Woudl I hang that on a wall?

[Eric Rose]

When I travel, I'm very much of the mindset "if I see it, shoot it". Not that I'm practicing spray-n-pray (not very practical with a Rolleiflex in the first place), but more an acknowledgement that I'm not going to get the chance to try and repeat the shot any time soon if I miss it. Also, if time and film supply allow, I'll try taking multiple shots of the same thing from different angles, different f/stops, etc so I have options when I get home and edit through the work.

True enough, I do explore a subject with multiple exposure from various angles sometimes. Especially if I am pressed for time. If I have lots of time I will do my pondering while moving around the subject (if possible) and then shoot. For my own stuff I am not all that worried about what other people would like. I shoot for myself. Commercial is another matter.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I ran out of walls. Now I'm running out of cabinet drawers.

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

I will not expose a single frame unless I can be certain it has a place on the wall. Or until another wall becomes available. And another after that.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I ran out of walls. Now I'm running out of cabinet drawers.

I will not expose a single frame unless I can be certain it has a place on the wall. Or until another wall becomes available. And another after that.

I still have walls available, however I would not restrict future exposures due to a lack of wall space. Photographs can be rearranged or removed as necessary.

 

[DREW WILEY]

I hang em up, and if I can tolerate a particular one for more than six months, I figure it's a winner. I kinda take a haircloth and whip attitude toward myself, like Savonarola, as my own worst critic.

 

[Luckless]

To me this is an issue that really depends on a range of factors, including considerations with regards to not only the situation and subject matter, but also thoughts on format, expected viewing medium, and importantly the audience for the piece.

I have a few notebooks kicking around with thoughts and sketches of photos that I want to take, set pieces with models and props, some even including locations and extra reference photos, and they border on being treated like a painting in many ways. (Expect that I've long since learned that I do not have the time or patience to refine my drawing and painting skills to where I want them, so instead of pencil and brush I'm using cameras.) A few of these shots have literally been years in the making, and may still be years more before I can create a print that I'm happy with. (And I could get the first trial print of some of these ideas, and then can the entire concept to the piece, and I have no idea if that will happen till I can see it in reality.)

Those pieces are very much in rather stark contrast to how I approach most of my sports photography, where I've embraced a rather different style than is suitable to mention here, but there are no second chances for the shot in a sporting event. There might be similar shots, and frequently it is difficult to sort though the vast number of photos one can produce with some of the gear that's been made available in the last decade, but two moments that look similar are still very different moments. In the case of sports I'm shooting for the players, and helping them reinforce their memories of the moment and aid them in promoting their sport. (I almost only shoot roller derby to be honest.)

So you take what looks like a shot when it is in front of you, you position yourself where you expect you can get the best angles before the action happens, and you roll with what the players give you. I experiment to try new things, and generally end up cursing the lighting available, and in several years of photographing the sport I think I've produced maybe two images that I would be happy enough to print for myself. But in this case I'm not doing it for myself, and my opinion on what a 'great photo' is isn't really as important as the opinions of the players and the fans looking at the grainy, sometimes blurry, and badly lit images.


The cheaper and easier it is to take and view a finished photo, then the easier it is to delete it if you see it is utterly terrible at first glance. The cheaper and easier it is to store and hang on to the photo for awhile and come back to look at it later? Well then it gets easier to file the 'maybe' images away.

You can always destroy and image you have later in the future. But it is rather difficult to get it back after you destroy, and even harder if you never took it in the first place.


My core view is: Think before you take a photo, but don't be scared to take what might be a bad photo unless you're absolutely sure it is a bad one.

 

[mooseontheloose]

The only question that guides me when I am out photographing is, "What am I taking a photo of?" or possibly "Why am I taking this photo?"

If I can't answer the question, I don't take it. That doesn't necessarily mean that I am overly selective when I shoot, but it does eliminate the habit of photographing subjects that are overdone, over-hyped, too pretty or obvious, etc. I don't always avoid it, but asking myself those questions help keep those kinds of photos to a minimum (so says the photographer valiantly trying to finish developing the 130 rolls of film she shot over a 6 week period last year).

I rent, and my current apartment is the very first one where I have been able to hang anything on the walls, so the question of whether I would photograph something only if it go on the wall would mean that I would have shot nothing over the past couple of decades. Since until recently the possibility of hanging anything on the wall was slim to none, I've been looking at creating my own photobooks, either handmade or online, in order to have easy access to some of my best work. Like others have mentioned, I have different categories in the back of my mind for why I photograph something - to add to a particular portfolio of work, because it's interesting/unusual, because the light is right, because I like it. Sometimes the shots I think would be great, aren't, and others I wasn't expecting much of turned out much better than expected. Similarly, because I shoot with different cameras and formats, as well as different films (colour, B&W, infrared, instant), what I have in hand will determine what I end up photographing.

 

[bvy]

I'm not a home decorator. That's not why I take photographs.