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At the suggestion of another poster...here is the question...Can you take a great photograph within 30 minutes of your home...by this I don't mean "do you live just outsie Yosemite Park?" but rather, are you able to just pick up a minimum kit and jump in the car when the light is great (or horrid) drive to somewhere nearby and shoot a couple of rolls of film...on any given morning or evening. On the other hand...are your photography trips more like expeditions...they require weeks of planning, travel to exotic locales, enough equipment to subdue two men and a boy, and a budget that would require legislative approval in a third world country.

You've asked more than one question here, and the second part is really about four questions rolled into one. So here are some answers.

I shoot quite a bit at home. I did a project that resulted in a series of photos I particularly like at the dry cleaner closest to my home. I am working on a project documenting life along a street populated by immigrants near my home right now. However, I don't do it as casually as you suggest, I generally spend quite a bit of time wandering (like weeks) before I start shooting. And for indoors shooting, I have to make appointments with people.

On the other hand, I travel to "exotic" locations to photograph. In two weeks I am leaving for Morocco. I spend a tremendous amount of time preparing for my trips because I have found that if I don't, I end up on the tourist circuit. For the last month, I havel been refreshing my French and trying to learn some spoken Arabic, and I have been studying the history and culture of north Africa. I read a few novels by an author in Morocco. Last week, I spent quite a bit of time on the phone tracking down some contacts that would help me get into places that might otherwise be difficult. All of this is fun, not a burden, except maybe for the languages.

But - a) I don't carry a lot of equipment. Everything I carry (one medium format body, two lenses, a meter a tripod, and a very small flash) fits into a small backpack; and b) I am a reasonably budget conscious traveler. In particular, avoiding "high" season can give very low fares. All of this has resulted in very successful and unstressful trips, except for my last trip when my luggage was "delayed" and I spent three days in the same clothes.

Summarizing, I am not sure that one type of photography precludes another, but I sure don't understand traveling with tons of equipment and a huge budget unless you are working for National Geographic.

Why do you even have to jump in your car & go somewhere to make a photograph? I've taken lots of photographs without even leaving my house. Paul Strand & Edward Weston also managed do that very well. Your question really poses two very different photographic situations. If I'm going to leave my house for an extended trip, yes, I usually take almost every camera I own. Part of it is to have the right tool for the subject/circumstances, the other part is that on some days I just enjoy shooting a certain camera. However, I have also done entire trips with just one camera.

Damnit Steve, you stole my answer agin!

If you can't take a great picture without even leaving your house, you oughta take up puttputt...t

I also do a lot of photography in and around the house, whether it be experimental, surreal or 'encountered still-life' as I call it. In the latter form the existing light is often the reason to decide to make the picture. BTW pictures of Yosemite park are only really interesting when wheather and lighting conditions are special, so you might just as well stay home if that's what makes or break a good picture. Kertesz was good in this type of photography too.

Yes, Lot, the right light can transform the most mundane to the sublime. I've made a lot of still lifes, right in the kitchen. It requires a little critical distance. The ability to disassociate with the immediate context of the objects, and render them as metaphors for anyones modern life. When displaced to a gallery wall, a cereal bowl with spoon, the last drops of milk and a few limp flakes, can stimulate something other than the urge to wash the dishes...t

I have made quite a few of my better street photographs with a 200 mm from an open window in my 2. story apartment. It's so comfortable to sit in the kitchen window, have the coffeemaker within easy reach and good music on the stereo while snapping street pictures.

It also depends on what you would rather take pictures of. I love the outdoors. I love to travel. I only have time for the left side of the country though. I shoot still lifes. I shoot beach scenes. I grow orchids and cacti and shoot these whenever they are in bloom. No I don't get much from them when they aren't blooming. I would love to photograph nude women but my wife hates my photography enough as it is so I don't push the subject. Street photography? Doesn't do much for me. Sneaking up on folks with a big gun. Nah. I see some really nice stuff out there in the galleries and books(except for nan's stuff) but it isn't my schtick. Why would I have an 11x14 framed, on my wall, of someone I don't know? It's great if you find good stuff close to your house. Ruth Bernard finds everything she needs right in her bedroom so she says. I don't know about that. But I do know that where I live doesn't do much for my creative juices. It used to be full of neat stuff. Now it all looks the same and there's no old stuff that isn't hidden by wires and poles and signs and derelicts and condos and smog and..... Get the picture? Hey, that's not half bad. Now a mushroom sprouting at the foot of a really gnarly pine tree or oak or a small diminuative flower hanging on to the crack in a rocky cliff. Mm mm good. Now that's nice. Anyway. I take everything if I am driving somewhere. If I go to the beach I take my small stuff. LF isn't fast enough. But I always have fun.

Radovan M.	Eloi S.	a. S.	Rusdi A.	Jill B.	Tom B.	Gerhard B.	ERNIE B.

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