Sorry, "BS" was a poor choice of words. Your methodology and mine are different obviously, and your motivations and mine are different as well. I do not possess a brain that is capable of processing an image before it's taken, whether that's because of a lack of concentration or an insufficient number of brain cells. However, I do believe the realm of photography is large enough to encompass many different methodologies and can be enjoyed in whatever way that makes one happy.
I agree that it's important to know what you're taking a picture of before it's taken, but I also think that there is plenty of room to sometimes be surprised to find things that may have escaped one's notice as part of the post processing workflow. For me that's part of the fun. If I could hazard a guess from your comments, you might think that's unacceptable as a photographer, but that's okay. I enjoy doing what I'm doing and at my age I don't care if it's acceptable or not. :-)
Regards,
Patrick
Fun: I have been considering this aspect for quite a long time - several years, in fact. I still find it difficult to conclude one way or the other. Sometimes I think I am having fun with photography and then at others, I realise it has nothing to do with fun, which is redolent of a sense of amusement, lightness of spirit and at least some sense of slight excitement.
The more my mind returns to that subject, the less certain I am. In fact, the only time I can honestly claim to have made a shot in a real sense of fun was the other day - yesterday, I think - when I intentionally set out to ape the William Klein "thing" about marking contact sheets with coloured pens. My reality, obviously a more gloomy one than his, had such selections marked in black or blue pen... But the point remained - at least it did yesterday - that trying to rip off a mannerism would indeed be a "fun" thing to attempt because it doesn't depend on the
images but in the treatment of a presentation. For the rest of the time, photography doesn't approach that territory (for me) because it feels far more a driven thing. Truth to tell, I feel increasongly guilty for not being able to raise the same enthusiasm for it as I could a year or so ago. Perhaps that's not accurate: the enthusiasm is there but the desire gets ever more funnelled into directions that are currently impossibe to take, and thus shooting anything else feels exactly what it is: a substitute. The junk I eat every day, compared with my late wife's culinary skills, leaps instantly to mind as a prime example. Would you if you didn't have to?
Your other point, about enjoyment, is paramount: that's what it should be about, I think, whether pro or amateur.
Rob