Halloween Portraits II - C&C welcome

[Chato]

Originally Posted by Bynx

Nan Goldin is an example, to me, of someone who has some people in influential places who declare she has NEW CLOTHES. Many non thinkers rally and say she has NEW CLOTHES. There are also others who see her for what she is and declare she is NUDE. As for me, I think she is naked as a Jay bird.

Your opinion is worth about the same as mine. I happen to REALLY like her photography. And you dislike it.

I've liked her photography for years and years. Saying that, generally speaking my aims are quite different from hers. But I like her style.

Dave

[Chato]

Originally Posted by JohnG

Dave,

In photography it's still all about the results. You're taking posed shots and they're blurred. If you don't want to use flash - fine, use a better tool for the job. A DSLR with ISO 6400 and 1.4 lens gets you 4 stops advantage over these shots. Instead of 1/3 shutter you'd have 1/50 - significantly less blurring.

The tools exist to do a better job at what you're doing. But right now it's akin to someone taking a 50mm lens and shooting birds in flight at 200 yards away and saying they just don't want to use a longer lens and 50mm bird in flight shots are just niche photography. No, it's not - it's using the wrong tool for the job resulting in a poor photo. Just like these shots. If a posed shot has this much motion blur it's just a bad shot. And given that you have the budget to buy $5000 DSLRs using the wrong tool for the job shouldn't be an excuse.

A dSLR is a very intrusive camera, and would defeat the aims of my photography, which is to capture the spontanious.

I completely understand your point of view, and even though I disagree, I am not denigrating it. John - I Like the blur...

I just have to learn how to use it better. I'm learning how to pan for some shots, allow things to be blured for others. It's what I see at night.

Daylight shooting is a completely different matter.

Dave

[Chato]

Originally Posted by vvcarpio

Oops sorry I didn't mean to say your pictures are bad. I felt like the odd man out so I took the funnyman approach...

I wasn't offended...

Those twins spooked ME. They acted in a very odd manner. Walking up to me, going into "pose mode," with those very serious expressions. And thier customes weren't exactly wild, and yet they reminded me of some horror flick, in which I was about to meet some supernatural beings..

Dave

[Calicajun]

Chato, I do agree with one statement you made being "Nan Goldin is one hell of an overhyped photographer". Looked at her work and didn't care for what she prints. Then not everybody likes everything done by every professional photographers. Which is why there are so many photographers in the world of art.
Do have one question; what type of camera does Nan Goldin use when shooting street photography?

[Chato]

Originally Posted by Calicajun

Chato, I do agree with one statement you made being "Nan Goldin is one hell of an overhyped photographer". Looked at her work and didn't care for what she prints. Then not everybody likes everything done by every professional photographers. Which is why there are so many photographers in the world of art.
Do have one question; what type of camera does Nan Goldin use when shooting street photography?

I didn't make that statement, Bynx did. He also made the outrageous claim that the only reason she is known is because she has friends in high places. Absolute BS, and slander.

Here is a excerpt from an interview which I completely agree with.

Some of your pictures are blurred. You did it on purpose?


Actually, I take blurred pictures, because I take pictures no matter what the light is. If I want to take a picture, I do not care if there is light or no light. If I want to take a picture, I take it no matter what. Sometimes I use very low shutter speed and they come out blurred, but it was never an intention like David Armstrong started to do what we call, he and I, "Fuzzy-wuzzy landscapes." He looked at the back of my pictures and studied them. He started to take pictures like them without people in them. They are just out of focus landscapes. He actually did it, intentionally threw the camera out of focus. I have never done it in my life. I take pictures like in here when there is no sun or light that I think all my pictures are going to be out of focus. Even Valerie and Bruno and whatever I take, because there is not enough light, and so I use a very low shutter speed. It used to be because I was drunk, but now I am not. The drugs influenced all my life. Both good and bad. I heard about an artist in Poland, Witkacy, who wrote down on his paintings all the drugs he was on. Depending how many drugs he took, that is how much he charged for the portrait. I saw his portrait at the National Museum, a kind of German expressionism, and I loved it.

As for what camera she uses, beats me...

Dave

[Calicajun]

Chato, sorry for the miss quote. Still to me a poorly done picture, one done without regard to lighting is just a bad picture. To each their own, in ones taste in art.

[Chato]

Originally Posted by Calicajun

Chato, sorry for the miss quote. Still to me a poorly done picture, one done without regard to lighting is just a bad picture. To each their own, in ones taste in art.

Let us step back, and reexamine why we take pictures in the first place. Forgetting for a moment jouralism, and studio work, and for that matter my wildlife, or sports pictures, we seek to capture the moment. When we look at a painting, do we automatically dismiss it, because it's not a realist painting? Would you condemn Renoir, or Monet, because their paintings don't capture the "true" scene?

They attempt to capture a mood; to draw the audience in, and let them fill in the blanks, so to speak. They seek to capture the essence of the scene. They want you, the viewer to see more than a painting, or in this case a photography can directly capture.

Now, when I have good light, I use good light. There are plenty of pictures I've posted on this board which proves my skill.

But for all practical purposes, night scenes, viewed by the human eye are not very different from what I'm trying to do. I seek to capture the essence of a scene, the mood, the feeling.

I asked John, and I'll ask you, to go out on a dark night, and actually analyse what you are seeing. The eye/brain combination fills in the blanks to scenes which in fact look much like my photographs. I am trying, and slooooooowly making progress in capturing what the eye actually see's. These Halloween shots are closer to what I wish to do, than my previous efforts. They are in fact, what I want to do, although I haven't quite got there yet.

Those who dislike this form of photography have perfectly legitimate opinions, just as those who dislike a particular style of painting have perfectly legitimate opinions.

But this is a genre. It's a very difficult genre to do correctly, and even when done correctly, many wont like it. But a critique which consists of telling me what an f stop is, doesn't ring a bell...

I may not be a great photographer, but I have mastered the technical aspects of photography, and am now breaking arbitrary rules. I shoot in good light and bad light, and make the most of both. Don't like it? Fine. Explaining to me that the picture is blurred is not a revelation.

Dave

[kazuya]

ive never heard of Nan Goldin, so i did a google image search and after 10 pages i found nothing remotely like the ones youve taken.

at the end of the day though, it doesnt matter to me what people think, (unless your trying to sell) if you like what your doing then carry on

[Bynx]

Originally Posted by Calicajun

Do have one question; what type of camera does Nan Goldin use when shooting street photography?

I believe she shoots with a Heroin Mark II.

[Bynx]

Originally Posted by Chato

I didn't make that statement, Bynx did. He also made the outrageous claim that the only reason she is known is because she has friends in high places. Absolute BS, and slander.
Dave

I sure stand by what I said. When someone produces crap and calls it art and most people see it as crap, those few who rave and call it art I believe are just saying it to be different. If those people happen to be in key places in the art world the 'artist' gets noticed. I have a box full of art pictures if crap is what sells.