Not Exactly Ansel Adams…
I took a picture this weekend at a children’s birthday party. It was unaltered from the original; there was no cropping, brushing, exposure correction, filtering, or any other editing done to the photograph. I know it’s not a great photograph, and certainly not an example of my best work; it was simply a candid photo taken of the birthday girl as she briefly contemplated whatever it is that little girls contemplate at their birthday parties. It was still sitting on my camera’s LCD screen when I showed the photo to the parents (via the camera’s built-in LCD screen) seconds after I shot it with my stock Canon PowerShot G3.
“You must have a great camera!”
I have always thought that comment (which I hear far too often) to be a bit insulting. I would never claim to be any near the same league as Ansel Adams, Anne Geddes, or Annie Liebowitz (Do all photographic greats have first names that start with “A”? Maybe I should change my name to Andre, Anthony, or Anton!), but I know a thing or two about photography as well as knowing my way around a camera — about as well as I know my way around a computer.
I look at the issue of good photography very differently: a good camera can make anyone take slightly better pictures. Assuming she could lift it and keep it steady, my daughter could probably take better pictures with my Nikon F4 than my wife’s Olympus Stylus Zoom. The F4 has more capabilities and features that allow greater control. The optics are better. The response is fantastic. It’s a Porsche versus a Honda. Both good; one a hëll of a lot better.
On the other hand, a good photographer can make good pictures with just about any camera. Keeping in mind that I prefer and excel at the journalistic, “capture the moment” type of photography as illustrated above and that I do not perform studio work, the same photographic eye can be applied with any subject under any conditions with any camera.
Consider the two adjacent pictures of a six-inch-long Chevrolet plastic model. Same subject. Same backdrop. Same camera. Same lighting. Same Photoshop filters. Same everything — except the images above were taken by two different people, one more experienced, the other less so.
Each was given 15 seconds to set up and shoot. Guess which one’s which!
So, for the record — Guns don’t kill people; people do. Cameras don’t take good pictures; people do.
Oh, and honey, since a great camera can make a good photographer better — yeah, I do need that Nikon D70 by mid-summer, ok?!
I had a photography teacher in college who - when he was in college himself - had taken a photo with what he referred to as a “PHD” (or, Push Here Dummy) camera that everyone was positive had been done with a medium format camera. Yet another example of what a good photographer can do with whatever equiptment they’ve got. Now I just need to get a scanner to do my slides and transparancies so you all can see more of my work…
Actually, on my first quick glance at the photo I mistook them for someone else’s arms. So my initial quick impression was of someone reaching out and twisting a kid’s head to an odd angle. And now it’s starting to look like that to me again. Maybe it’s just the result of 11 days of seeing the same photo on the ramblings (Hint, hint. Yeah, I *am* one to talk. Oh, shut up.)
I’m a bit of a photographer myself. I get the same “You must have a great camera!” or “What camera did you use?” comments too. Each time I’m very tempted to reply with a “You serve a great dinner! You must have used really good pots!”
I’ve managed to save up roughly $61727 in my bank account, but I’m not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?
If I hadn’t done a Google search for you, I might have thought your question was legitimate (seeing as how I happen to be a member of the mortgage industry, too), but since you posted the same question to 12,000 other websites — each with a random dollar amount — I can rightly assume that you are merely a blog spammer. You suck! - RDL
Even after six months have elapsed, I still love that quote. I swear I’m gonna use it some day.
“Actually, on my first quick glance at the photo I mistook them for someone else’s arms. So my initial quick impression was of someone reaching out and twisting a kid’s head to an odd angle.”
I don’t remember, but I’m guessing these was a different set of photos used for your example when this was first posted. Either that, or I was really having vision problems.
As for the current set of photos, I’m guessing the lower altitude shot was yours.
The above photos were the same as they were before, but in a slightly different location on the page. The missing picture of the child is still missing because I would have to reprocess the original before re-posting it — i.e. I’m not using the old one from the previous blog software and design because the image as posted was altered to match the old blog design and it looks odd with the new design. If I ever get around to it, I’ll redo it. Without it, though, what I said still stands.
@Sean: The “girl strangling herself” photo is back up, just for you