Ever Wondered What a Hoosier Was?

[Andrew West]

Hoo·sier

n. Any poor schmuck stuck in Indiana.

There really isn't much for me to say about myself, so I'm going to use a bunch of filler material to make it appear that way. I'm a photography enthusiast interested in documentary and candid photography, environmental portraiture, and "fine art" photography that isn't hopelessly contrived. I would like, and am currently pursuing, entering into professional work.

It goes without saying, that I'm a lover of film and, as I'm prone to jumping into rants and speeches at the drop of a pin, anyone who knows me is very much aware of my attitude toward digital. That said, let me share it with you (skip to the bottom if you'd like):

I'm familiar with both methods of image capture. I grew up with film and I think it's wonderful:I remember taking my summer camp snapshots with a 35mm point-and-shoot and wondering if I got anything good (and never getting them developed, but that's another story). Digital: I think it's wonderfully convenient. I didn't really begin to take photography seriously until relatively recently; just as digital started overtaking the market. I have owned and used a digital camera; I've taken countless snapshots without film, in fact. What I've discovered is simple: traditional photography is an art of dedication on multiple levels, much in the same way its digital counterpart is an art of convenience. I like to compare unlike things, so I'm bringing up the subject of traditional painting and illustration. I've played with both traditional pens and paints and software designed to emulate them. As most of you are at least passively aware, commercial illustration is now dominated by digital artists. You may even find an inkjet print or two hanging in a gallery, but traditional painting is hardly dead.

For the same reason painters paint with paint, photographers photograph with film.

(Continue Here)​

Anyhow, I'm also interested in film making (and 16mm), writing (stage/screen plays and other assorted prose), and acting lovably pompous. Also, I have a fascination with early/mid twentieth century fashions and style. In my humble opinion, we reached the height of style with the three-piece suit and fedora. Then we lost the hat and vest and turned what was left into a symbol of conformity. Or something in that vein of thought.

Now then, was that so hard?

 

[jd callow]

welcome to apug andrew.

 

[jss]

welcome to apug! i grew up in plainfield, just west of indianapolis. i escaped the midwest in 1996, now i'm a (northern) californian.

 

[Steve Smith]

Welcome from England. You will find a lot of people here (myself included) who have had their interest in photography renewed by digital which is then abandonned for a return to film.

I agree entirely with your comments on digital being a convenience. Historically, in all areas of consumer products, convenience takes priority over quality. Another example is MP3 players taking over the role of CD players.

Steve.

 

[Chazzy]

Greetings from South Bend, Andrew. And you ought to be proud to be "stuck" in our fair state!

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

Greetings from Melbourne, Australia, and I am a former South Bend resident.

 

[bdial]

Greetings from New England from a native Hoosier of naptown.

 

[Lee L]

Tough question, but I've been studying up... a Hoosier is a member of a false karass, also called a granfalloon.

Welcome to APUG.

Lee L

 

[clay]

I went to Indiana University, so I can tell you the real truth behind the word Hoosier:

A Hoosier is a Kentuckian who ran out of money on the way to Chicago.

 

[Wally H]

Welcome to APUG. I almost became a Hoosier, but after three years hard time in Goodland I was able to escape back to the NW.

 

[Andrew West]

Thank you all for the warm welcome (which, from what I've seen, is fitting here). The internet, by it's very nature, has little in the way of traditional photography (surprisingly so); it was by chance that I found this place. But now that I have, of course, you all will be stuck with me for awhile.

Greetings from South Bend, Andrew. And you ought to be proud to be "stuck" in our fair state!

Speaking frankly, it's a wonderful place for farming and you'll find some of the greatest people in the world living around here, but the interest in the creative arts (at least in my neck of the woods) is somewhat limited. Though, and I'm proud to say this, that has been changing as of late. It wasn't all too long ago that the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra opened "The Symphony Center & Gallery" wherein local artists are encouraged to exhibit.

That said, it's easier to just poke fun at state; the people here tend to have a wonderful sense of humor. They need it.

Welcome from England. You will find a lot of people here (myself included) who have had their interest in photography renewed by digital which is then abandonned for a return to film.

I agree entirely with your comments on digital being a convenience. Historically, in all areas of consumer products, convenience takes priority over quality. Another example is MP3 players taking over the role of CD players.

Steve.

What bothers me (as I'm sure it does many of us) is the speed at which the profession itself (the professionals whose first concern should be quality) adopted convenience over all else. Granted, there are still quite a few film shooters left in the fine art world, but that's also where you'll find daguerreotypists and collodionists still working at their crafts.

