What has changed

Just wondering, about you all who have been doing this for a better

part of your lives, pro or amateur, what has changed in your

photography since you began.

Has it become more abstract, or more concrete? More defined, or

more diffuse? Have you gravitated to certain subjects, or have your

photographs become more random? Do you shoot more and print less,

or shoot less and print more? Do you spend more or less time

deciding what to shoot or print?

Think about where you started, and please tell me what has

changed for you.

Photography is permanent change as time in which we select and frame the subject. A moment in which one press on the triger opens the curtain and light hits the film or chip, can not be repeated. So, photons that make this type of graphics are unique.

Abstract or concrete, defined or diffuse? All of it in it's time and it's all so fast changing. One hundred twenty fifth of a second is still the big abstraction. And only one thing is deffinitiv, no light, no time, no photography.

I started with drawings and paintings, fascinated with fenomenon of light and colour and I am still waiting to see some new image from Viking space craft or Huble telescope.

My first shot was a camera bought with saved lawn mowing money when I was nine in 1961. I got a night shot of my sister, in the backyard with flash and thought is was so cool that I could do something like that.

In Jr. High? I haven't a clue what I was taking shots of but remember being in the School B&W lab during lunch making prints and on my hands and knees at home processing film in the blacked out hallway.

I photographed in the Navy, 71-75, for personal pleasure, Navy stuff and created pretty picture types of images.

After the Navy, it was on to community, 75-78, where I was exposed to "art" photography. After which I shot weddings and commercial stuff. Put my cameras away in 1980 and entered the next twenty-two years awaiting retirement so I could again pull my film cameras out.

In the interim, the "Digital Age" happened. Because of what I was seeing in images posted on the web, I was smitten'd by the image quality produced by the Canon D30 for it's lack of grain. I "hate" grain. At ISO 100/200, I couldn't be happier. So I picked up a referb'd D30, just about the time the D60 hit the market. I love my D30 and now use a 10D as I seem to eternally await for the "never-to-be-announced" 3D by Canon.

So the first thing to change for me, after an extensive film background was the introduction to the digital learning curve; Photoshop and accompanying learned information in regard to the digital capture process.

From there it was a couple years of getting my photographic eye back and the discovery of a photographic philosophical disconnect in photography which didn't seem to exist while I was at community. I spent a great deal of time learning about, understanding and pursuing the disconnect between the world of the beautiful and the banal. I learned about how Postmodern Photographic art has sadly become moribund and failed to move itself forward and even more sadly is festering in it's own downward philosophical death spiral.

So what's changed for me? I have become a reluctant artist who is photographically moving forward, where Photographic Postmodernism stopped as in the beginning I only wanted to be a photographer.

"Has it become more abstract, or more concrete? More defined, or more diffuse? Have you gravitated to certain subjects, or have your photographs become more random? Do you shoot more and print less, or shoot less and print more? Do you spend more or less time deciding what to shoot or print?"

All of the above would be the most simplistic but accurate of answers as I have moved away from the cliche to iconoclastic photography. Definitely more concrete in psychological terms and as I develop, more and more defined but unless you're in tune with what I'm doing and photographic art history, it might be also be seen as more diffused.

I don't believe in doing series as series to me, is an excuse for an inability to see in a daily multifaceted manner.

Let's see, today I'm going do a series on bumper stickers. Today, I'm going to a series on old 1940s diner signs. Today, I'm going do portraits of the downtrodden'd. Today, I'm going do old people's/children's faces. Today, I'm going do a series on hands. Today, I'm going to do entryways to famous wineries. Barf! All just an excuse for a lack of intellectual creativity,

I haven't gravitated toward any one subject matter so my effort clearly has a whimsical inspired randomness to it. I shoot more but shoot less in that I'm actively involved in pursuing images but I'm more selective in the subject chosen and make fewer captures as I have an ideal, previsualization, in my mind and once I get an image which represents that ideal, I stop the shoot on the spot as anymore captures, to me, are frivolous. I process the image which best represents the image which I previsualized prior to the shoot and await for my next inspiration.

I no longer see the camera as an image recording machine, like a sound recorder device, which "accurately" records the existence of sound. That was how I saw the camera in the beginning. To record that what was in front of me, which I found interesting. The camera's role to me has morphed in purpose as it's now intended to pluck emotion out of our daily lives where the image's purpose is intended to transcend both daily life; being more than just a record of life and to transcend the ability of the camera to record what's before it by infusing thought into the image so the viewer sees more than just a historical record of what was or the created rendition of another pretty cliche.

