Do you shoot what you are?

[ilovelucydog]

Yep, pretty grey and boring mostly, which is me to a tee.

Mike, Mike, Mike. I've seen your photos. I've browsed your web page. I've read your posts. You are anything but grey and boring.

[Katy Noelle]

Mike, Mike, Mike. I've seen your photos. I've browsed your web page. I've read your posts. You are anything but grey and boring.

No, he's not (boring, that is), he's uberlush - but DON'T tell Rob that I used that word or I'll be in trouble.

Yipes! ..and that's not a flirt, it's just an observation!

[MiniChris]

I think it is quite fitting thay you, Seri, used an Andrew Wyeth painting for a retrospective of your own trials and tribulations. To use his quote, slightly altered for our purposes in another medium...

"With photography (watercolour), you can pick up the atmosphere, the temperature, the sound of snow shifting through the trees or over the ice of a small pond or against a windowpane. Photography (Watercolour) perfectly expresses the free side of my nature." Andrew Wyeth

You saw the image as an expression in which someone was inadvertently, or perhaps even cognizantly indifferent to the weeds below, and I saw it as an expression of the portrayal of a man traveling on foot. I liked the deliberation of the step. Andrew saw it as something completely different; he saw it as "death."

That we internally and constantly interpret is a sign we are in a certain creative state, a state I believe like Jiro has suggested, comes with a certain "aging process." It is indeed a maturity in the cross-mixing of action and thought. Fun stuff, ya know, but don't think about it too much...

[Seriche]

I fell asleep as soon as I arrived back from the wooded valleys, so only quick responses this morning. As you can imagine, it causes me physical pain to edit, but I can do it, if pressed

Today’s companion has always been so fit, and he relishes pushing me to the limit, physically, so I always end up exhilarated but wrecked when I get back home. Thank goodness for the camera and an excuse to stop occasionally!

I don’t have time before daughter gets home to separate these replies as intended, to please forgive me for errors and bad time-management, and scroll down until I reach you...
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Mick,

I’m with Raylee and Marie in my appreciation of your image (but it would have to be Earl Grey). I mistook your Vanitas for a photo of a master painting. Mea culpa. But in terms of praise – Nuff said

I have a number of skulls around the house, none human, just found on raptors’ killing grounds and along the shore. I think about death every day, but only to remind me how to live my life. Vanitas and Memento Mori served a good purpose in those days, especially as life was often so brief, but with our modern fear and denial of death we shy away from them, or at least, transform the symbolism to something more comfortable. Other cultures have a much more healthy attitude to death, but that’s another story.
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John,

Interesting thoughts about fetishes and subject choice. Must confess to having a foot fetish myself, and have drawn my own, but never photographed any. I have a friend in his sixties who took off his shoes and socks the other day to change into walking boots and he has the most astonishingly beautiful feet. He used to model for private life classes, but I never noticed his feet then, oddly enough . So now, thanks to your observation, I will work out the best way to photograph his feet to their best advantage

(In my browsing through the archives I found an interesting old thread of yours that I’ll be adding to later tonight. Couldn’t resist it ).
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Steve,

I’ve not been here long enough to know what it takes to encourage you to retype, but I’m sure I’m not alone in being curious about those lost words

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Katy (pt I)

I transferred most of my life to Cyberia a long time ago because I found it a better country But real life is getting in the way, and I was rushing so much yesterday that I accidentally bumped up the ‘Style’ thread by posting to it instead of this one when replying to you. Couldn’t delete the message for some reason, and ended up reducing it to an enigmatic ‘q’, It deserved a second airing though .
____________________________________________

Hi Marie

Good tip for not losing posts. I’ve done it so often in the past that I write out all my responses on Wordpad and then copy them to the thread, but your method sounds easier.

As is now, I sit here, mind numbingly full of things to say, but cannot get my fingers to let go. The torrent of words and emotions wanting out would overwhelm me. I feel very much like Mary, and in fact, dry eyed, cry her tears in my mind.

Writing out emotions on forums can be hard. In real life I have no depths or hidden secrets of my own, but guard everyone else’s, and it’s pretty much the same on forums.