 

[Dave Wooten]

Welcome Andrew,

Years and Years ago I had a very enjoyable career teaching in "the harbor" of East Chicago Indiana and was assistant principal trumpet in the NW Indiana Symphony Orchestra...also looked forward each year to participating in the "Hill 100" bicycle race down in Brown County.

 

[papagene]

Welcome from western Mass Andrew. Only time spent in Indiana was on a cross-country trek from Phoenix to Massachusetts.

gene

 

[Dug]

Abridged Dictionary
Hoosier, n. 1. a native or inhabitant of Indiana.

Unabridged Dictionary
Hoosier, n. 1. a native or inhabitant of Indiana. 2. Slang. a hayseed; hick; bumpkin. 3. an uninformed rustic.

Sorry the dictionary does not treat you kindly. Welcome Andrew! Spent some years in Bloomington IN and am always glad to hear from members of the Motherland!

Doug

 

[Flotsam]

I thought that Hoosier was a vernacular of Who is Here?
My Grandma lived on a farm in the Knobs across the River from Louisville on a dirt road with hand pumped water several feet from the front door and an outhouse and an ornery Ram that made great sport of tenderizing my Butt whenever I let my guard down and bent over to examine anything in the fields.

I can't complain about commercial photographers and casual snapshooters embracing d*****l. The speed and convenience is very inviting. It is very nice to have an oasis on the web purely for the exchange and discussion of traditional photography. Welcome aboard.

 

[RobLewis]

hello from a fellow hoosier- well, boilermaker if push is coming to shove.
born and raised in Hammond, even though I jumped the border, still a hoosier at heart. (i mean boiler)

welcome!

 

[copake_ham]

Andrew,

Welcome to APUG from Tucson (now) and NYC (next week) and Copake, NY (the following weekend).

See - no IN in all of that!

 

[Steve Smith]

What bothers me (as I'm sure it does many of us) is the speed at which the profession itself (the professionals whose first concern should be quality) adopted convenience over all else.

That's true but probably more so for press photographers who have traditionally always traded quality for convenience. e.g. 5x4" Speed Graphics replaced by Rolleiflex TLRs which were then replaced by Leicas and/or Nikon F 35mm then to digital.

Steve.

 

[Andrew West]

That's true but probably more so for press photographers who have traditionally always traded quality for convenience. e.g. 5x4" Speed Graphics replaced by Rolleiflex TLRs which were then replaced by Leicas and/or Nikon F 35mm then to digital.

Steve.

I read an article (in a filmmaking rag no less) about a newspaper that had started using HD camcorders in lieu of still cameras. According to one of their "photographers", the frames were of a high enough resolution that they could film a story, then later, pick out the best frame(s) from the bunch. Then, of course, they also had footage to use on the evening news. Our old pal Henri wouldn't be too happy to hear it, I imagine.

Press photographers are a funny breed, indeed.

 

[DougGrosjean]

Welcome!

Indiana's nothing to be ashamed of. Being just over your eastern border in Ohio, I have many good memories of Indiana, and look forward to more in the future. My mother's family came from Wabash / Fort Wayne (great-grandma's home in Wabash had a woodstove till she left it in the late 1970s), I learned to kayak whitewater on the man-made course at South Bend, I have friends in LaPorte that I enjoy dinner with whenever I pass through on business, have toured Ernie Pyle's boyhood home / museum in Dana IN, also the windmill museum in Kendallville, and the BMW motorcycle I ride was purchased used from a private individual in Plainfield IN. I've eaten Amish food at Nappanee and persimon pudding at Dana. And heck, almost forgot - got to see the Indy 500 in person once upon a time.

Brown County is on my list of places to visit, but I haven't been there yet. One of these days...

 

[eclarke]

"Hoo·sier

n. Any poor schmuck stuck in Indiana."

Is that someone who wishes he was a Kentuckian??.. Just kidding, I had a buddy from Southern Indiana and he made mention of the Kentucky/Indiana rivalry every day...EC

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Welcome to the group, you poor schmuck from Indiana. 200 miles to the east, you'd be in heaven.

 

[pentaxuser]

Andrew. There has been the occasional tough schmuck from Indiana as well, likeTony Zale . Ask a certain Mr Graziano from New York. Of course neither might have been any good as photographers so you're even more welcome than they.

pentaxuser

PS Whatever happened to Tony Zale? If he is still alive he must be nearly as old as most of us!

 

[Black Dog]

Is Indiana in the midwest? or the DEep South?

 

[bdial]

It's generally considered to be midwest. If your prospective is from California, then it's "back east".