Photographing the Icons

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Best post on Lula in a long while Seamus.

The first version was the best post on Lula in a long time, but the second version is even better.
Bravo!!!

I'm going to bookmark this one so I can come back to it whenever I need it to cleanse my soul.

[kencameron]

...I thought it may also act as an opener for a general discussion about the futility or otherwise, of re-photographing a scene that has been photographed many millions of times before, with my thoughts for this particular location and my version of it being, that the reason it has been over-photographed in the first place, is just because it is so beautiful and so why not have a go at it, but just don't expect anyone to look at it and go Wow! I have never seen anything like that before  

Accepting that interesting invitation, I think that faced with an amazing scene, few photographers will be able to resist the temptation to "have a go at it",  but would be naive not to realise that many of the people looking at their image will have seen too many other images of the same scene, and also that they may feel that if the scene is exceptionally beautiful, any image will fall short of the reality. Consequently, you have to expect that however well you have done your job as a photographer, people looking at your image will be to some degree disappointed with the result.  I get the latter feeling with almost any image of the Grand Canyon or of Mount Everest. Links to suggested exceptions would be interesting. Gigapixels which you can zoom into are perhaps tempting because they seem to provide a way out of that dilemma - also maybe high  saturation and very large prints. Or you could think that these are all versions of photographic shouting and that a more promising approach would be to go highly stylised, so that the image draws attention to itself as an image and not to the scene of which it is a poor imitation. It occurs to me that I tend to prefer old photographs of the Grand Canyon and Mount Everest to new ones, perhaps for that reason.   

On Dave's image, I came back to the thread on a different and better monitor and liked it much better - but still preferred the b&w version, maybe for the same reason I prefer old shots of the Grand Canyon etc.

[wolfnowl]

Hallelujah!

+1!

[kencameron]

Looks like a painting!

Comments like this (and I get them often too) leave me wondering what exactly that phrase means. A compliment? Criticism? What exactly makes it "like a painting"? When photography mimics paintings, is it good or bad (for photography)?

Good questions. A search on "painterly" in LuLa forums provides seven pages of results. I didn't find anyone defining their term, but reading the uses in context it seems to have a range of meanings including "a bit blurry", "not representing anything", "mimicking a particular style of painting", "containing a controlled range of colours",  "highly abstracted", "formally interesting and containing nothing extraneous to the composition", and so on. When I use the term myself I mean something close to the last of these, so it is a term of praise. Historically, painting and photography have been in dialogue and competition since photography was invented, with each mimicking the other in different ways. I am not keen on some of the results - eg, photographs of historic scenes with characters in fancy dress - and enjoy others - eg photographs using a lot of negative space or photorealistic portraits. In the end surely the dialogue isn't necessarily good or bad for photography or painting, but particular examples can be more or less interesting. 

[mezzoduomo]

...."formally interesting and containing nothing extraneous to the composition"......When I use the term myself I mean something close to the last of these, so it is a term of praise.

I've used 'painterly' as praise as well, meaning (to me), "so carefully composed as to seem like the natural world was rearranged for this picture", something a painter does every time, but only a few photographs manage to do.

[RSL]

Thanks guys,

You might want to re-read it. I was re-writing it live on LuLa in the modify box while you were posting.  An old time hack up against a deadline, so to speak. Please read it again!

I read it again and it was, as Eric said, even better the second time around. LuLa inside-joke elements aside, Seamus, why aren't you at least writing short stories, if not novels?

[seamus finn]

Thanks all. Russ, I wrote a few short stories in my time and got them published too. I might give it another go!

[RSL]

Do! I used to enjoy writing, very much . Never had any of my short stories published, but that might be because I never submitted any of them; at least I'd like to believe that's the reason. Instead, I put the ones I mentioned to you on my personal web, mainly for the folks who shared with me the absurdities of Udorn and the end of that war. Publication came early with the poetry, but of course, anybody living on his poetry is, by definition, a starving poet. Anyone who doesn't believe that should check with banker Tom Eliot.

[Isaac]

Here's what...

Scorn illuminates
your talents wasted for now
to silence others.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

  Poetry vs. prose! And haiku at that.

[RSL]

Still not out shooting pictures Isaac? You really ought to give it a try.

Thunderstorms gather
over the distant mountains:
rumors of lightning.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

My only contribution to the Poetry Corner (written about 58 or so years ago):

Why would anyone
want to write
a seventeen-syllable poem?

 

[RSL]

'Cause it's fun?

[kencameron]

Still not out shooting pictures Isaac? You really ought to give it a try.

Thunderstorms gather
over the distant mountains:
rumors of lightning.

Cheap shot comment. Lovely haiku.

[RSL]

Sorry, Isaac. I'll try more expensive shots if that'll get you to post some photography on this photography forum.

[Tonysx]

Sorry, Isaac. I'll try more expensive shots if that'll get you to post some photography on this photography forum.

Enough Isaac crits....
He offered an opinion..
Now let bygones be.......

Oh sh*t , Ive run out of syllables

But maybe Isaac could contribute more than an overlying dislike of the colour.