It takes a lot of energy to keep a unexpressed emotions inside. (I’ve talked about it more in my reply to Mary, below)

Although I loved drawing and painting it never worked as a conduit for unreleased feelings, and everything I did was static and mute, but even at this early stage of photography I’m taking very different subjects, and although it was never the primary intention, I’m now hoping that it will help me finally be able to break through the inhibitions that have trapped me (and inadvertedly hurt others) since I was born.

You saying that you can’t get your fingers to let go struck a chord in me. I used to play the bodhran and became quite skilled in it, but only played by myself or with friends in sessions. If I was asked to play on stage or at recording sessions I couldn’t do it. My mind and fingers froze in unison. Also, although I played well technically, I could only play with feel if I’d had a few pints (which damaged the technique more than a touch ) or when I was playing alone at home to recordings.

I don’t really understand what inhibitions are, except that they can stop you living a full life. I don’t have any time for talk therapies, analysis, or self-help books, but the very title of one of these was the most useful thing I’ve ever read ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’. In other words, everyone feels fear, so we can’t eradicate it. We just have to have the courage to endure it to be what we want to be.

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Mary,

No one can truly understand us unless they’ve been through the same thing. Empathy is better than sympathy, but rarely found.

Some of us are weighed down with the tears we’ve never shed for ourselves; The container’s so full that it takes very little to make it spill, but to see others’ suffering or sadness makes it easy to cry without feeling that we’re being self-indulgent.

When we let the container get that full of either tears or emotions, that’s what makes us terrified of releasing it. We fear being overwhelmed, as Marie said. But it’s good to cry, and sometimes an unexpected catalyst arrives to release the burden, and we can’t stop it, and then we find we don’t break after all. The unamed fear is so much greater than the reality.

I’ve got too many layers of skin missing to handle sadness so I cry more when overcome by beauty these days. Any kind of military equipment in action gets me going. I find an F-16 in flight more beautiful than any flower – it’s complicated .

You haven’t gone crazy-mad. What you’ve described has happened to most people at some time or other. We don’t see it because few people have the courage to admit it, even to themselves.

I wish I could just look through the viewfinder and see the composition, the colors, think about the exposure and DOF and not have these emotion just getting in the way of everything.

Maybe you have to find a way to change the things that are generating your pain first, or otherwise channel everything you feel down the lens. Are you telling yourself that you have to make photos that will please others or are you doing it purely for yourself? Would you want to take the kind of photos that would express your pain? (They could be just for you at first.)
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Andrew-Bede,

Although I’m not religious I’m really glad that you’re here explaining your spiritual journey through your photographs. I find it very illuminating, and wonder if any other forum members have the same kind of motivation for their photography. I would love to have that kind of focus and meaning in what I do.

This is difficult to speak about and recent experience in another thread has made me begin to wonder about the difference between how I feel about one of my photographs and how others may feel about it; once we post an image it ceases to be our own and it is impossible to adequately convey in words what the image means to us and each viewer will have there own feelings about an image.

Meaning is something we all apply in different ways.
When I was younger I did a lot of dip pen and ink drawings of imaginary people and creatures done purely for pleasure. I have never once thought of ‘expressing myself’ or making my drawings have any purpose. They were never my babies (a concept I can never understand) and I lost interest in them the moment they were finished. The process was everything.

So the drawings had no meaning for me but people used to say they saw all kinds of symbolic things in them. That was fine by me but others had trouble accepting that there was no deeper meaning in them and it seemed important to them that I expressed what was in my mind when I drew them. I could never oblige. I have no hidden depths. They were simply drawings which gave me pleasure.

They gave meaning to my drawings that was never put in by me.

So the question arrises that I think we need to address at sometime or other, why do we photograph and why do we post our images?

A very good question indeed.

I haven’t been here very long, but this seems like a unique photographic forum in many ways. I think it would be fine if you asked purely for people to say how the image effects them, and that you are not posting for C&C, but others here will be able to answer that more ably.

