ku # 1185 ~ real sharing, not that virtual crap
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 at 12:37PM ;)
Tree ~ Windham, NY - in the Catskill Park • click to embiggenWhile playing a round of golf - part of the wife's conference program - during my visit to the Catskills, one of my playing partners (a female lawyer) asked what I do. I mentioned I did this, that, and the other thing, with the other thing being Art / Picture Making.
Her immediate response was to state that she too is an artist who works in oils. She then inquired as to what kind of pictures I make. I tried to explain as best I could and asked her if she would like to view my portfolios (the photo print books), which I just happened to have with me on the trip. Answering in the affirmative, we made plans to get together later in the day and, upon viewing the portfolio books, she was very impressed with the work and especially so with the quality of the books.
I don't mention this as a self-aggrandizing bit of self promotion but rather to once again encourage those of you who are serious about your picture making to make one of these books. The printed quality of these books, as long as you have your picture processing act together, is nothing short of outstanding. And, in my experience, the reaction to viewing them - characteristics of the pictured referents aside - is also nothing short of being very impressed.
FYI, when I write, if you "are serious about your picture making", what I mean to imply is, if you're not sharing your pictures with others in some form of print, you are less than serious about your picture making, or, at the very least, having only half the fun.
IMO, one of the best ways to grow as a picture maker* is by displaying to others prints of your pictures. In doing so, you are required to: a) look at and edit your work in a very critical manner, and, b) be driven to make the best possible prints, which, in the digital picture making era, is all about image file processing.
IMO, letting it all hang out, picture making / print making wise, is a great incentive to improve and grow in your picturing endeavors. Although, I suspect for many, that idea seems both daunting and intimidating.
However, my advise is to suck it up and just do it. The more you do it, the better you will get.
*in addition to learning about the history of the medium and its practitioners, looking at lots of pictures made by others (that is, actual prints in exhibitions, books, and folios), and getting inside your own head.
Reader Comments (4)
This, for me, is both a helpful and pertinent posting. Thank you.
Editing ones work has to be one of the most important and ignored skills in amateur photography.
This is a stunning photo Mark. A perfect example, in my opinion, of an effective way to document the beauty of the changing season. It hits me in the gut but doesn't knock me in the head and render me senseless with blazing, over-the-top saturation. There is a great sense of pastoral beauty in this and I can imagine that it might be the tree that good ol' Rip Van Winkle fell asleep beneath.
That transition of the best images from screen to paper is one of the really valuable tools of evaluating my own photography (and necessarily my editing process beforehand). I do not only enjoy my best images much more as touchable objects, it also taught me to completely forget about agonizing on the pixel level of my images on screen. And yes, exchanging physical photographs with other photographers is much, much better then just looking at a display.