The recent thread on cropping prompts me to expand that question into a new topic. We went from a simple query about cropping after the exposure to the aggravation of having others crop your work. Which seems pretty cruel (yes I know its not unusual and I know commercial work is all about money and I could crop my pic to fit their layout if needed but do THEY have to do it for me?) Anyway, would you crop your kids kindergarten drawing to make it look better?
I think advertsing work might be one example, where the disconnect between "what I saw and photographed and want to show you" and the desire of the clients to have the photographer execute their hackneyed, committee decided, market driven idea illustrated in a way to appeal to the target audience. The pay is good, but boy is it a horrible perversion of my version of a natural photographic process. And I'll admit I've done a fair amount of working/hoping for more of this work to come to me, but less and less as time goes by.
Or from a slightly different angle, I find that the entire train of seeing, recording on film and then printing on paper and delivering that to another human is "right and proper". On the other hand, I am left somewhat chilled by the proposition of shooting perfect chromes, delivering digital files for repro in a catalog, or sending in raw film to be edited by others as the finished work. I've done all this and will do some of them again but the difference in feeling is immense to me.
I really like to make "my" picture and hold it and agree with myself that I made what I had visualized and made it well. Maybe hand it to someone and have them like it as much as I do or even give me money because they like it enough to keep it. Which probaly explains why I like working for architects and handing them nice photos of their work. At the same time I enjoy giving for free the next door neighbors a photo of their baby just as much if not more.
I suppose my question says a lot about how I feel and think about photography and might not make sense to others. And I certainly mean no offense to anyone who sees it or does it differently.
Anyway here's the question - What do you think are the most harmful, perverting things that occur in your photographic process?
Or maybe the flip side - what is your most favorite way to do your photography? What makes your process sing for you?
I'll stop babbling now......
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