The Joy of Light
“Light makes photography. Admire it. Love it. But, above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.”
George Eastman
I have always felt that photography, in the right hands, is an art form. However, sometimes it is hard to tell when, and how, the craft of photography can become an art and whether a particular image meets that criteria. I have often thought a lot about this in my own photography. And that is the subject of this Blog: how do I find the Art in Photography and how do I know when I have found it?
I hope you find my thoughts on the subject entertaining and, occasionally, informative.
You will notice that I have not included a way for you to directly engage in comments or argument about my comments. I don’t want to be in the position of having to police comments or censor people views or way of expressing themselves. I am too old for that. However, if you wish to engage with me directly go over to the “Contact Me” page and drop me a line. I try to answer all of the comments I receive and If I find feedback that helps me develop my own thinking I will write about it here.
Brownie Target Six-20
Well, Father forgive me for I have sinned. But salvation comes through confession and I have a confession: I am a Camera Junkie! I tried to hide this fact by saying I was a Camera Collector. Not just any camera collector, but a cream-of-the-crop "Canon Collector". I...
How to be a Better Photographer
The Brownie Hawkeye is a simple box camera introduced by Kodak in 1949. It was fixed focus, fixed iris, fixed shutter speed. And it worked just fine. To aim the camera you looked into the viewfinder, the lens on top, and saw the scene through the top lens on the...
Color
So here is the train of thought: using my old cameras with B&W film; being impressed with B&W images and wanting to explore them; what happens if I put color back into them; how do we relate to color in photography? Other people go around thinking about...
Carte de Visite
My Cartes de Visite are small, about 65 by 106 millimeters, on very heavy card stock. The images are on very thin paper glued to the card. Susan wanted to got to an antique show here in Vancouver this past weekend. I had heard that there were also cameras at this...
Art and Style and Photography
As you have seen, in these pages I have mused about the meanings of Art and Style as it relates to photography. Recently my good wife got me thinking about this subject again. You see, the other day I was out taking pictures of railway tracks. Strange, you say? Well,...
Being a Photographer
I subscribe to all kinds of e-mail lists about things photographic. Most turn out to be advertising and I hit the delete button but there are gems amongst the dross. The other day I received an e-mail from PictureCorrect.com entitled "You Know Your a Photographer...
Why am I Shooting Film?
The Canon EF is a lovely camera to shoot, although it is more work than a modern Digital SLR. All of the pictures on this post were taken with this camera pictured. It began as a desire to try out some of my old cameras and to revisit a world I left back in the...
Dan Jurak
I love the work of other photographers and the internet has opened a whole world of talent and technique to all of us. Looking at what others are doing excites me and fires my imagination. I am constantly getting the “I want to do that” feeling! I write about the work...
Forest Solitude
My earliest memories of life were here on the West Coast of Canada. That was in the 40's and early 50's when Vancouver was a small place and Langley, where I have my first memories, was little more than a few stores and to walk out of town took two minutes. My Dad...
Inspiration
noun in·spi·ra·tion \ˌin(t)-spə-ˈrā-shən, -(ˌ)spi-\ : something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create : a force or influence that inspires someone In one of the many e-mail newsletters I get, usually crafted...
The Collector
So, the other day my daughter calls me with a problem: she has cameras, lots of them, and she is planning to put them in the dumpster. Do I want to see them, Dad? Well …. Hell yes! Kathleen’s father-in-law, Bill, died recently and my daughter and her husband are...
My Fourth Camera
In my last year of high school I worked part time in a photo store in the Humbertown Mall in Etobicoke which was a suburb of Toronto. It was a great job and a great place to learn more about photography. One day a consignment came in to be sold: a Leica M-3 with 50mm...
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