Uh oh, Dan gets long-winded again...
I've got this office-mate who's gotten heavily into photography, and to keep up, and because I wanted to get a little bit more out of some of my trips and excursions, I researched a bit, and ended up spending a pile of money on a Canon EOS system to lug around, and a Yashica T4 so I'd always have a camera with a decent lens in my pocket.
And like a true gadget freak I've done some of this backwards: now that I've got all these cool toys I'm trying to learn how to use them to create art which is compelling, and which brings to my audience the messages I want to express.
So here's a list of cool things I've found as I begin my search, please jump in with suggestions:
Web wise, John Deamer and I both keep recommending Travels With Samantha , Philip Greenspun's also done some worthwhile writing on web design (http://www.photo.net/wtr/dead-trees/) and he maintains an awesome web site on photography equipment and technique at http://www.photo.net/photo
I went to the Marin Photography Club meeting last night, and while many of the photos were quite good it seemed that the goal of members is the competitions, rather than finding ways to make their pictures better and available to a wider audience. I think I'll try again, but if there are other groups of people interested in photography in the area I'm interested in finding them.
I did much of my growing up about 3 hours from New York City, out in the country, and a couple of rich city dwellers had weekend houses in the area. Of our nearest neighbor my mom used to say: "If Cindy puts an old tool on her wall, it looks like art, if I do it it looks like I've got no other place to store my tools." Finding that elusive quality that turns the mundane into art is something that clearly separates good photographers from the less accomplished, and few people do that as consistently as newspaper photographers.
In that light, I highly recommend "The Flying Pig Awards", excellent examples of people taking the mundane and making it art. HIGHLY recommended. http://www.ccnet.com/~cccorlew/pigs/pigs.html
>From the web site:There are lots of photographers working at newspapers who are required, even forced, to shoot things that larger papers would just laugh at. And yet, it's their job to make something out of these non-events and dull situations. Anybody can get good photos at a war. It takes real talent to get something usable at an event put on by the local Chamber of Commerce. We need to recognize and reward our colleagues that face near-impossible tasks every day, and still look for fresh angles and interesting photos.
Again, highly recommended: http://www.ccnet.com/~cccorlew/pigs/pigs.html
There should be a better book than Basic Photographic Materials and Processes (ISBN 0-240-80026-5) to describe how photography works, but apparently there isn't. One of my more physics savvy colleagues says that although it seems to be the best reference on photography, it's rife with errors about physics, my complaints are that quite often it takes 3 pages to explain 1/2 page of content, and a little more practical application would be nice sometime.
I'm also interested in composition, I'm reading Graham's "Composing Pictures" (ISBN: 0442228546 , out of print, but widely acknowledged to be one of the best on the topic), and I've got Gyorgy Kepes "Language of Vision" on the queue. Any other suggestions for "must reads" on composition, how we view patterns, what our perceptual systems are adapted for, and that sort of thing?
Finally, in my ongoing struggle between buying locally and using mail order, B&H Photo in New York is winning. The only camera store I've found with any knowledgeable friendly salespeople (is that an oxymoron?) and a decent stock is Marin Photo in Novato. My experiences at Seawood have been rude and not terribly knowledgeable, or at least not wanting to help educate me so they could make a bigger sale, and they're always closed. Anyone have any favorite locally owned camera places they'd recommend?
Wednesday, March 04th, 1998 danlyke@flutterby.com