Comments on: Lose yourself to find yourself http://mondoagogo.com/blog/2009/06/18/lose-yourself-to-find-yourself/ cultural magpie Thu, 29 Sep 2011 23:34:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anna http://mondoagogo.com/blog/2009/06/18/lose-yourself-to-find-yourself/comment-page-1/#comment-548 Anna Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:04:09 +0000 http://mondoagogo.com/?p=951#comment-548 Cheers Fin. I was thinking of a lot of people that I've met (largely through Flickr meetups) who seem to have their cameras set to constantly click, but never actually look at what they're shooting, and although they might be technically "good", I find their photos are often quite boring. Shooting from the hip <i>can</i> work really well but the people who are most successful at that do actually know how to <i>look</i> for the best photo opps, and don't just click unwarily. Of course, you can have happy accidents when you shoot haphazardly, and those are good too! But I think you're more likely to find them if you know how to look in the first place. Cheers Fin. I was thinking of a lot of people that I've met (largely through Flickr meetups) who seem to have their cameras set to constantly click, but never actually look at what they're shooting, and although they might be technically "good", I find their photos are often quite boring. Shooting from the hip can work really well but the people who are most successful at that do actually know how to look for the best photo opps, and don't just click unwarily.

Of course, you can have happy accidents when you shoot haphazardly, and those are good too! But I think you're more likely to find them if you know how to look in the first place.

]]> By: Fin http://mondoagogo.com/blog/2009/06/18/lose-yourself-to-find-yourself/comment-page-1/#comment-541 Fin Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:16:13 +0000 http://mondoagogo.com/?p=951#comment-541 Excellent essay, mondo, and much of it sums up the way I feel. I especially identified with: "As they see me crouching into an awkward pose, or rearranging sauce bottles on a cafe table, the reaction is often along the lines of, "is there anything you don't photograph?" The tone of voice is often one of surprise, and even slight disgust..." Now I've had almost exactly the same reaction several times. I showed the resultant photos once, straight off the camera, to a friend I'd been out walking with and who'd come out with something like this. They were forced to admit that the shots were in fact pretty selective. Aside from the points you make well, I think it's also partly to do with how people register activity - somehow the time I'd spent looking around, talking to them, or just walking, didn't count, all they'd registered was 'photo time'. Maybe there's something there about human psychology, that we expand discrete 'events' to fill greater time than they do, as opposed to more continuous action. Yeah - the point about social gatherings is well taken. Must admit, for a short while I got a bit manic with this, but now, at most, I take a shot or two for memorabilia and put the camera away, I'd rather talk to people. Excellent essay, mondo, and much of it sums up the way I feel. I especially identified with:

"As they see me crouching into an awkward pose, or rearranging sauce bottles on a cafe table, the reaction is often along the lines of, "is there anything you don't photograph?" The tone of voice is often one of surprise, and even slight disgust…"

Now I've had almost exactly the same reaction several times. I showed the resultant photos once, straight off the camera, to a friend I'd been out walking with and who'd come out with something like this. They were forced to admit that the shots were in fact pretty selective.

Aside from the points you make well, I think it's also partly to do with how people register activity – somehow the time I'd spent looking around, talking to them, or just walking, didn't count, all they'd registered was 'photo time'. Maybe there's something there about human psychology, that we expand discrete 'events' to fill greater time than they do, as opposed to more continuous action.

Yeah – the point about social gatherings is well taken. Must admit, for a short while I got a bit manic with this, but now, at most, I take a shot or two for memorabilia and put the camera away, I'd rather talk to people.

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