Because religion, as such, can cause strife on forums it’s generally not discussed, but spirituality is something else entirely. Agnostics like me can have a kind of spiritual life and we can relate to the spiritual experiences of our religious friends and relatives.
For the rest, I’ll write off-list
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Mike,

I’ve still got a smile on my face after reading your post. I read the ‘boring’ self-description in your profile some time back, then looked at your photos, and thought “there’s a man who has no problem expressing his inner self in his photos”. So I side with the others completely on this one
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Katy (pt.II ,

Yipes! ..and that's not a flirt, it's just an observation!

Is that in the forum rules? The ‘not flirting’ bit? I do hope not
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Chris,

First of all, I must correct the ‘trials and tribulations’ part In short, apart from certain aspects of my childhood and a marriage I should never have made the rest of my life has been very happy and full of extraordinary events. My tribulations stem from frustration caused my letting my inhibitions bind me, and I’m hoping that through photography I can finally show some real emotion.

I think that’s why Wyeth has always attracted me. His muted colours, coldness, often bleak landscapes, brilliant draftsmanship, and all-round oddity as a person (not forgetting the whole family)……I don’t know….I have always been able to relate to that. I like similarly sparse photographs too.

"With photography (watercolour), you can pick up the atmosphere, the temperature, the sound of snow shifting through the trees or over the ice of a small pond or against a windowpane. Photography (Watercolour) perfectly expresses the free side of my nature." Andrew Wyeth

Great quote. Gave me a frisson

You saw the image as an expression in which someone was inadvertently, or perhaps even cognizantly indifferent to the weeds below, and I saw it as an expression of the portrayal of a man traveling on foot. I liked the deliberation of the step. Andrew saw it as something completely different; he saw it as "death."

Absolutely (sorry for the briefness of reply, but can hear daughter’s steps coming up the lane .

That we internally and constantly interpret is a sign we are in a certain creative state, a state I believe like Jiro has suggested, comes with a certain "aging process." It is indeed a maturity in the cross-mixing of action and thought. Fun stuff, ya know, but don't think about it too much...

In the end it’s more important to be out there with a camera than talking about photography, but it can be so entertaining and informative. As for these things coming with aging, I’m not young – just never liked the idea of growing up – so I don’t have that much longer to do my learning in

I’d like to hear more of your thoughts on this. Are you a Wyeth fan? Do you think our tastes in the other arts might relate to the subjects we take?

Seri

[Wirefox]

Dang! stole your own thunder? I hate it when that happens and I really love your "mind numbing responses"!!!

I’ve not been here long enough to know what it takes to encourage you to retype, but I’m sure I’m not alone in being curious about those lost words

I am working on it. I got distracted by Mary Wollstencraft and Edmund Burkes Y-fronts...then I couldn't sleep and have lost the thread of what I was saying.

What I can say is that I am usually provoked into pages of self-indulgent ranting when Rob mentions Audi's, block paving or his Laura ashley car cushions. Where is the Welsh wonder anyway....He was found wandering about in England last time he went walkabout. Makes you wonder what we pay these border guards for

Steve, this has happened to me so many times that now, before I submit my many times edited tome, I highlight what I wrote, ctrl C to copy. This way, I can resubmit my response after signing back in.

Thanks Marie, I usually do that , in fact I did but Dolly Daydream here decided to copy a quote before hitting the submit key. If the cat had been present he would have been in orbit now nursing a bruised posterity. I could have crushed a grape I was so mad. When I finally managed to roll a cigarette with my trembling fingers the smoke came out of my ears when I exhaled. I calmed down when I heard that my 10 year old son had been picking cherries with his mates....sold them to the neighbours and given the proceeds (£5) to his Nan to donate to the local hospice. He doesn't get that from me. I would have lectured the cherries about how private philanthropy encourages government complacency. I blame his his mother

[Katy Noelle]

What I can say is that I am usually provoked into pages of self-indulgent ranting when Rob mentions Audi's, block paving or his Laura ashley car cushions. Where is the Welsh wonder anyway....He was found wandering about in England last time he went walkabout. Makes you wonder what we pay these border guards for

It's alright - maybe! He's in the northern Welsh mountains, camping for a week, with his wife and communing with the wild northern Welshmen - learning their ways, apparently. He'll probably have transmogrified into a beast, himself, and forgotten all about us by the end of the week and we'll never see him again. sigh. Life!

