Just for fun: Describe your photography in 5 sentences

[dan_south]

Just for fun - Please describe your photography and/or your approach/vision/philosophy of photography in five sentences.

 

For those of you with online galleries, here or elsewhere, it will be interesting to compare your verbal descriptions with your

photographic output. No problem if you don't have photos online. It's still a worthwhile and illuminating exercise to encapsulate your

motivation and the essence of a body of work into a few phrases.

 

Thanks in advance to all who elect to participate!

[JDMvW]

<p>I think five sentences is too long, or not long enough.</p>

<p>Too long if it is to be a succinct summing up of an over-all goal, and too short if it is intended to be a statement of personal photographic theory and method.</p>

<p>Besides, Dan, asking others to do it without showing everyone what you mean with your own personal statement seems a little unfair. You go first. :)</p>

[leslie_cheung]

<p>JDM makes a very sensible case. But what an intelligent and splendid idea, Dan. Sorta like a college course art/psy assignment. I'll play but how about five words, I'm not very wordy:) </p>

<p>How about...part past disjointed visceral glimpses: <a href="http://inluvwithluz.com/"> inluvwithluz.com</a> </p>

<p> </p>

[starvy]

<p>I don't need five sentences, my photography is about the indecisive moment.</p>

[kum03]

<p>My tool is the digital medium, and my style is "a celebration of Cambodian art, culture and people".</p>

[Matthew Currie]

<p>How about 5 words:</p>

<p>Banal pictures with old cameras.</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>My wife described my photography once ....</p>

<p>If it's young and female, he'll take a picture of it</p>

<p>:-)</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Here are 5 sentences describing my photography...</p>

<p>1. Get's some coffee and look outside to see if the sun's out.</p>

<p>2. If the sun is out, I make an excuse not to go out and shoot by checking to see anything new to see or add on Photo.net.</p>

<p>3. Have an anxiety attack over thinking about archiving, backing up and keywording about 1000 images no one will give a crap about or buy.</p>

<p>4. Try to remember why I shot several of the 1000 images I'm now keywording.</p>

<p>5. Get distracted by noticing something odd about my big toe and take up 4 hours rattling off shot after shot until my batteries die.</p>

<p>Are you inspired?!</p>

[pjmeade]

<p>Polo<br>

People<br>

Portraits<br>

Passions<br>

Past</p>

[purplealien]

<p>1. If only I'd got up a bit earlier<br>

2. Why did I choose a jet black dog?<br>

3. I wish I'd brought my tripod<br>

4. I wish I could afford a Nikon xxxxxx (fill in the blanks)<br>

5. Come back kids, I'm trying to take a photo!</p>

[kts]

<p>i don't have a boat, don't play golf anymore and sold most of my musical instruments so i needed another pit to throw money into </p>

[dan_south]

<p>Thanks for the responses! I love all of the humorous ones!</p>

<p>I didn't want to go first because I didn't want to establish a particular format for the responses (list, paragraph, technique versus style, objectives versus results, etc.). But if it will help the discussion along, I'll submit my five sentences now.</p>

<p>Given that five sentences is a challenging constraint, let's revise it to be anywhere from two to a dozen.</p>

<p><strong>My Five</strong></p>

<p>My photography generally reflects what I see, notice, or experience rather than the realization of pre-conceived ideas. The objective is to capture a sense of place or the highlights of an event by sampling what was visually interesting at the moment.</p>

<p>My photo galleries are somewhat diverse and representative of my objective to create effective images in any situation (not always successfully so far, but working on it... ;-) ) rather than to specialize in one area of photography.</p>

<p>Color is attractive to me and is an important element of my photos, so I try to render it vividly but not unrealistically.</p>

<p>My compositional objectives include balance, clarity, and an effective arrangement of the elements within the frame, but also a rejection of anything that comes across as contrived or clever.</p>

[alan_zinn]

<p>Hmmm , sounds a bit like my OT about branding one's self. But I'll play your silly game. <br>

