TinyCybOrg

Best Of The Daily Siege (Advice to Baby Photographers, Not Photographers Of Babies)

Speak to the Devil… 7/8/2005 12:01:00 AM- Excerpts:

“I get a lot of questions asking for photo advice, which I find flattering, and only sometimes tiring, if only for its volume. Now, I’m entirely self taught. No art school. No college. I didn’t even graduate from high school. And before I didn’t graduate from high school I received the benefit of years of neglect in the public schools of the inner city and rural Deep South, where the budget for new footballs exceeds that of textbooks, and Texas sets the standards for education. Beyond all this, I grew up so poor that a decent camera may as well have been an artifact from an alien civilization, or a crucial part of some futuristic satellite, certainly not meant for my grubby white trash fingers.

What I’m getting at is that, if I can do it, anybody can do it. I’m not interested in writing a how-to book, but maybe some random things I’ve learned about the philosophy and technique of photography might be helpful to photographers, and maybe even marginally interesting to non-photographers. I’m going to put some thoughts down here, in no particular order:
When learning, be methodical. Keep track of what you’re doing, from camera settings, to lighting, to post-production. Keep track of what you’ve changed, and note the difference from earlier efforts. Don’t stumble around in the dark.
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f8 is generally the aperture that provides the sharpest point of focus on lenses. That doesn’t mean you should always shoot at f8.
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Rules were meant to be broken, yes, but it feels much better if you know what the rules were in the first place. Picasso started as a realist. Once he had that down he could paint whatever he wanted. Be like Picasso. He got laid a lot.
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Never be ashamed to take a picture. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. You’re not soul-snatching, you’re soul-preserving. Also, is there a picture you really really want to take of someone? Just ask nicely and confidently and 90% of the time they’ll say yes.
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OK, artsnobs, cringe all you want because they sell his prints at the mall, but when Ansel Adams said “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept” he was clued in to a fundamental truth of the universe. Also, you’re just jealous that his shit’s popular.
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Bokeh is the term that describes the out-of-focus areas in a picture. These areas are just as important as the in-focus areas. Just like life.
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Don’t delete bad digital pictures. That’s like erasing bad memories in your mind. Sounds like a decent idea at first, but eventually you’ll understand that it takes mistakes to learn and grow, and they’re just as valuable as successes, if not more, so keep them around. Fuck, didn’t you see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?
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Expensive gear won’t make your images better, and more gear won’t make you more effective. If you can’t do it with a basic camera, you can’t do it. The simplest 10% of a camera does 90% of the work. The rest is cock-waving for specialists. That short, aging bald guy in the red sports car? The one with erectile dysfunction? That’s your fancy camera.
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If possible, don’t take a picture of anything right away. Give yourself time to just experience. You need to do this to understand what you’re photographing. If it’s a landscape, walk around and soak up the sun, smell the dirt. If it’s fashion, feel the textures, the colors. If it’s a portrait, talk to the human in front of you and try to understand what’s in their head. If it’s combat reportage, get behind the video guy, he’s a good shield.
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What makes up a style? Find a photographer you really admire and rip him off mercilessly.Consider it a remote apprenticeship. This is the history of culture. One day you’ll accidentally start doing original work, and then some young punk will start ripping you off. And the cycle of life is continued…
That’s enough for now, I’m starting to pontificate.”