Thanks Marie, I usually do that , in fact I did but Dolly Daydream here decided to copy a quote before hitting the submit key. If the cat had been present he would have been in orbit now nursing a bruised posterity. I could have crushed a grape I was so mad. When I finally managed to roll a cigarette with my trembling fingers the smoke came out of my ears when I exhaled. I calmed down when I heard that my 10 year old son had been picking cherries with his mates....sold them to the neighbours and given the proceeds (£5) to his Nan to donate to the local hospice. He doesn't get that from me. I would have lectured the cherries about how private philanthropy encourages government complacency. I blame his his mother

!!!

[Benedictine]

I have not worked out how to do selective quotes so I will do it this way:

I wrote:

"So the question arrises that I think we need to address at sometime or other, why do we photograph and why do we post our images?"

To which you replied:

"A very good question indeed.

I haven’t been here very long, but this seems like a unique photographic forum in many ways. I think it would be fine if you asked purely for people to say how the image effects them, and that you are not posting for C&C, but others here will be able to answer that more ably."

I didn't mean that the questions about why we photograph and post should necessarily be a forum topic, but rather that it is a question that we all personally need to ask ourselves. There will be many different answers to these questions but simply addressing them in ourselves may just bring a new quality to our photographs that give them another, subtle, dimension, or am I getting a bit too metaphysical here? The comment in another post that really made me think was along the lines of 'if you like it and it works for you then that is all that matters'. Which is, of course, very true if the reason that you are photographing is that you are primarily doing it in some way for yourself, but if you are primarily doing it for someone else, (the obvious example is as a professional wedding photographer) then pleasing others and the quality of your image must be the prime concern. Okay we all like to improve our photography and this forum is a great place to seek constructive comments and advice, I have received invaluable advice in the short time I have been a member, the point is that it is how we choose to use that advice that matters. For example in one thread I started a member gave excellent advice which I took and which when applied to the image not only improved it as a photograph for other people but also somehow conveyed more closely what I was feeling when I shot the image; but in another thread the advice was just as good but I chose not to apply it because I felt it would detract from what the image was all about for me and if I had taken it in that instance I would have not been honest to myself.

You go on to say:

"Because religion, as such, can cause strife on forums it’s generally not discussed, but spirituality is something else entirely. Agnostics like me can have a kind of spiritual life and we can relate to the spiritual experiences of our religious friends and relatives.
For the rest, I’ll write off-list"

Yes that is right! I try very hard NOT to write about religion on-list but the spiritual as you say is a very different matter and I fully recognise that you do not have to be religious to have a spiritual life, in fact I know some very spiritual people who are agnostic as you are, and that is excellent.

I look forward to your PM.

Andrew-Bede

[Wirefox]

I have had second thoughts about posting my musings here and have removed them. Whilst it was not offensive it has the potential to offend and this is not what this forum is about.

God (whoops) I am nice

[MiniChris]

Earlier, I posted I was a pretty complex person in a simple old man's body...now you get to see my inner thoughts and from this, you will know I am really pretty much like everyone else...FUBAR-ED...and so it goes, this wonderful journey called life...

[ilovelucydog]

Earlier, I posted I was a pretty complex person in a simple old man's body...now you get to see my inner thoughts and from this, you will know I am really pretty much like everyone else...FUBAR-ED...and so it goes, this wonderful journey called life...

Glad to know I'm not alone and have company along the way.

[Seriche]

I have had second thoughts about posting my musings here and have removed them. Whilst it was not offensive it has the potential to offend and this is not what this forum is about.

God (whoops) I am nice

(That's not exactly how I'd describe you on Rob's bondage thread - shameless, more like! )

Seri

[Seriche]

Earlier, I posted I was a pretty complex person in a simple old man's body...now you get to see my inner thoughts and from this, you will know I am really pretty much like everyone else...FUBAR-ED...and so it goes, this wonderful journey called life...

Chris,

Love the image, but can't work out its origins. Please tell . I'm not deep enough to read your inner thoughts from an abstract, but maybe those who are drawn to creating abstracts want to make people work harder to get to know them in real life

"Old man"? "FUBAR-ED"? Why not? I always liked this famous quote:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOOHOO - What a Ride!"

