| Photography Forum: Philosophy Of Photography Forum: |
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Q. Quality vs. Quantity
Asked by Chris Hawkins
(K=1508) on 5/31/1999
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I'm all for the take your time, study the subject, refine the composition approach to photography, but..........
Do you ever take the rapid fire approach? I'm talking about cramming everything you know and everything you own into a couple of hours of photographic frenzy? It's the 2 bodies, 6 lenses, a bucket of film wildness. If the composition or light isn't perfect, take the picture, don't take the picture, but move on regardless.
For me, this can be a blast. My standards are different (not necessarily lower) when I do this kind of shooting. One of the best times for me to do this is when I'm cruising the backroads of Appalachia with my Pop. Landscapes, flowers, signs, people, cars, barns, farm equipment, animals.............
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Pico diGoliardi
(K=1327) - Comment Date 5/31/1999
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That sounds like fun. Do it! I have. The results were, ah, like someone else did it, so I could step aside and say "Well, this one is very good. This is crap. This is...what? What the hell is this and who is this moron photographer?" C'est Moi!
If you lived in this area, I would lend you my Nikon F250. You could put a 50-300mm zoom on it, then we could put the results through the mindless Versamat processor and view the pictures through a digital projector in image-reverse mode. Or we could take the short-cut and go directly to a lobotomy.
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Mark
(K=248) - Comment Date 6/1/1999
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I'd like to do that more, but its against my nature...I need to loosen-up with my film usage- but I think of the addnl time required to process the film...time is such a rare thing...can you buy time? I dont like to lose control of my processing by sending it out. With only 12-shots/roll for me, it doesnt take long to eat up a lot of film. I need to find more time for my hobby, damn it!
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Howard Creech
(K=3161) - Comment Date 6/1/1999
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I'm with you Chris, this is one of my favorite things to do...one body, one lens, a pocketful of film...and off to join the chaos and enjoy the fun. I have done some of my very best stuff in this mode (especially street shooting) just get into the rhythm of what is going on and let it all happen.
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tom meyer
(K=2752) - Comment Date 6/1/1999
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Actually Chris, this is an approach I'm trying to wean myself from. I have recently moved down to 6x6cm film from 4x5 and have more recently decided to go back to carrying the 4x5 on the sort of trip you describe. In a way, it's for the same reason I now enjoy eating with chop sticks... most of my life is at an extremely fast pace and I find the 4x5 and chopsticks force me to slow down and "chew my food" literally, with chopsticks and figuratively, with the Linhoff. I sold the MD-12 along time ago and only miss it when my catalog client comes to call. Lots of little stuff on white seamless lends itself to speed. I'm not a photographer of the street life, most of my photographic subjects are willing to wait for me, consequently the evolution of light and weather is a larger concern. So it's velo escargot for me these days, at least when I'm on my own clock...t
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Mike Dixon
(K=1387) - Comment Date 6/1/1999
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I enjoy a slower variation of the "rapid fire" approach. I frequently carry my Retina IIIc with me when I'm out on the motorcycle or travelling around town [with the 50mm lens, it fits in a pocket; another lens or two will fit in a second pocket]. When I see something interesting, I'll often stop and look around, find what I think are the best shots in that area, and take a lot of pictures. I can easily go through a roll in an hour or two.
The times I'm carrying multiple cameras and buckets of film are when I have a pretty specific objective.
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Alan Gibson
(K=2734) - Comment Date 6/2/1999
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It is a sad fact of my life that my best photos are the spontaneous photos, the ones without a tripod. So how could I get the image quality I wanted without a tripod? I solved that with hand-held 5x4. I can get through more film that way, up to four frames a minute. As with Mark, only the thought of processing it holds me back.
Burning film allows for experimentation. I have been known to explore a scene with 35mm, returning at a later date with 5x4 and tripod.
See also Burning film versus Careful Setup. Although I would prefer people to add to existing topics rather than creating new ones covering the same ground, it doesn't really matter, especially as there are no 'correct' answers. I'll put in the cross references.
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Sergei Larionov
(K=47) - Comment Date 6/2/1999
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I know you American fellows are almost always on the wheels but just in case ... some vodka might add nicely to Chris's rapid fire approach. I am speaking about something like a glass, not a tiny shot served in bars. Though an additional expense, it might have a sort of a liberating effect. Sure, more film is spent but there will be quite a few nice frames.
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Gary Watson
(K=1665) - Comment Date 6/3/1999
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Sounds like the photographic equivalent of Ray Charles shooting skeet.
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Chris Hawkins
(K=1508) - Comment Date 6/3/1999
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James: No, no, no. A thousand times no. Ray Charles can't see. I can. What I'm talking about is imperfectly capturing the zillions of wonderful things which flash beyond our eyes during a couple of hours. For me, it is a effort to show how much beauty is all around us. Each subject I photograph is worthy of an extended study. If I do an extended study on one subject, then I miss completely all the others. The isolated images may not be impressive, but taken together they can bring the viewer much closer to the experience than any single, powerful image.
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Chris Hawkins
(K=1508) - Comment Date 6/3/1999
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Whoops, my response was for Gary, not James.
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james mickelson
(K=7344) - Comment Date 6/4/1999
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tom meyer
(K=2752) - Comment Date 6/4/1999
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Chris, that sounds like a recipie for a life of regrets and a damn good way to drive yourself nuts... or at least cause a bad case of self-inflicted whiplash. It seems out of character for you.
I "imperfectly capture" zillions of things flashing before me every day of my life, and some as I sleep. But that doesn't reqire a camera.
Every choice you make leaves that which is unchosen.
Now that I think about it, what you descibe in the above post is how my 78 year old mother operates her video camera...t
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