My brand is still <em>commentator/image waiter</em>. I please myself first. I want to see what a picture of anything might look like. Might as well look up the street as down. I enjoy showing my work.</p>

[stephen_hipperson]

<p>Something to fill my time before I die.</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>I’ve always been a people watcher.</p>

<p>When I first got serious about photographing, I took candid, clandestine shots on the street.</p>

<p>After a while it made me feel isolated, like everyone else was doing something and I was hiding behind a camera.</p>

<p>I decided I wanted to engage more, so making portraits seemed like a way to connect and put myself out there.</p>

<p>It’s a dance. </p>

[JDMvW]

<p>OK, now I'll play too. But 5 words:</p>

<p>Postcardy views from unusual angles.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>Thanks, Fred! Very poetic!</p>

<p>Thanks, JDM!</p>

<p>Thanks, Alan!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>my photography is about the indecisive moment</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Thanks, Starvy! I got a good chuckle from that one.</p>

[gordonjb]

<p>1. anything<br>

2. which<br>

3. catches<br>

4. my<br>

5. eye</p>

[walter_strong5]

<p>Stephen, you'd be better off drink'n cheap whiskey, chase'n loose women and bark'n at the moon!</p>

[wogears]

<p>Five sentences:</p>

<p>1) To boldly go where everyone has gone before.</p>

<p>2) Whoa, she's like, totally hot.</p>

<p>3) Oooh, look, urban blight!</p>

<p>4) Where did I put the goddamn quick release plate?</p>

<p>5) Film is better than digital except when it isn't.</p>

[stephen_hipperson]

<p>Walter Strong - AND noted forget the three string guitar t' sing the Blues!</p>

[cosmin_saveanu]

<p>Being involved in photography, sometimes starts and ends with the tools. This is how it works for me:<br>

A. Read photo.net and flickr discussions about cameras - google from there to know everything about the history of obscure or famous brands<br>

B. Go to the flea market (or ebay if it rains) and see what's on offer for little money - enjoy pulse acceleration when finding a "hidden gem"; give money to some stranger<br>

C. Come home with the object in the hot little hands and try to make it work<br>

D. Take pictures of family<br>

E. Rush to the lab and anxiously wait to see what the "gem" delivered - next, spend time admiring between 5 000 000 and 23 000 000 coloured pixels on a screen. Go to A.</p>

[stp]

<p>1. Drive paved roads looking at the scenery from pre-dawn to post-sunset.<br>

2. Drive gravel roads looking at the scenery from pre-dawn to post-sunset.<br>

3. Paddle my canoe on rivers and lakes looking at the scenery from pre-dawn to post-sunset.<br>

4. Hike trails in all kinds of environments looking at the scenery from pre-dawn to post-sunset.<br>

5. If anything inspires me in any of these travels, take a photo.<br>

After analyzing the above, I clearly need to get into astrophotography.</p>

[Lou_Meluso]

<p>I am a photographer and artist. The joy of photography for me is the exhilaration of seeing and using the lens as an excuse to look deeply at things. The apex of this joyful experience is the exact moment of exposure and everything that follows is just so much, sadly necessary, work. Since I make pictures for my pleasure, regardless of the outcome, I don't don't give a care who likes it, if it's "with it", socially significant, important or has some deep meaning for others, but if others do like it I think that's nice. It's important for me to stay true to myself and keep working on my path and along the way I feel it's also important for me to share my enthusiasm about photography with others so they too can know the joy of picture making which has blessed me for so long. More than a job, more than a hobby, this is a calling for me because at days end, when the masks fall, the pretense lifted, and my soul is open and naked, I know who I am and why I'm here.</p>

[jcoffin]

<p>For me, photography is primarily about slowing down and paying more attention to what's around me and truly experiencing my environment, not just moving through it. If I produce some decent shots out of it, that's more a happy accident than anything truly intended. Just don't tell my wife about that last part, or I'll end up losing all my cool toys!</p>