While this thread was 'raging', I went off and took a bunch of pictures.
Saturday was Carol Anne's birthday, when we usually go off for a few
days. But everyplace we were interested in was problematic from the
enormous rainfall of the last few weeks, so we've put that off a bit.
And Saturday isn't the best day to go out wandering in popular places.
And the weather Thursday was perfect and it might not be by Saturday.
Sooo... We went to Golden Gate Park and visited the Conservatory of
flowers, DeYoung Museum and the Beach Chalet. Funny how easy it is to
ignore wonderful places that are close by. I hadn't been to the
Conservatory since before it closed for major restoration, nor to the
DeYoung since it was rebuilt. I'd never seen the inside of the Chalet,
since it had been either under private control or simply closed up as
long as I can remember. None of the shot were taken with Oly equipment,
but I find them relevant to this thread about our different
relationships to our vocation/avocation
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/GGPark/>.
I especially recommend the shots of the 1920s art deco carved
balustrades and the 1930s WPA supported frescoes recently restored in
the Beach Chalet. Not great photography, although some pretty good post
processing of shots taken in difficult circumstances, bad angles and bad
light, but great subjects
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/GGPark/Frescos/pages/FR11.htm>! I also
like the shots of a construction hidden in the back of the sculpture
garden, especially this one
<http://galleries.moosemystic.net/GGPark/Scenics/pages/SC17.htm>.
It was particularly interesting to me, considering the thread going on,
that I took 179 shots with two cameras and throughly enjoyed the process
of photography intertwined with exploring places new to my sweetie and
that I hadn't seen for some time. Even if the memory cards had failed,
and I got no captured images, I would still have enjoyed the process of
looking at things with an eye to images, then taking the shot. There are
a lot of flower pictures, and heaven knows I've taken a lot before. But
somehow, looking at them with an eye to what kind of image I could make
of them makes me see them more closely than I would just wandering by.
And a camera with telephoto with reasonable close focus ability, allows
me to see some of them in better detail at home than I could in person.
The water lily close ups are prime examples. Leaning out over the water,
I couldn't see the magic detail that's in the images.
I also enjoyed most of the process of post processing the images. A few
were frustrating and/or didn't work out and some were just no good. But
I really enjoyed the process of bringing out the vision I had when I
took most of them. The digital darkroom, whether the original image
comes from film or sensor, has dramatically changed my relationship to
photography. I can now often do what I hardly ever could before,
envision the finished image before doing anything with the camera, then
use camera and processing to realize that vision. Before, the result was
almost always less, mostly much less, than what I envisioned when I took
the shot.
I have since discovered that the image I wanted was quite often
imprisoned in the film by the lack of a way to realize it. I've had a
great time slowly working my way through old photos, scanning and playing.
Another thing that seems unintuitive to me is that with digital, I'm
taking more shots, but my keeper ratio has clearly increased. My
original thought was that digital would allow me to take more
versions/variations of individual subjects and more shots that would
have seemed too risky when paying for every shot and print, good or bad.
My keeper ratio would then decrease, but the total number of keepers
would increase. Instead, what seems to have happened is that the feeling
of freedom has loosened me up in some way that has improved my overall
results. Of 179 shots, I like 112 of them enough to put them in a
gallery for my own pleasure and that of family and friends. Considering
that a fair number of those not included were duplicates with slightly
different angles, exposures, trying two different lenses on the same
subject, etc. that's an exceptional hit rate for me.
Are they all great shots? No, but I find them all pleasant to
contemplate. And I like several of them extravagantly. At least one
qualifies for me as new and different enough to feel like a breakthrough
from what I've done before. I also tried a rather new to me technique on
a few flower shots, taking shots with different focal planes and
combining them in order to get an effective DOF much greater than I
could with a single shot. Worked rather well I think. So in one way the
results are "just some more flower shots", but the process that made
them different and better in somewhat subtle ways informs them with
something special for me.
Also, I've never been a great one for taking shots of strangers, but I
made a modest effort. Nothing an accomplished street photographer would
be proud of, but it was new to me and I'm pleased with them as a new
form for me. Actually, the picnic in the flower beds strikes me as
rather good <http://galleries.moosemystic.net/GGPark/People/pages/PE02.htm>.
Moose
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