(Probably by Mavis Leyrer, of Seattle)

Seri

[Seriche]

Glad to know I'm not alone and have company along the way.

Make that three

[Seriche]

..... For example in one thread I started a member gave excellent advice which I took and which when applied to the image not only improved it as a photograph for other people but also somehow conveyed more closely what I was feeling when I shot the image; but in another thread the advice was just as good but I chose not to apply it because I felt it would detract from what the image was all about for me and if I had taken it in that instance I would have not been honest to myself...

Andrew-Bede,

Being honest to oneself in photography is something I'm learning from being here. In the end, no matter how good the advice about technique, composition etc. might be, if those changes would detract from the original meaning of the image, then there's no point in applying them.

It's just like in the other arts. There are plenty of technically brilliant performances of music, 'perfect' paintings etc. out there that don't have an ounce of feel and leave people cold. While we have to reach a certain level of skill in order to express our intentions, we don't have to get everything technically right in order to arouse emotions in others.

So yes. In the end we can ask for help, but advice is what's being given, not orders. And no one else can know better than us what effect we're trying to convey. So in the end, as you said, it's our choice.


Forgive the short reply. I've been having so much fun recently with all the tail-wagging and excitement of making new friends here that I've left no time to post photos. I've been taking lots of them, but been unable to get them into a fit state for posting to friends or CiC. So now I have to walk the talk

Seri

[Clactonian]

Mike, Mike, Mike. I've seen your photos. I've browsed your web page. I've read your posts. You are anything but grey and boring.

Which may prove that you should never believe what you see or read on the internet ..... on the other hand !!

[MiniChris]

Chris,

Love the image, but can't work out its origins. Please tell . I'm not deep enough to read your inner thoughts from an abstract, but maybe those who are drawn to creating abstracts want to make people work harder to get to know them in real life

"Old man"? "FUBAR-ED"? Why not? I always liked this famous quote:

Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOOHOO - What a Ride!"

(Probably by Mavis Leyrer, of Seattle)

Seri

Odd, I thought I was the first one to use that quote... - with a few changes...mostly about the beverage and fruit of choice, but who's counting... The shot is a reflection of sailboats and docks in a favored marina.

More oddly enough, I never ever really started to feel my "age" until I started seriously giving consideration to retiring - then, everything started to hurt. Perhaps I should give into the idea of working until I cack...my dad is 85 and at work right now.

F-fouled (or the word of your choice) U-up ... B- beyond ... A-all ... R- recognition

[ilovelucydog]

Which may prove that you should never believe what you see or read on the internet ..... on the other hand !!

I know... but, I'm such a trusting person... I take people at face value and my Gran told me if it's in writing it must be true.

[ilovelucydog]

Make that three

It just keeps getting better.

[jimpayne]

Hello, great question. I have noticed that with todays FACEBOOK stuff, most people have a tendency to publish the ME,Me,Me photos which seems to show that they are somewhat self absorbed and I should mention that most of these people who do upload photos, do not show much interest in the quality or subject matter of the photo. On the artistic point, I would say that people who do artistic photos, are trying to say something, maybe showing the world what they like,example the beach, mountains ect. So I dont know how much is extrovert or introvert. Kinda like a book author putting out a great book, is just his name good enough for him? or does he need to also put a sofisticated photo of himself on the back of the book?
Thank s
Jim

[Shadowman]

Hello, great question. I have noticed that with todays FACEBOOK stuff, most people have a tendency to publish the ME,Me,Me photos which seems to show that they are somewhat self absorbed and I should mention that most of these people who do upload photos, do not show much interest in the quality or subject matter of the photo. On the artistic point, I would say that people who do artistic photos, are trying to say something, maybe showing the world what they like,example the beach, mountains ect. So I dont know how much is extrovert or introvert. Kinda like a book author putting out a great book, is just his name good enough for him? or does he need to also put a sofisticated photo of himself on the back of the book?
Thank s
Jim

Jim,

I think most if not all authors are introverts. It's the publishers who force them to put their faces on the books. Of course, there are some supposed authors (the one's who use ghost writers) that publish their memoirs and these people are the extroverts.