Without a doubt, this is my most quotable article to date. Perhaps that's because it's nothing more than an assemblage of my own personal photography quotes? Whether you have a term paper to write for photography class; are looking to impress a hot hipster with a lomography fetish; or are simply suffering from attention deficit disorder, this is the article for you.
What is the market value of a photograph? For how long should someone view a photograph? What does the public want from photography? Why do men have nipples? This article, ULTRAsomething's latest philosophical musing, provides no answers.
Self-doubt is a bottomless quagmire from which escape is difficult. We are who we are. If we’re lucky enough to have a vision and to feel passionately about it, then we owe it to ourselves to persevere. Slavishly adapting my style to match current trends would likely bring me more admirers, but then they wouldn’t be my admirers — they would be the style’s admirers. I’d rather have detractors. When we try to be something we’re not, we’re destined for mediocrity. When we’re true to ourselves, we give ourselves a chance to transcend it.
In its forty years of existence, the Vancouver Canucks hockey team has never won the Stanley Cup. Some of this city's more pagan residents blame this on vengeful Hockey Gods. There might just be some merit to this belief...
Every so often I see a trend develop that sort of rubs me the wrong way. That's when I invoke my "Blogger's Right to Curmudgeonly Commentary" and type out a post like this one. What bee is in my proverbial bonnet this time? Photographers who choose web publication as the ultimate display format for their photographs... and, yes, that used to include me.
In this, Part 2 of my lengthy look at the classic Widelux F7 panoramic swing lens camera, I discuss the anatomy of the camera, its various eccentricities, and my ultimate delight with its unique view of the world around it.
The Widelux F7 takes WIDE photographs. It delivers DEEP focus. And, apparently, writing about it requires LONG articles. In this, Part 1 of my look at this classic camera, I discuss the various photographic needs that drove me to consider panoramic cameras, and my rationale for choosing this particular model.
I used to think concert photography went with SLR cameras like eggs went with ham. Well, cancel that side of ham and bring me some of that rangefinder bacon. In this article I confront life after SLRs, and schlep a couple of Leica rangefinder cameras to a Heart concert.
The classification of photography as an "art" has done it a great disservice. Art demands that the viewer appreciate the technique behind it. It calls attention to its technical merits. A good photograph should never do this. Rather, it should just be. In 1951, Robert Frank told Life Magazine "When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice." Frank knew then what I've only just figured out — photography is language. And the language of photography is the language of the poet.
Facebook (noun): 1. a small book, splayed open and placed upon the face to block ambient light and improve napping efficiency. 2. a popular social networking website on which ULTRAsomething finally has a presence.
Most anachronistic people were fashionable once. One day, they're the epitome of style. The next day, they're passé — victims of passive indifference to the fickle tastes of humanity. Me? I’ve been a photographic anachronism in every time. Twenty years ago, I jumped through flaming hoops to photograph digitally. Today, I'm jumping through a whole new set of hoops to photograph on film. To be unfashionable throughout one's entire life takes dedication, thick skin, dogged determination and more than a touch of masochism.
This is the second half of a two-part article in which I moan extensively (but cathartically) about 135mm lenses. I've received a fair bit of mail since posting Part 1 on The Leica Blog — apparently misery loves company.
