
In being present in the environment you felt, heard and sensed the present moments and felt it first hand. Not a secondary experience through a photograph or video.
Photography in today’s social media frenzy is entertainment not authentic. It needs to be visually exciting to attract the visually illiterate to spend a few seconds looking at the subject.
Just the word authentic has lost all meaning. If everything is authentic then nothing is.
Photographs like words can be taken out of context and are used deliberately to confuse or mislead the viewer.
What limits the appearance of authenticity is the motive behind the image creator. If you think about truthfulness as authentic then nothing in image creating is authentic. We yank the subject from it’s mooring in time and lose the moments before and after the shutter was tripped. Was the moment before or after the shutter was tripped more authentic. Through personal influences and personal choices we filter out the details we don’t like and add the ones that we like. These are not authentic, factual, genuine, or trustworthy, objective truths. These are personal decisions by the photographer to express his vision of what he sees as his truth.
The photographer looks for subjects that interest him. He explores his environment and begins to make a connection to subjects that appear because he is conscious of the details being presented. He selects these details and his timing to create his inner connections from past explorations through a mechanical device. The created scene is only authentic to the photographer. The details in the scene will connect with some viewers because they see the similarities in details as important clues for themselves as well. And this connection to the image is authentic for them only in as much as they can connect with the message being presented.
Truth is in a photograph if the image represents the purpose intended by the image creator. But the resulting image is a by product of not the real internal intensity, a revelation not the actual. A photograph is an appearance of something not the real physical appearance. The image isn’t authentic but has the appearance of something real to viewers that can see and feel the clues given to them by the image creator.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)