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Author Topic: Balancing all aspects of photography  (Read 14254 times)

HSakols

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Balancing all aspects of photography
« on: June 03, 2013, 10:32:03 am »

Over the weekend I watched a short film about Jay Maisel and wondered how does someone like him balance his work.  More specifically, how do you balance your time taking images, editing and cataloging, printing, and yes matting.  I could spend the rest of my life just working with the images I already have.  Of course the fun for me is getting out coming back with new work.  I've been told that Ansel Adams made relatively few images after his forties and mainly printed what he already had. 
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Rob C

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2013, 02:40:10 pm »

Over the weekend I watched a short film about Jay Maisel and wondered how does someone like him balance his work.  More specifically, how do you balance your time taking images, editing and cataloging, printing, and yes matting.  I could spend the rest of my life just working with the images I already have.  Of course the fun for me is getting out coming back with new work.  I've been told that Ansel Adams made relatively few images after his forties and mainly printed what he already had. 




I don't know all about St Ansel, but I do have a suspicion that perhaps he shot himself out at an early age. I think he might well have been choked by his genre. He apparently spent much of his later life in the photo-circus, huggging trees etc. and I suppose that could fill up time... sell a lot of images that didn't shift when he was young and success would have been sweet. Irony is no stranger to photography.

All photographers lead different lives: some are underworked and have time to do the whole thing; some have too much work for one man and they delegate; others are fortunate enough to hit a happy medium (I can hardly resist) and work comfortably until the end. Some others just don't know when to stop: they don't hear the man on the shore blowing his whistle. Fortunately, age dulls the senses.

Rob C

theguywitha645d

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2013, 12:00:38 pm »

Over the weekend I watched a short film about Jay Maisel and wondered how does someone like him balance his work.  More specifically, how do you balance your time taking images, editing and cataloging, printing, and yes matting.  I could spend the rest of my life just working with the images I already have.  Of course the fun for me is getting out coming back with new work.  I've been told that Ansel Adams made relatively few images after his forties and mainly printed what he already had. 

Simple, he found a system that works for him. Adams also found his system. Every photographer will come up with a unique solution. I don't worry too much about what others are doing, but I do care about what sustains me. I think we look at others too much for what is the "correct" way of doing things, when we should be following our own muse. Naturally it is harder the closer to the beginning of a career than toward the end.
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Iluvmycam

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #3 on: June 26, 2013, 07:33:38 am »

Where was the film at?
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HSakols

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PeterAit

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #5 on: June 26, 2013, 10:46:45 am »

Simple, he found a system that works for him. Adams also found his system. Every photographer will come up with a unique solution. I don't worry too much about what others are doing, but I do care about what sustains me. I think we look at others too much for what is the "correct" way of doing things, when we should be following our own muse. Naturally it is harder the closer to the beginning of a career than toward the end.

Yes, well said. Don't worry about doing what is "right" in some general sense, but rather what works for you. If you make a living from photography, then of course you have many constraints, but if it's for pleasure then - well, it's for pleasure!
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RSL

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2013, 11:04:59 am »

I'm not usually a Ken Rockwell fan, but I think his description of an "artist" from his "The Seven Levels of Photographers" is worth quoting here. I'm not sure where this leaves Ansel, or Henri, or Gene, or any of the other folks to whom we often refer, but his description certainly includes Vivian Maier:

"An artist fixes his imagination in a tangible form called a photograph. He captures the spirit of place or person, real or imagined, in this photograph and the viewer responds to this.
 
"An artist is a complete master of his tools. When creating art an artist transcends common existence as his spirit flies up to meet that which he is capturing. He may practice and learn his tools while he is not creating, however when creating the camera becomes an extension of his mind. No conscious thought is expended on the technical issues with which he is a virtuoso while creating photographs.

"To make a musical analogy, a musician may woodshed his scales, but when he's jamming he's not even thinking about fingerings. He's lost in the passion of the moment.

"Just like professional surfers who have a dozen boards or pro guitarists who have 23 axes, an artist may have a slew of cameras, each for a different purpose.

"Likewise, other artists may only have one camera, or none at all. It just doesn't matter.

"Artists sometimes dress funny and tend to stay up late. They usually prefer to photograph attractive young women and are proud of it.

"No one ever sees their work since they have crummy ability to promote themselves, and sadly, usually don't even appreciate their own excellent work. Those that do drop down to Whore, which sadly and paradoxically means you will never see the work of a true artist unless you know one personally. Good artists are usually too embarrassed to show their work to anyone unless you are intimate with them, since their work is their soul.

"Artists use any sort of camera, including pinholes and disposables, or 8 x 10s. They use whatever instrument they need to create what they want."