So what has changed for me? The camera's purpose. The camera has changed from that of a record making machine (snaps) of my youth to the sharing of emotion (art) in my older years.

My apologies if I seem to be a bit verbose in my response and I hope my response was what you were interested in reading.

When I was four my granddad gave me a plastic no-name psuedo-slr. I spent a summer burning up endless rolls of film mainly shooting army men and the forts I would build for them....and trying to convince everyone that the Tonka dump truck ECU was real and I barely escaped with my life!

Thirty-five years later not a lot has changed! I love shooting anything military-related (especially being a veteran) and action-oriented. At the same time I enjoy the odd attempt at landscapes and thanks to a lot of work-related travel I do enjoy street/travel type shooting as well. I know I put a LOT more thought into subject matter and composition and rarely print anything unless it really stands out. I also shoot underwater as well being an avid diver--but that is so ridiculously difficult to get right that I won't even go into THAT here!

Obviously photography has changed...for the better overall as it is more accessable these days to more people. The biggest issue I see is folks getting so wrapped up in equipment they don't take the time to....well...take photographs! Instead....more and more...it appears that instant gratification combined with the "I've got the best gear" attitude prevails. What these folks forget is the best system in the world won't take an Ansel Adams for you!

Less is more....in my opinion! Have I rambled on to your satisfaction?

when I first started photography.. well that is a vague point in time. when I first got a camera I was happy, becuase now I could take pictures. lots of them and put them in an album for the future to see. I still do that A LOT. I have lots of albums. and I am only 25.

anyway after a while I wanted my own slr (my dad had one and it was much more fun to use and understand than my Canon sureshot) I ended up with a Rebel 2000, with the kit lens. it was great I took hundreds of photos. now part of my albums.

then I graduated. and had spare time. I have filed through 3-4 cameras and now have a DSLR, and two MF cameras. I use all of them. mostly my c330 and the 20d. I carry the camera everywhere. and my photography has split. some pictures for my albums, and more for the 'artsy/creative' side of me.. stuff to play in PS with and to print large and frame and also to post here.

No, it's not too verbose or rambling.

I guess I ask because I find I am doing things much differently than I used to, for better or worse. Definitely shoot less and print more. Starting to lean more towards the abstract . . .like Thomas said, I don't look at the box like it's a recording device so much anymore.

Thinking of a project where you would take a roll of 24 frames and bring each one to a finished print, using whatever processes available. I spend less time now deciding what to put on a negative, and more time deciding what to bring out of it.

Fortunately, I do not do this for a living, or I would surely starve.

Thanks for the insights, everybody.

In my art work / personal work, I try to think more and shot less .

In my pro work I try to shot more and think less.

www.micbach.dk......."Photography workshops in Spain"

Heh, I was about to post a sort of similar question. One of the things that I'm noticing is that people like more and more fantasy, and less and less reality in the photos they view. A good example is my own portfolio, the highly processed digital stuff is consistently rated higher than a simple "Light it, shoot it, and print it" medium format film shot, where I do no post processing other than dodge and burn.

For what I shoot? I'm changing, radically right now. I think its middle age setting in and deciding to be truer to my own vision, critics be damned. I'm less and less interested in perfection in my subjects, but dammit, I want a perfect print :-).

I'm spending far, far more time in the darkroom exploring different aspects of printing, and recycling some of the things I discover back into the studio...but for my personal work, I probably spend 10 hours in the darkroom printing for every hour I spend in the studio shooting. That's a change, I used to shoot, then be satisfied with an "Okay, it'll do" print. I print the same number of proofs, and am far more merciless is weeding out stuff where I didn't capture what I intended.

I've come full circle, from a fully manual 35mm SLR without even a built in light meter...through automated 35mm SLR....to DSLR....and am back to the manual process of metering, then shooting...now with medium format, and am finally getting what I am looking for in the vast majority of shutter releases (don't get me wrong, I still shoot 35mm, and DSLR....a lot...but am applying how I shoot MF to that, and actually shooting less, but ending up with more shots I'm happy with).

I used to take lots of fun snapshots of everything my kids and family did. They were color.

They were fun. I do less of that and I've wondered if I won't regret that some day.

I have a darkroom and for some time have been working at making "right" images, so I've let

lots of

others go. I think I'm missing it. I've now loaded color film in one of my bodies just to get a

snap of...whatever.