Almost

[Rob C]

Just wondering: how many times do you start off intending to carry a camera with you that day, yet by the time it comes to putting key into front door, the camera is already back in the safe cupboard?

Seems to be my new way of life these days... I don't know if it's just me, or a wider-felt sense of 'what's the point'.

;-(

Rob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXTM-t5sCuI

[Two23]

It's still winter here--my favorite time of year.   I can't wait to get outside.  The wind and snow inspire me.


Kent in SD

[KLaban]

Just wondering: how many times do you start off intending to carry a camera with you that day, yet by the time it comes to putting key into front door, the camera is already back in the safe cupboard?

Seems to be my new way of life these days... I don't know if it's just me, or a wider-felt sense of 'what's the point'.

;-(

Rob

Perhaps the point is one needs a point to even consider getting the camera out of the cupboard. I can't remember the last time I got a camera out of the cupboard just-in-case.

;-)

[RSL]

Can't believe you guys. I ALWAYS carry at least my Pen-F.

[farbschlurf]

Yes, just make a ALWAYS out of that ALMOST. What's the point? Who cares? You'll know when it happens.

That being said, I have to confess I carry the camera many days and lots of miles without making any picture. Sometimes I even forget, I have it with me ... so this is not the solution for everything, either ...

[Paulo Bizarro]

In Portugal we have a saying like this: "hell is full of good intentions"

Intentions > Actions

I always have a camera with me, which is in the phone. Plenty good for documenting. I remember a few years back, a notable photographer wrote a piece on how he always had a camera with him, at the time it was a Canon Powershot S50. According to him, it was excellent for scouting locations and planning/idealizing shots.

[RSL]

If you're gonna do street, you have to have a camera with you, preferably a camera with which you can control things like depth of field. A cell phone will do sometimes; usually not.

But as I said in https://luminous-landscape.com/on-street-photography/, just having the camera with you isn't enough. You also have to have the camera in your hand and be looking. Looking is the key to the whole thing. But unless you have a camera in your hand, looking is a kind of visual masturbation.

[Peter McLennan]

But unless you have a camera in your hand, looking is a kind of visual masturbation.

And the problem with that is... ?

Can I just do it until I have to wear glasses?

Phone cameras, at least my 3 generations old Samsung, are too slow for street, IMHO.  IQ is fine, but they frequently miss the shot because they're busy focusing and metering.

[Rob C]

Perhaps the point is one needs a point to even consider getting the camera out of the cupboard. I can't remember the last time I got a camera out of the cupboard just-in-case.

;-)

I think you have got close to it (the point) :-) and that it's my current lack of motivation that is the basic problem - perhaps. It's not lack of local opportunity or even of vision, because I know perfectly well that I can just go out and shoot something and it will probably work more or less to my satisfaction; the thing is, that's exactly what I have been doing ever since retirement, and it no longer thrills me one iota.

If I didn't keep looking at Peter Lindbergh videos I'm kinda convinced this wouldn't be where I am today. but hey, why deny to myself where my interest really resides, just because it's now way out of the stadium? As I have said before, the rest, to me, is just substitute. Sometimes, as now, it doesn't seem worth the physical effort. I can't imagine anyone just shooting away for the sake of just shooting away. I suppose I've been through my Leiter-influence period and I'm buggered if there's another genre out there that strikes me worth the bother of investigating via the camera.

No, I hope never to make another cellphone snap unless for uses such as showing some shop what I need; it's often more simple than words.

Neither will another camera solve the problem, obviously enough, because it has nothing to do with hardware.

:-(

[Two23]

For several years I attended an annual niche photography convention.  One of the attendees was David Plowden, whom I got to know fairly well.  I would sit with him during some of the conferences, and once handed him my 1954 Rolleiflex and asked, "Ever seen one of these?"  His face lit up and he smiled.  The Rolleiflex was his favorite camera.  A few years ago he gave an interview on National Public Radio about his 50 years of photography.  I believe it was during this interview he said he was only working on his negatives and no longer taking new photos.  His explanation was he felt he has photo'd everything he wanted to photo:

http://www.thestory.org/stories/2013-10/disappearing-america


Kent in SD

[Rob C]

For several years I attended an annual niche photography convention.  One of the attendees was David Plowden, whom I got to know fairly well.  I would sit with him during some of the conferences, and once handed him my 1954 Rolleiflex and asked, "Ever seen one of these?"  His face lit up and he smiled.  The Rolleiflex was his favorite camera.  A few years ago he gave an interview on National Public Radio about his 50 years of photography.  I believe it was during this interview he said he was only working on his negatives and no longer taking new photos.  His explanation was he felt he has photo'd everything he wanted to photo:

http://www.thestory.org/stories/2013-10/disappearing-america


Kent in SD

Thank you for the link.

Whilst depressing in its message, I believe that it is absolutely on the money. Certainly not everyone does this, but for those who do start into photography because of a driving obsession with one kind of subject, the removal of that subject puts into question the entire purpose of continuing with the photographic part when it has lost its original purpose or, shall we say, motivation.

I think I read both HC-B and Saul Leiter saying that their early work was no longer possible if only because the old neighbourhoods and circumstances had disappeared and had morphed into something entirely else. I think there's an echo of the sentiment in Russ's own experiences with shooting, whilst not specifically, the America of the Route 66 heritage/type, where not only the topography has changed but where, according to at least one travel programme's attempt to trace it, even the road itself vanishes in key areas.

Truth is, in my own instance, it has never been that much about the tools, but about the job for which I had/have them. I suppose that explains my lack of interest in matters digital and technically "progressive", as some see it, where for me, the interest is almost totally in the thing they helped me catch.

Again, thanks for letting me discover my situation isn't peculiar to myself!

Rob

[Paulo Bizarro]

And the problem with that is... ?

Can I just do it until I have to wear glasses?

Phone cameras, at least my 3 generations old Samsung, are too slow for street, IMHO.  IQ is fine, but they frequently miss the shot because they're busy focusing and metering.

Even my 3 year old Galaxy s6 is really quick: I just touch the screen and the shot is taken almost immediately. Today's models are even better.

[Rob C]

Even my 3 year old Galaxy s6 is really quick: I just touch the screen and the shot is taken almost immediately. Today's models are even better.

I want to forget a series of distressed boat paintwork that I shot one year with my silly old Samsung. The skipper of another boat asked me to quote for making a nice blow up of one that he'd seen on the website. I had to decline. No way it wouldn't have embarrassed the pants off me. (In some circumstances not such a bad thing, but this skipper was male.)

I concluded that I should never again make a picture that couldn't stand enlargement.

So yeah, one can learn from personal experience.

[BernardLanguillier]

That rarely happens to me.

My iPhone 7 is always in my pocket, and I always carry at least my D850 + 28mm f1.4 if I think there are going to be photographic opportunities.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Rob C]

That rarely happens to me.

My iPhone 7 is always in my pocket, and I always carry at least my D850 + 28mm f1.4 if I think there are going to be photographic opportunities.

Cheers,
Bernard

That's the trouble, isn't it?

How do you know before it happens that an opportunity worth the hassle even exists?

Carrying a camera all day long is not a pile of fun. Especially when there's no pay-off. Truth to tell, it strikes me as somewhat obsessive...