Words and Pictures
As strange as the way different people go about creative writing is the way individuals (being me, in this case) look at different forms of creativity.
I write fantasy and science fiction (although my output at the moment suggests that I don't write much at all) but when it comes to photography I like it to be real. For me, cameras and computers just don't mix-- at least in terms of creating pictures. Printing and storing is fine.
I like to point a camera at something and come away with a good picture or not (as is more usually the case). That's where the fun and the skill lies, surely. Anyone (within reason) can take a crappy picture (within reason) and turn it into something interesting (within reason) on a computer. Why have a camera at all? You could probably search the net and find the right sort of picture to doctor.
One thing that always bothered me (in respect to my ability or lack-there-of with a camera) was all the bad shots. From one roll of film there may be one or two that I want to keep. Seems terrible. But I was reading a book by Steve Parish-- mega famous Australian photographer who does all those "Australian" calendars and stuff-- even if you don't know his name you will have seen heaps of his work. Anyways, he was saying that one of the pleasures of photography was getting back your roll of film (or developing it or whatever), having a look through the pics, and finding that you have one or two good ones. Of course, he standard of good and mine are quite a bit different, but it's good to know that a pro who's been doing it for about 40 years goes through the same sort of thing. Wading through the bad ones-- where you cringe or just shake your head and wonder what you were thinking-- is worth it when you suddenly come across something that works. Even more so than in writing, what others think of the photo is irrelevant.
I can't imagine feeling the same way with writing. Imagine being willing to write 20 bad stories to get four that were worth the effort. Okay, admittedly, it usually takes a lot more time and effort to get a bad story than to get a bad photo but you could change the ratios and still get the same answer. 12 bad stories for 4 good ones? 8 bad for 4 good? Actually, that's probably about my ratio with short stories at the moment, but I can tell myself that those bad stories are not actually finished and I'll get around to fixing them up one day. My bad photos? I just don't want to fix them-- that would be cheating.
I write fantasy and science fiction (although my output at the moment suggests that I don't write much at all) but when it comes to photography I like it to be real. For me, cameras and computers just don't mix-- at least in terms of creating pictures. Printing and storing is fine.
I like to point a camera at something and come away with a good picture or not (as is more usually the case). That's where the fun and the skill lies, surely. Anyone (within reason) can take a crappy picture (within reason) and turn it into something interesting (within reason) on a computer. Why have a camera at all? You could probably search the net and find the right sort of picture to doctor.
One thing that always bothered me (in respect to my ability or lack-there-of with a camera) was all the bad shots. From one roll of film there may be one or two that I want to keep. Seems terrible. But I was reading a book by Steve Parish-- mega famous Australian photographer who does all those "Australian" calendars and stuff-- even if you don't know his name you will have seen heaps of his work. Anyways, he was saying that one of the pleasures of photography was getting back your roll of film (or developing it or whatever), having a look through the pics, and finding that you have one or two good ones. Of course, he standard of good and mine are quite a bit different, but it's good to know that a pro who's been doing it for about 40 years goes through the same sort of thing. Wading through the bad ones-- where you cringe or just shake your head and wonder what you were thinking-- is worth it when you suddenly come across something that works. Even more so than in writing, what others think of the photo is irrelevant.
I can't imagine feeling the same way with writing. Imagine being willing to write 20 bad stories to get four that were worth the effort. Okay, admittedly, it usually takes a lot more time and effort to get a bad story than to get a bad photo but you could change the ratios and still get the same answer. 12 bad stories for 4 good ones? 8 bad for 4 good? Actually, that's probably about my ratio with short stories at the moment, but I can tell myself that those bad stories are not actually finished and I'll get around to fixing them up one day. My bad photos? I just don't want to fix them-- that would be cheating.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home