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PhillyPhotographer

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2013, 12:05:29 am »

If your main priority in life is being a photographer it's easy to keep on top of your work. There are some who think they are but they're really not. SELL THE HOUSE SELL THE CAR SELL THE KIDS. I can name two genius photographers who abandoned their family for photography.

Here is a little incentive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzEphuCK4Ic&feature=c4-overview&list=UUS-MObUQAerSZn_MTqg3tqg

Rob C

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2013, 03:49:43 am »

That's not being a photographer, that's being a selfish, destructive obsessive.

Having said which, great pictures, and why have I never heard of the guy before?

Rob C

PhillyPhotographer

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2013, 10:43:01 am »

To you it might be but others it's called dedication.

W. Eugene Smith
Daido Moriyama

Rob C

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2013, 11:19:30 am »

To you it might be but others it's called dedication.

W. Eugene Smith
Daido Moriyama



I'm very well aware of Smith's work; but at least he made the odd snap of his children - got them into Family of Man!

I was dedicated too; it didn't mean I had to eff up the lives of my wife and children. That's lunacy, frankly, to me and possibly to any sane person. Hell, it's only pictures we're talking about, not the salvation of mankind. Ego, ability, tunnel vision - dangerous chemistry.

Rob C

PhillyPhotographer

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2013, 12:31:35 pm »



 Hell, it's only pictures we're talking about, not the salvation of mankind. Ego, ability, tunnel vision - dangerous chemistry.

Rob C

This statement alone shows your ignorance of Smith's work. The salvation of mankind is exactly what he was trying to accomplish with his photography. Then again I wouldn't expect you to understand.

Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2013, 12:36:59 pm »

... The salvation of mankind is exactly what he was trying to accomplish with his photography...

Ain't that the irony: screw up your family to save the mankind!? What happened to the adage that if you want to change the world, start with yourself?

Rob C

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2013, 02:29:56 pm »

This statement alone shows your ignorance of Smith's work. The salvation of mankind is exactly what he was trying to accomplish with his photography. Then again I wouldn't expect you to understand.


Hook, line and sinker too, Philly.

Do you really, in your heart of hearts, actually believe that anyone thinks his pictures capable of doing that? If WES believed it, then he was more crazy even than Life and Magnum thought him to be.

Oh yes, I understand all right. It's the same naive belief that every student goes through at university only to discard when the holiday is over and he stands there, face to face with the same ugly world that his parents had to deal with all the time that they were finding the money for that splendid education they just provided. Religion has tried and usually failed to provide the calming balm to soothe those savage breasts; you think some pictures can do it, whoever shoots them?

Idealism is for the very wealthy and the very poor.

Rob C

PhillyPhotographer

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #14 on: July 04, 2013, 12:36:43 am »


Hook, line and sinker too, Philly.

Do you really, in your heart of hearts, actually believe that anyone thinks his pictures capable of doing that? If WES believed it, then he was more crazy even than Life and Magnum thought him to be.

Oh yes, I understand all right. It's the same naive belief that every student goes through at university only to discard when the holiday is over and he stands there, face to face with the same ugly world that his parents had to deal with all the time that they were finding the money for that splendid education they just provided. Religion has tried and usually failed to provide the calming balm to soothe those savage breasts; you think some pictures can do it, whoever shoots them?

Idealism is for the very wealthy and the very poor.

Rob C

I couldn't hear you over the toilet flush that is your last post. Classic case of education does not equate to intelligence. Rob are you European ?

PhillyPhotographer

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #15 on: July 04, 2013, 12:39:09 am »

Never mind, I actually don't care. I'll be out taking photos as you degrade peoples methods and beliefs.

Rob C

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #16 on: July 04, 2013, 04:29:20 am »

Never mind, I actually don't care. I'll be out taking photos as you degrade peoples methods and beliefs.


Of course you don't care; why would/should you, why would/should any of us? It's nothing but a keyboard with some strange gremlins in the pipes. Like your flush - maybe?

Happy splashings or, as they say, if you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and lift the seatie.

;-)

Rob C

michael

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #17 on: July 04, 2013, 09:31:25 am »

Let's chill before someone gets banned.

Politeness is the order of the day.

Michael
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HSakols

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #18 on: July 04, 2013, 09:25:09 pm »

Sounds like many of us are suffering from first world problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN2WzQzxuoA

Be kind to one another!  It's a mean world out there.
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Rob C

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Re: Balancing all aspects of photography
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2013, 04:03:10 am »

Sounds like many of us are suffering from first world problems.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN2WzQzxuoA

Be kind to one another!  It's a mean world out there.


Some full cups overflowing are better than others. Why shut them?

;.)

Rob C
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