When trying to understand a technical piece of writing, it may be necessary to learn the vocabulary first. That's the key.
When trying to understand a non-technical piece of writing, an essay, an editorial in a newspaper, a regular piece by any columnist, a novel, poem etc, it helps to determine the intent behind the writing. One has to try and get under the author's skin; work out from the context what he/she's really trying to say; what's the message, general thrust.
The vocabulary used is obvious, written by a photographer to other photographers. The same is true of the message, general thrust, what he's really trying to say. It's quite obvious, as it is repeated over and over and over again. The camera doesn't matter.
If you can't separate visual art from craft, then all photographs have equal merit.
That is a really retarded thing to say; and is a gross misreading of what I posted. Just because all photographs have some degree of both Art and Craft does NOT mean than all photos are equal. Think of it this way:
Merit = Art * CraftA typical snapshot has little merit because the values of Art and Craft are both low. A typical cat-subject lens test photo has a fairly high Craft value, but a low Art value. A thoughtfully composed landscape image that is excessively blurred because the focus ring on the lens was accidentally bumped just prior to exposure has a high Art value and a low Craft value. But in all cases the ultimate Merit of the image is low because one or both of the components is lacking. Then we have an Ansel Adams masterpiece, where Art and Craft are both present in large amounts, and the resulting level of Merit is quite high as well. Now do not forget that I do not define a high level of Craft exclusively as low noise, sharply focused, and accurate color, but rather as skillfully using whatever techniques help bring about the intended artistic effect. Whether that means adding some grain or other artificial texture, altering the color balance creatively, shallow DoF (think Mark Tucker here), unusual tonal adjustments (like my castle tower shot), or any other possible image adjustment, as long as it enhances the intended artistic effect, then it counts as good Craft.
When it comes to art, or shall we say anything non-scientific or non-technical, it can be disastrous to interpret words literally, especially where religion is concerned and even with my ex-wife.
The world's in a heck of a mess through people interpreting common words literally. You have to get some background information on the person making the common-word statements and look at the article or opinion in a general context.
On the contrary, it can be said with much greater validity that the world is in trouble because many people fail to interpret plain language with its obvious literal meaning, and thereby redefine fellatio as something other than "sexual relations" and reinterpret passages of the Koran and other holy books to something other than their obvious literal intent, thereby justifying the murder of children, beheadings, setting bombs in public places, etc. Politicians,
solicitors, and terrorists all excel at this. Are you sure you wish to put yourself in the same category?