[Isaac]

But maybe Isaac could ...

My guess is that Dave (Isle of Skye) is no longer "enjoying this ... and finding this very interesting" - a pestilence drove him away.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... pestilence...

At least you can't accuse Isaac of a "limited vocabulary" 

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Here's what could have happened with the picture: pure fiction of course and with due respect to all concerned -a bit of verbal fun for a change:



His finger hovering over the button ready to trip the shutter, Dave glanced up seeking last-minute divine intervention

‘Where else on earth would you want to be at this moment?’, he asked himself, noting the pink-fringed clouds.  
                                                                                                                                                                                              
Well, he could have stayed in bed  but no - after all, this was a magical, mysterious location, where anything could happen and often did if you were lucky enough to be there at the time. And Dave was often in places like this - fair dues.

Then he noticed a mysterious pendulum dangling invitingly over his head. It emitted a strange, blue, light and it swung back and forth in the breeze, enticingly touching his wool cap as it passed. There was a faint, glittering legend inscribed on its face which read: creative cloud.

Dave was puzzled. This artefact definitely hadn’t been there when he’d so carefully set up his tripod in the early hours, when he’d examined every element of the scene, above, below and beyond; when he’d clinically anticipated every artistic potential, and when he’d waited so patiently for the right light. He would have noticed something like that.

And now this aberration!

‘Creative cloud my arse!’ he muttered, adjusting an f-stop. ‘This is a catastrophe, this is worse than a human person walking into a landscape.’

Dave did his best to ignore the apparition, but he couldn’t. Eventually, he slowly reached up and gently tugged on the chord, thinking that the bizarre hallucination was due to his lack of sleep and that it would soon disappear.  He was wrong.

Every time he chucked on the chord, the colour in the landscape changed and became dramatically more spectacular and lighter in tone - just the way he'd wanted it in the first place. Now, all he had to do was imagine the perfect picture and, hey presto, it appeared.

‘Oh my God, Reichmann and Schewe are dead in the water. I have seen the future’, he stammered, arms outstretched to the sky. ‘It’s up there - it’s in the clouds.’

Every time he pulled the chord, a more arresting image appeared. He couldn’t decide. He twiddled with the chord. He found a small knob. He pressed it. The previous image came up. He pressed again. A better one emerged. He went back and forth, unable to choose.

Then a rare light began to spread on the landscape - a possible masterpiece, in Dave’s humble opinion, but still he hesitated. Too many choices, and too many know-it-alls  on a place called LuLa  where he submitted work for appraisal. To him, the term LuLa conjured up an image of an open-air lunatic asylum, but he kept that to himself. No point in making more enemies than he had already.

Privately, he regarded its denizens with loathing (he wasn't alone in that) - a gallery of sneering loudmouth misfits, making excoriating comments just to show how clever they were with a keyboard and a limited vocabulary.  Many of them never took a decent picture in their miserable lives and if asked, would say that depth of field was an important element of agriculture. Some of them were retired from godforsaken jobs and never got out of bed. At least that was his private opinion, but he didn't share it with anybody, certainly not on LuLa itself. After all, does a turkey vote for Christmas?

As for Isaac - a class of his own.

Dave’s  finger hovered over the button. He couldn’t decide - so many choices, so many critics to please, Isaac lurking, what to do? The more he delayed, the more Isaac preyed on his mind.

Suddenly, a deep voice reverberated around the whole landscape, the tripod tilted and fell to the ground, the very earth shivered, thunder rolled in the distant hills and lightening streaked the heavens.  A mighty voice commanded:

‘TAKE THE FUCKING SHOT.'

So Dave did what he was told and experienced great joy.

‘I have a keeper - I’m confident’, he proclaimed to the valley in a sudden rush of contentment to the head. He was at peace with himself and the wider world and as far as LuLa was concerned - two fingers.

'They can't take this from me', he whispered, fists clenched. 'It's inspired.'

Wisely, he didn't look to the clouds or try to engage the mysterious force that had made him into a great photographer and a prophet. He simply folded his tripod and set his face towards home, but as he progressed, a thought slowly began to gnaw at his mind and eventually it crystallised into a single dread:  

‘I saw the future up at the lake, I saw the end of the world as we know it, I am part of the new order, I took a great image on the word of a god, but no matter, I feel in my bones that those bastards on LuLa will start nit-picking and pointing the finger. Where am I going wrong? Especially with Isaac!'

In his new wisdom, he found no answer to that.

Wow!!!!

Seamus you have done me proud, now this is something I really will cherish

I also see from your beautifully written text, that you make reference to quite a few of my recent postings on Lula, and here's me thinking that no one ever listened...

Thank you Seamus, you have warmed the cockles of this old photographers heart and put a big smile on my face - and please forgive me for slightly editing your text on this reply, but I assume (correctly I hope) that you meant to write Dave when writing Fred.

I think I will print this and hang it on my wall for all to see  

Yes Isaac, I am still here and enjoying this thread, so no, I have't gone away.  

Dave

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I must say, I find Seamus's responses to Dave much more interesting than those of Isaac. Or  those of mine, either, for that matter.