Where are the great shots? Am I a cynicist or a realist?

[DrTang]

I think a '29 Ford Station Wagon is hard to beat.

and it would be the perfect vehicle to cart all one's LF gear around in to shoots

hahahaha

talk about a mobius strip

[Robert Opheim]

John I agree with you. It seems that I was always looking for the "great shots" like the famous landscape panoramas. It take focus in scouting the near backroads and finding locations and "seeing images. Or it takes what if and putting together or building a photographic compositing. Either in the studio, indoor our outdoor. The possible great images are around us everywhere. Ansel already shot "Moonrise over Hernandez", Weston already shot the "pepper" and the "nude on the sand" as well as many other great artists and work. It seems I am often in the visual shadow of those images that I studied in publications. photo-history, galleries, and museums. This is a wonderful site with many unique artists who have developed their personal vision. As to what dump my negatives go to when I die, what will get sold.........mid winter is the time for printing, mounting, and framing!

[LabRat]

This is the LF forum. I've little or no interest in cutting edge or technology. I think Adams and probably Edward are surpassed these days. You're absolutely right that we LF knuckle draggers are lost in time. That's sort of what I've realized. Edward and Ansel were right man right time phenomena. No need for either now.

Oh, and we've discussed the best vehicle already on this forum. I think a '29 Ford Station Wagon is hard to beat. At least you've got something to take a picture of.

So I guess that answers my question about being a realist

I have frequent arguments with my old teacher/mentor about what he thinks is the key to great shots, is like Winogrand, who shot something like 240,000 images, that if you shoot a lot, you must have a lot to edit from... He thinks all you have to do is to shoot too much, and there will be great images... I told him I disagree because, as example, now everyone has a camera device, and a digi has thousands of shots on a card, so way much space is available, but despite, where are the great shots that have exceeded Adams or Weston??? So not #'s, but vision... And let's not forget there were countless practitioners during their era, but the cream had risen to the top, much lost, but some things withstood the test of time (or will be re-discovered)...

We are operating in an era of information overload now, hype has replaced fact for the most part, most accept the role of being dedicated consumers, personal opinions options are available off-the-rack everywhere we look, and we have been herded into a new social order... But our world around us has been changing, and will change again, so we are also in a position to record the changes, so also an exciting time to function in, as we have memory, live in many worlds, and a witness to what will also be soon gone... So, an exciting time to be alive (if not horrified)...

Our histories are the memories for the next generation... (Try to figure a way to make it last...)

Steve K

[faberryman]

I have frequent arguments with my old teacher/mentor about what he thinks is the key to great shots, is like Winogrand, who shot something like 240,000 images, that if you shoot a lot, you must have a lot to edit from... He thinks all you have to do is to shoot too much, and there will be great images.

I am not of the monkey with a typewriter school of photography. I think that you are much more likely to succeed with a clear vision and deliberate work habits.

[LabRat]

I am not of the monkey with a typewriter school of photography. I think that you are much more likely to succeed with a clear vision and deliberate work habits.

Yes, I agree!!!

My return to LF is part of a personal "withdrawal program", as it was too easy to "machine gun" many different subjects with plenty of space on a chip, shoot first and ask questions later... Film has always be my domain (and a way to "make it count"), switched back to 35mm despite limited funds and resources, but still was generating a very large image count (I was coming back daily with at least 3 or 4 rolls of 36X shot singles where most all were beyond good enough to consider printing and editing from, but after a few thousand good images, I still had to cut down much more... I wanted to go back to the "one shot/one sheet" approach and see one image entirely through the process one step by step at a time (maybe a zen thing???) And to slow down to spend more time on site to absorb more of the surroundings...

Not to be irritating, but the more time I spent out, the more ideas that became available to me (either by me finding it, or it finding me) that I had to follow (like grabbing a tiger's tail and being dragged through the jungle), so I had the curse bad... Just changing my footing from getting out of metal car boxes to look around, to spending half or whole days on foot (with EZ to carry gear) in the urban jungle opened me up to much more than I ever dreamed of seeing/shooting... And discovered much that really needed to be given proper coverage...

For Jim, your images of cars/locations are a world long gone, most have forgotten, and in the future (and overseas) that vision of (what was) everyday America is important, and if published, you might even get fanmail from Oslo, or points beyond... But almost completely gone being able to see the period cars in their natural settings (not just some car show)... That's living history, and you are a living witness to it!!!

Get busy!!!

Steve K

[Vaughn]

Realism is an invention of people who cannot tolerate creative imagination, alternate views.

Acid absorbs 47% of its weight in excess reality.

[Tin Can]

I confess

[faberryman]

All the great shots are still waiting to be made, which is why we do what we do.

[William Whitaker]

Not that long ago I initiated my own thread out of frustration. We all have to deal with it.
But the answer is the photos are in your head, in your heart and in your back yard. Photograph that which moves you, even if cynically. It's then an exercise and one which will help flush out the demons.

I once (35 years ago) made a very satisfying (to me) image of the trash cans behind my apartment. Yuk!
But Weston photographed a toilet. So there! And I loved the way the tones of weathered galvanized steel related to Polaroid 52 (RIP...)

When you find yourself adrift in the doldrums, hit the books. Go back to the basics. Strand, Weston, Minor White. See what inspired the masters and you'll find inspiration.

[Jim Galli]

Weston photographed a toilet. So there!

Will, if I recall correctly, that very toilet was in Rhyolite, Nevada, just down the road from me. Maybe I can find his tripod holes?? Thanks for the encouragement. Like I said, I'm not quitting, but then again, I'm not showshoeing into Bodie in a 40 mph blizzard at -22 degrees to get THAT picture. I guess I no longer believe in that picture. But y'all will have to endure my antique vehicles a while longer.

Wills got trashcans. I got mailboxes

mailboxes, preston castle, ca

btw, I went looking on line for this picture and someone had stolen it, cropped it, painted in the mailbox flags, and it was on pinterest with an entirely different link.

Does that mean I'm famous?