Trying to be different...

Dan Porter , oct 28, 2004; 07:08 a.m.

Allen - Apologies for my stroppy response! I think I misread you.

All of the above comments - very useful (although I don't agree with all of them). Thanks.

 

Well, I've a sort of different sense of humour; often taken the wrong way. I don't agree with all my comments; i like to play the devils advocate sometimes. To get conversation going.

 

Trying different approaches is very important. Having an open mind is important. Unfortunately most off us have pr-conceived ideas what construes a good photo ( i would including myself) formal training and all that.

 

I think it's important to have an open mind before we quickly dismiss.

Anyway, how about some photos. I like this one...how about yours?<div></div>

learn early, or die young....it's that simple.

Is a book good if it sells millions of copies or is it good because critics say so?

 

It's what is put in front of you......admired by your percieved betters. Better follow or you will become one of the sad.

Nice picture.

 

This is a picture of mine that may help illustrate my original point. Apologies for the crap scan.<div></div>

<i>When I look for a landscape photo for example, I try and find something new - but end up with a corn field, a sunset, or something "chocolate-boxy".</i><p>

 

In your efforts, have you done any reading of essays written by notables in contemporary photographic art to help change your thinking process?<p>

 

I highly recommend reading "Veronica's Revenge" by Elizabeth Janus. It is a compilation of short essays written by various noted individual who are involved in today's photographic efforts. One might wish to keep a couple of things in mind as they read this book. Ignore all images, to the best of your ability, understanding that it's normal to look:) And take the time to reread each of the essays, three or four times if necessary, until the import of each and every, (disagree or not), essay sinks in. Do not move to the next essay until you hold in your mind, each of the essays which came before the next essay.<p>

 

A key to making different sorts of imaging is first, understanding the sameness of your current image creating style and secondly, stepping away from this original style of yours that you wanting to get away from; losing your old set of wings if you will.<p>

 

<a href ="http://www.photo.net/photo/1998093">Lost Angel Wings</a><p>

 

Hope the above gives you some insight on how to start this new journey of yours.<p>

After all, doing new things is not the most important things...My only possible suggestion in this case is to concentrate on what gives something to you, what a particular image can add in your life in terms of emotions..

 

The greatest photographer's din't make a nice shot every time, a lot of them are nothing special, like many of mine and yours..

 

Good luck.

It is written in the Hindu scriptures that every idea has been thought before and that nothing is truly original or new. If that's the case, forget trying to be "original", and focus on being good. If you aren't happy with your pictures, change something until you are. Striving to get better at what you love to do is the force that drives creativity, which of course may not exist if you believe the previously mentioned scriptures. So, in conclusion, forget the critics, make pictures you are happy with, and if others like them it's a bonus.

very nice photo, Dan. Whether you consider it different or not.

Thankyou Allen.

<P>Maybe if we crack it open... if we strip out the essential part, the "origin" part, we can bear more fruit?</P><P>Google shows that origin comes from <I>first causes</I>, or <I>ancestry</I>... being directly related to <I>birth</I>. Maybe to be original is to go back... to be reborn... to partake of some primal ancestral... uh... stuff?</P><P>Maybe Carl Jung was on the right track? I read some of his words a few times, and he talked about things like the "collective unconscious"... and "archetypes." Maybe it is these that we are drawn to when we make our photographic art? Maybe it is these that we are trying to "create?" Maybe they have healing powers?... or transformative powers?... tonics for life?... strengthening and purifying and intensifying our perceptions... promoting the joyous existence that we've left behind in our mothers' wombs?</P><P>Then again, it sure does feel nice to get good ratings. Boy, life sure is complicated. Maybe I should take a picture of a rating?</P>

We all see and feel things differently. If you shoot the scene the way you see and feel it, you'll have no competition, and you won't be imitating something that has been done before.

 

Russ