I'm changing my philosophy on photography...

[Saganich]

I've fallen into the same trap. After you spend so much time getting the processes down to 2nd nature it's easy to forget the point is to rise above it.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

What is your end-goal, objective, purpose, or desire regarding photography?
Put another way, what does photographic success look like to you? Gallery? Publication? Tinkerer? Forum guru? ???

...

In rereading the above, I am a little concerned about the tone but do sincerely hope that it might help you find the answers you seek.

RS

Tone was fine Rick. And you've asked a question that I'm not sure I've ever thought about, nor can answer accurately right now. (and if I have thought about it, I haven't thought about it to such a depth that I'd remember it). I supposed when I began "success" to me looked like the ability to draw income from photography, and it didn't take me but 3 years to learn that I wanted nothing to do with having my hobby and passion become another job. It just sucked the life right out of it. It's probably why I didn't shoot much at all over the last 5-7 years. I could give you some cliche answer about how I would consider myself successful "by being able to create art that means something," but I couldn't even tell you who I'd want it to mean something to at this point. Me? Friends? The world? So it's probably best that I devote some thinking on the matter for a while before I answer that concretely. In the meant time, I'm going to experiment shooting Tri-X at different speeds and developing it in different developer recipes. I was lucky enough to get a roll completed at a local nursery before being rudely called in to work on my day off today.

 

[Vaughn]

When I think about the word "photography", I only think about a camera and a lens and the act of clicking the shutter. I never think about it's meaning beyond that.
...

That's why I keep harping on making prints (or at least a finished image of some kind), so that one can get the feedback needed to improve the front end.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

That's why I keep harping on making prints (or at least a finished image of some kind), so that one can get the feedback needed to improve the front end.

Well Vaughn, you can take a little rest now as your message has been received by at least one person!

 

[Vaughn]

Well Vaughn, you can take a little rest now as your message has been received by at least one person!

What are the qualities of a great negative?
They can be used to make great prints.

 

[Dali]

What are the qualities of a great negative?
They can be used to make great prints.

And now the next question is: What is a great print?

 

[Vaughn]

The ones that answer the question, "Why did I expose this piece of film?" Depends a lot on who is asking the question.

 

[rick shaw]

And now the next question is: What is a great print?

The one I will take tomorrow.

 

[Vaughn]

I'll warn the museum guards...

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

It's something many of us come to realise, eventually. And if you've come to this realisation early, then that's a good thing.

 

[Scott Murphy]

The camera and lens are simply recording devices, they are the tools of the trade. They are a necessary means to an end. It is the photographer's pre-visualization and how they use the tools to produce the final image that is the essence of photography. If you go back to Ansel Adams' books he outlines the process very well.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

It's something many of us come to realise, eventually. And if you've come to this realisation early, then that's a good thing.

It's not really early. I've been photographing since I was 15, so it's taken me 25 years to get to this point. A lot of realizing my creativity probably has a lot more to do with realizing myself though, and I'm doing both at the present time. I believe what is happening right now though, is that I'm starting to mature both creatively and personally. Creatively speaking, I've been very childlike, and now I'm becoming the parent. What I mean by that is that if photography was the toy, I've been like the child playing with the toy. I couldn't see anything going on around me because I've been so focused on the toy. But now, it kind of feels like I've taken a step back and become the parent. From this different perspective I can see more of what's going on around me, and my creativity has become the child and is now playing with the toy. If that's doesn't make sense, what I'm trying to say is that I'm just a lot more aware of the world around me. Every day lately I'm realizing things that have never occurred to me before.

ETA: In those 15 years I have tried a MULTITUDE of things that never panned out. Lampwork glass, jewelry making, knitting, spinning, crocheting, painting, horse riding (even owned 4), raising poultry for show, went half way through cosmetology school, went halfway through the police academy, took one remedial semester of college, and that's just a list of the things that I can remember. I have never mastered any of them, and I have never continued any of them (with the exception of knitting, I still knit one or two things every winter.) Photography however, has been the only thing that has consistently been with me throughout all these years. I always return to it and further my knowledge in it somehow.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

The camera and lens are simply recording devices, they are the tools of the trade. They are a necessary means to an end. It is the photographer's pre-visualization and how they use the tools to produce the final image that is the essence of photography. If you go back to Ansel Adams' books he outlines the process very well.

He outlines it from a scientific point of view. I'm approaching my creativity from a spiritual point of view. There's a HUGE difference.

 

[MattKing]

He outlines it from a scientific point of view. I'm approaching my creativity from a spiritual point of view. There's a HUGE difference.

I'm very spiritual about my cameras!
There is a large amount of spiritual in Ansel Adams.
It is the most important part of what he tries to teach - the visualization part.
It is sort of a pilgrimage, and the trilogy books are sort of like a road map showing how to get to Santiago de Compostela.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

There is a large amount of spiritual in Ansel Adams.
It is the most important part of what he tries to teach - the visualization part.

I don't get that from his books... right now. Perhaps I'll get that in a future re-reading, but right now he presents as very scientific and calculated.

 

[Brendan Quirk]

I do not have a portolio. What I do have is 1.5TB of digital files, and a 4" binder full of negatives. I don't have the darkroom right now to print contact sheets, let alone final prints, but I do have a nice Epson 4990 scanner. I need to figure out a way to scan "contact sheets" so that all my negatives are in the same image so that I dont have to sit there and scan every single 35mm negative.

Develop a portfolio. Just like In music - develop a repertoire. Only then do you really engage.

 

[Vaughn]

I...ETA: In those 15 years I have tried a MULTITUDE of things that never panned out...

But you did them, and all that experience and knowledge folds into whatever you are doing now...including the playing with your toys (cameras). When I hit my early 40s, I was starting to give workshops, have work in the galleries, and all that stuff. I then became a stay-at-home-dad to a set of triplet boys for the next 18 years. Mixed things up a bit, certainly slowed things down a bit photographically, added to things photographically in other ways. All fun and games. 8x10 platinum/palladium print (boys were 6 yrs old):

 

[sasah zib]

 

[guangong]

For me it has always been about the light. Filters, lenses, cameras, film, development, printing are all steps in the chain of capturing the light. The chain is only as strong as the weakest link. When the cameras and lenses are the best I can afford, if there is a problem, I can only blame me and I have to work on the next weakest link.

This is the most succinct response among the replies. I would add an one additional link: composition.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.