An Unusual question fro all of you - part II??

[Jim Galli]

I haven't even read but the 1st three answers but I have to get to work so I'll save it for a treat later.

You are a person that thrives under pressures that would crush most others:

5-6 isn't enough! That's laziness and sloth for you. You need to change that requirement to at least 24. OK 24 to start with and 50 tops. Then you need to take more gear so you can duplicate all your camera backs with Black and White film. (Poor Hershey)

Plan your trips around a full moon so that you can work at least 6 24hour days while you're there.

Treeline in the rockies isn't hard enough for you. You need to come out here to central Nevada where I live to add some difficulty.

Finally, you need to hire a large vicious person with a bull whip that will inflict real pain if you start to slack off. Let me know when you're coming so I can get you on my calender.

Jim Galli

[Stpephen Willlard]

Michael,

Most excellent. I have just purchased the same finder last year and it is turning out to be a very powerfull tool for quickley weeding out junk. I suspect that this finder will have a significant impact on my yeilds. This summer I did go to a place that turned to be worthless. If I had done a scouting trip as you suggested I would have saved myself a lot of time and money.

Thanks

[chris jordan]

Stephen, I'm not sure where you get your idea that you should, or can, take 1-6 exhibition quality images per day. Without getting into the definition of "exhibition quality" (which arouses my suspicions right off the bat), if you can accomplish this, you'd be the first photographer ever to do it. Ansel Adams said he was happy if me made one good photograph per month. If you read Edward Weston's daybooks, he photographed almost continuously for 25 years and the total of his life's work is about 100 images. Look at the work of any great photographer, or other artist for that matter, and you will see a similar pattern-- a challenging goal for a full-time artist would be 10 new pieces per year. For a part-timer, one or two really strong images per year would be a happy result. My personal production follows this pretty closely-- I've been photographing for 10 years and my work to date is about 120 images (which you can see at www.chrisjordanphoto.com if you are interested). I recently spent ten days in the canyons of the desert southwest, and took a photograph only on the ninth day. I exposed two sheets of film (both the same image at different exposures), and got one of the best photos I've ever taken. That, for me, was an extremely successful trip.

My belief is that if you are out there pushing yourself to take 1-6 killers per DAY, then the intellectual side of your mind will be so filled with pressure and stress and dreams and fantasies about shows and galleries and success, that the intuitive side of your mind will never get a chance to take over the controls and see the really magical scenes that you encounter, and so you will walk right by the real killers that would stop a focussed artist in their tracks.

My recommendation would be to try to forget about artistic goals, and learn to enjoy and love the process of making art. Set an impossibly high standard for yourself that applies to every image you make, and then meet that standard by looking really deeply wherever you go and not taking a photograph until you see real honest magic in front of your lens. And then, adopt a brutally harsh throw-out standard for when you get the film back from the lab. In five years, if you have 50 "keepers" then you can consider yourself an asskicker.

It might help you also to try to define what that magic is that you're looking for, through some form of spiritual study as well as a comprehensive study of photographic history. Spending a few years studying the history of painting wouldn't hurt either. Without these ingredients, you're inevitably destined to simply take a bunch of pictures that you "recognize" as being good because you've seen them in calendars. In other words, to break out of the formula, you have to go deep into yourself and your medium.

The goals will happen by themselves, if you really care about what you're doing, and do it sincerely.

Best of luck,

~chris jordan (Seattle)

www.chrisjordanphoto.com

[Jonathan Brewer]

Jim....If he doesn't come your way, then you need to fed-ex the whip to Hershey. Hershey, if you've got a laptop in that pack, and Stephen gives you some time off, contact us and let us know the 'real deal'.

[Charlie Stracl]

Didn't Ansel Adams say he was happy with his output if he made one image a year that really mattered?

[Jonathan Brewer]

Stephen....with all joking aside, please e-mail me a j-peg of Hershey if at all possible, it would be appreciated.

[Michael Kelleghan]

- I scout a location with a small viewfinder and a palmtop full of software. I document the places and angles, figure out the position of the sun thruout the year, try to "previsualize" the scene. Sometimes I just sit and admire a rock from every angle for a whole day. Later (a day, a week, a year) I come back with just the gear I need for the image I want. Frequently, the small viewfinder captures a fleeting moment that never returns i.e.: a fish in a pond with a blooming lilly is one of my personal best shots. I have returned many times, but the fish has not. I have a stack of maps, pics and notes of places to go back to.

- I select one of the best shots from one of the master photogs. I then go to that location and try and see what it is they saw, try to duplicate their results with my modest skills. This gives me a measure of how and where my skills need improvement, and where my "inner vision" needs refinement. The question I try to answer, and which I never will, is whether I could have made the same picture had I never seen the masters'.

- I really like the idea of a llama to carry my gear, but I lack the back-country skills to handle a pack animal. My wife has 8 cats, maybe I can hitch them to a wheelbarrow.... <vbg>

- I am yet to create a picture in the same league as the masters. OTOH, in the rockies above the treeline, that close to God, I can imagine that all pictures would be great.

[andrea milano]

Stephen, your entry and the many contributions clearly show once again that there are all sorts of people in photography, I am afraid that I belong to a different tribe than yours. You concentrate on "results" and amounts of "perfect" shots seem to play a large role in your approach to your craft. Numbers matter in a commercial enterprise and I am sure that you are very good at doig what you do, in art, numbers matter a great deal less than what you seem to think, art is the product of a fine spirit fed on long conversation to your good friends, good films, good books, visits to museums. Some people are then possessed by the holy fire and go and sweat and produce a lot, some produce a great deal less. No one of these two methods is any better than the other. Practice is a good school but cannot give somebody talent, some choose to frantically work, some don't. There is no point in doing something different from your nature. By nature I am a less active person than you seem to be, I don't blame you and don't espect you to blame me. We are different, we make different photographs, and there is no telling from our characters if any of us, one day would create an unforgettable masterpiece. I hope you will, in any case, take it easy and enjoy the ride! Good luck! (even though you might not believe in it!)

[David Richhart]

Stephen, how old are you?

Could this feeling of what seems like self doubt, simply be a touch of the "middle-aged crazies"? Do you ever entertain thoughts of trading Hershey in on a red sportscar? Do you constantly examine the financial success of others your age, and compare it to yourself? Are you thinking about trading the wife in for woman 20 years younger?

From reading the 2 questions you posted, it seems to me that you are approaching your photography with a great deal of energy and thought. Producing museum quality photographs is not something you can schedule, or practice, or explain...

[Stephen Vaughan]

Mr. Willard, I am astonished by the progress of your contribution to the forum. Many genuine image makers and thinkers have responded with some genorosity to your question. And yet - and this is what amazes me - the only answer you have deemed worthy of response in return, is one regarding the grand virtues of a viewfinder!

Which planet are you from that you boldly ignore the broadly mutual sentiment that picture-making is not about the equipment? Stop. Take a deep breath, and answer these questions honestly, please: Is all of this 'stuff' really improving your work? What elements of your work genuinely fulfill your needs as a picture maker? What things do you feel are missing from your work?

Surely the one thing you are not lacking is quantity. I feel you need to ask yourself deeper questions about why you make pictures.

Sorry if this sounds harsh. I just cannot comprehend the level of obsessive behaviour which forces you to go and buy a seperate 10 inch cable release for each lens, pre-attached for speed.

Please calm down, you are making me tense!

Maybe your joking though.......that would be funny..