Topic: Without Prejudice (Read 478271 times)

On the understanding that no rash act goes unpunished, I continue to pay the penalty for listening to those blessed Sirens and trading all my saintly 35mm stuff for the whorish smiles of 6x7. So many droplets have flowed under that bridge since then, but the process of rehabilitation takes forever.

The latest step in rejoining the flock, in growing the armoury of mixed metaphors and confused thoughts, has been the restocking of the longer tools. I received my new/second-hand 500 cat the other day and, on the next, I betook myself (and it) to the local marina and gave it a whirl. The lens, not any of the boats which are all beyond my current budget, a condition unlikely to change through any doing of mine – after all, who do you think took me to this place of penury in the first instance? Maybe it was the Euro – would you buy that? I don’t believe that I can, but you never know…

Anyway, here are some of the results from that couple of hours.

Rob C

Eric Myrvaagnes · « **Reply #510 on:** November 11, 2011, 12:35:42 pm »

It's great to see you back and shooting, Rob!

I do fancy the mirror-lens abstracts, but my fave is "God and Man." Very nice.

See? You can't get rid of an addiction that easily. Back in the day, I used to sometimes go out shooting with no film in the camera, just to photograph in my imagination. Every shot came out absolutely perfect (also in my imagination).

Eric

RSL · « **Reply #511 on:** November 11, 2011, 12:39:50 pm »

I agree with Eric, Rob. The abstracts are interesting, but "God and Man" is more than just interesting. Eric didn't dare admit that it's especially interesting because the focus of interest is the hand of man.

We've been corresponding, but welcome back to LuLa. LuLa missed you.

Rob C · « **Reply #512 on:** November 11, 2011, 02:15:22 pm »

Thanks for the kind words - but I think I'm more drawn to ~~dis~~abstraction these days.

I guess that the reason is that I'm not capable of seeing landscape (per se) in any valid way other than as background to a model, which is probably part of what Eric hadn't quite realised when he mentioned addiction. But that takes me back to ground deep with my own tripod holes, so best avoid it unless God sends me another talented young muse who loves photography as much as did I.

I use the past tense consciously; sometimes it's as if photography can't really save me anymore, which flies in the face of my expectations, but there we are. But it does help in its way, if only by posing the awkward question: if not photography, what else?

What I have learned, though, is that trawling back catalogues is not much of an answer to anything.

Rob

Slobodan Blagojevic · « **Reply #513 on:** November 11, 2011, 04:51:04 pm »

Welcome back, Rob!

Rob C · « **Reply #514 on:** November 11, 2011, 05:42:52 pm »

Funny that: I don't see "God and Man" as landscape at all.

I see it as just another mood, which is what I also see in the abstracts. Blue Monk, for example, wasn't felt as that at all in the shooting but after seeing it a few times, it brought Thelonious's eponymous tune to mind. The thing is, focussing long lenses has a tactile quality (well, almost) that is, for me, visceral in the extreme, and that was ever so, even with girls. The closest I get to the same thing is looking through binoculars at something distant and framing it with a nearby hedge, for example, where the depth shimmers and plays around with reality, even though it actually is reality. Much like Eric's empty camera shoots; did/does it matter if they were empty - isn't it the seeing?

Maybe it's simply that I can't find much of interest in things that are readily available - that there's a need for something that doesn't really exist outwith the moment, returning me, sadly, to the product of shooting with the ladies: you only have the record of a fantasy you created between you. Retrace the steps later and there's nothing there; a bit like the empty studio blues which some of us recognize so well. Or that now empty, windswept beach.

Which brings one to the matter that Keith raised: how many (abstracts) would he (or I) want to see? And that's the thing: is photography for the self or for others? Simple in the commercial world, but not quite that easy when outwith the paymaster situation.

Perhaps that's been the huge block I have faced these past years: why do anything with a camera today? In a way, it's as if I feel myself some mechanical toy that's lost its original purpose but still runs on until the clockwork stops. (Which I hope ain't no day soon!) A photographic Flying Dutchman, then. But anyway, better active than in traction. On a practical basis, abstracts don't charge fees!

;-)

Rob C

Rob C · « **Reply #515 on:** November 11, 2011, 05:43:43 pm »

Thanks, Slobodan. Nice to meet you all again.

Rob C

WalterEG · « **Reply #516 on:** November 11, 2011, 08:16:11 pm »

Great to see you actively engaged with the world and craft once more Rob,

My immediate suggestion is that "if it feels good, just do it".

Each of these has value but screen resolution on the interweb hardly lets the value shine to full effect.

Next idle hour, go for another walk. And then another. Build up fluency and confidence.

Regards,

WG

WalterEG · « **Reply #517 on:** November 11, 2011, 08:22:53 pm »

I guess I might as well smash a taboo and post a snap or two also:

Eric Myrvaagnes · « **Reply #518 on:** November 11, 2011, 09:09:41 pm »

Very arresting, Walter. They have abstraction and mood and a hint of reality.

Eric

Rob C · « **Reply #519 on:** November 12, 2011, 03:36:10 am »

Hi Walter

"Very arresting, Walter. They have abstraction and mood and a hint of reality.

Eric"

Kinda says it all.

Also, I think your two shots illustrate the huge difference betwen treating something as colour or b/white: in b/white there is an essential mystery and, in its own manner, that brings the viewer's interpretation to bear. Were the same two in colour, then I suspect that we'd be looking at glamour which brings a quite different mood, though one that's just as much a celebration of the unconscious appreciation of form and suggestion. Didn't the ancients have a far more easy time!

"Next idle hour, go for another walk. And then another. Build up fluency and confidence."

That brought an early morning smile! I'm just sitting here finishing off my third mug of breakfast tea waiting for the washing machine to finish its cycle which then means cleaning off the terrace table in order to lay out the rags before hanging them up on the rack or the line, depending on size. Idle hours, dear boy, are what no male housewife ever has! I often wonder how Ann used to run the house, do the books, cook the food, do the shopping and drag me out for the best times of my life, all within the same day. There is, indeed, much to learn.

'Fluency and confidence' has me a bit baffled: do you mean as in another rock, another tree, another lake or another sea? That's no matter of confidence, I'm afraid, just of lack of basic interest in the genre. I'd far rather share your interest in veiled ladies! I can find the veils but the rest is currently beyond my means.

I take it your girls are film?

Rob C

Author Topic: Without Prejudice (Read 478271 times)