I found this quote while searching through photography quotes for my website and loved it too much not to share it.
Technique is a matter of individual preferences. It bores me. I am only interested in results. However I do offer a few guiding rules of photography.
1. My essential equipment includes an alarm clock towake up early and a compass to find where the sun is going to be. I also have a small double pointed quartz crystal which sits in my camera bag with the exposed film and helps to increase sharpness!
2. The best light occurs when I am stuck in the office with the VAT man or have left my camera at home.
3. If I wait for perfect conditions someone will park a truck in the view.
4. The most I have waited in the rain for conditions to improve was five days. The picture wasn't worth waiting for and isn't in this book.
5. Having walked for miles for a good picture I often find the best photo when I return is right next to my car. The only problem beeing that I've parked right in the middle of the view.
6. Nothing is repeatable especially the light.
7. Those pictures which require the most perspiration and imagination to take are always the ones that look the easiest.
8. Don't run out of film.
-Bob Croxford,
"From Cornwall With Love" by Bob Croxford
12 comments:
Good find Di. These 'rules' made me chuckle a lot:)
I especially liked Rule 2 - also known as 'sod's law'!
Thanks Alex, they made me smile too much not to put them out there.
Here's to avoiding 'sod's law' in 2007.
I just loved #8: "Don't run out of film". Is anyone still using film on a regular basis?
There can surely not be much additional quality to be gained when I look at the specs of current professional all-digital +10 Mega Pixel SLR cameras.
Film ... that would be my idea of a nightmare now.
Oh the specs for the professional cameras ... one day 8mega pixels didn't seem like enough anymore, what's that all about ...? I've always been satisfied with what I have but digital photography is turning my head in a big way.
Well, you can think of it as a "have a spare memory card".. If you have a full card and find something worth photographing, you are likely to delete WRONG pics from the card or miss the dream photo by looking for pics to delete from the card. ..been there..lol
Now that I'm going out with my camera again (as soon as it stops raining, been raining for days...), I will have my #1 card in camera, all my compatible cards with me, even the oldest and smallest ones that can hold only few pictures. ..just in case.
Oh, and about mpixels. I have learned that they help you to a point, but I'd rather have a camera with fewer mpixels and with a better cmos and metter processor. For example, I still have my old 3,2Mpix Canon PowerShot ans my second good camera since even thoguh it's limited, the photos look like they're from better camera. My 5Mpix similar Olympus is the one I take out to parties, etc. It takes decent photos, but I don't mind that much if something happens to it. ;)
Oh, and one pro-photographer I know said that even though he has all the gear and gadgets, few of his best photos ever were taken with a PowerShot G5 (I think that was the model..), basicly a top-end hobby camera with fixed optics. :)
He does take kite-photos and loves to make box-cameras and is fan of obsolete-tech and old cameras.. lol
I had to smile over the image of you with your pockets full of memory cards doberman :)
I simply use one till it's full then, rarely, replace it with the second. They hold 600 and 300 full resolution images, it would be rare to need more methinks.
That was a fun list.
Two thoughts, though:
First, he shouldn't wait for the rain to go away, he should embrace bad weather! A professional photographer acquintance of mine (or at least he was an acquaintance until he passed away) said, "When the weather gets bad, the photographs get good." Or something like that.
And, as for the debate about film, well, I'm about to obtain my first digital camera, but I intend to keep film as my primary medium for "serious" photography (such as it is). It's now trite, but cameras don't take photos, people do. A Holga or Lomo in the hands of a genius will allow one to take much better photos than the top of the line Canon or Nikon DSLR in the hands of a hack.
Still, I enjoyed reading this post. Very thought provoking and funny!
Di, I get by with the 1GB when I can copy photos to computer, but couple times I have been out for the whole day and have run out of memory..
And you would be surprised. I am almost ashamed to admit that I have one CF card and one usb memory stick with me ALL TIMES.. I'm a weirdo, but I have good excuse: school. If I run out of laptop battery and there's no power awailable.. ..I have the memory. And I don't even remember everything I have in my bag. There's at least one cardbus wifi adapter, usb bluetooth dongle, lan cable, few AA batteries, Leatherman, usb cable, firewire cable and pens, pencils and eraser.. I have needed every single piece at least once.. lol
Hey knarf ... how true, he should embrace the bad weather, after all you cycle in it :)
Glad you enjoyed the post.
Doberman ... so you clank when you walk huh. Meanwhile you could have hours of entertainment watching me try and work how all your new-fangled technology works.
Oh well, most of the stuff I have is quite simple. And I have to admit that I have tried to go light-weight with everything. For example my current laptop weights 1,2kg and I am desperately searching for replacement that I can afford in the same size. Problem is that for the price I can afford, there is not that many to choose from.. :(
Lightweight ... lol that describes my technical expertise. I didn't have a GSM phone until I moved to Turkey ... and while the idea of podcasts interests me, I sense another steep learning curve in my future :)
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