Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

Well said billnikon.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Often I create multi-media stories - words and photos. The words add to the photos while the photos reinforce the words.

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RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Very nice photographs.

Penny Gehrig

Well Old Man, I'm an old lady. What I find is there are photographers who are purist. They make the camera create the results you want. We had to do that with film and some burning and dodging in the dark room. Now I don't think the photographers are better than us. They just use photoshop and Lightroom do the work for them.

theoldman

The wisdom, insights, humor, and counsel expressed in all the comments speak for themselves. I am a relative newcomer here , and pleased to be a member of a group of intelligent, respectful, and thoughtful individuals. I wonder if maybe an interest in photography goes hand in hand with intelligence and reasoned discourse.

I think the only reply I will make is that if your thinking and writing is as good as exhibited here, and I acknowledge and appreciate the diversity of opinion, you are hiding at least part of your light under a bushel (old time saying) by not adding your written thoughts to your images.....that is our loss.

Dave

The Old Man

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Seems to me that a lot of folks around here are suffering with "photographer's block", that is, a photographic version of writer's block. Basically, the malady is a sudden decrease in creativity, an uninspired approach to photograhy, a dearth of unique or new ideas in one's personal work and a bad case of the image blahs or blues! The symptoms/side effects are a "been there-done that" defeatist attitude, complaining about the stagnation of photographic artistry and savvy, and a tendency to assign blame to a number of trends such as digital photograhy, cellphone cameras, prefiltration of casual and do-it-yourself-photograhy and the untimely demise of the iconic photographers of the past. I mean, it a sobering thought that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for some 50 years!

One could see their doctor about anti-depressant medication, consult with their naturopath if they don't like drugs or take up Yoga. Electroconvulsive shock therapy- well- don't try it at home with your strobe or speedlight. Kidding aside, my remedy is CHALLENGING YOURSELF!

So..if you think it's all been done before, challenge yourself to do it differently. If you feel you have seen every possible version of Mount Rushmore, The Empire State Building, Grant's Tomb, cute little kids, doggies and puddycats, old barns, flowers or whatever, whoever, or wherever, try to find a different angle or approach, fad this in different light, light, mood, perspective. If you spend your photographic life attempting to emulate, beat or even defame Ansel Adams, Yosef Karsh, Weegee, David Douglass Duncan or whoever, you may find yourself with a terrible inferiority complex and never having discovered your own talents. There is nothing wrong with studying the old master of photography, analyzing their work, their lessons and trying to figure out what was really going on n their heads, their life or their bank accounts. It's good to draw inspiration and knowledge from all of them but there comes a time to turn off the computer, put down the books and pick up the camera!

Many years ago, one of the photography magazines, I don't recall which publication, ran a cover story- an article entitled "Are All Photographers Crazy"- hardly politically correct by today's standards- perhaps "crazy" or "nuts" should have been "insane or mentally challenged" but times have changed. The articles dealt with what motivates photographers to be photographers beyond the norms. The norms being expressing oneself artistically, making family snapshots and records as the kids grow up, recording history, aspiration of becoming a professional photographer- a famous investigative/crusading photojournalist, or just impressing the neighbors with a nice but perhaps boring vacation slide show.

The writer must have been a psychologist- turned photographer or perhaps worse, a photographer who thought he was a psychologist. This guy got into theorizing that some photographers were obsessed with long telephoto lenses and consider those lenses phallic symbols or worse again, the were into voyeurism. He pontificated that some photographers were obsessed with morbidity and gore and bizarre sexuality. And...this was before the time of Diane Arbus and good old Robert Mapplethorpe. I don't even know if Helmut Newton was working at that time. I wonder what he would have thought of David Hamilton with all those prepubescent ballerinas.

Well then! Even a young photography student, my reaction was "OK- whatever floats your boat" kinda thing as long as it ain't immoral, illegal or downright creepy.

My point is, in order to motivate yourself, to spark your creativity, dig down into your heart and mind and discover WHY you want to be a photographer. Whatever it is, get after it and do what satisfies those requirements. I'll bet your creative juices will flow and you will start producing better images. Also- remember what I said about times changing and photographers change too. Weegee (Arthur Fellig) drove around New York City with a police radio in his car and came to crime scenes before the cops got there. He was known to have photographed the "underbelly of the naked city". In his later years (I met him) he was semi-retired and was taken to light-hearted to special effect photography- two-headed dachshunds and the Mona Lisa frowning! Google it! If you wanna be a David Douglas Duncan kinda shooter, you always need to be in the right place at the right time- the only problem you has to be in an active war zone. So as I alluded to previously, do whatever floats your boat, just make sure that what you do won't sink your boat- with you in it.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

One of my answers would be "because I wanted to make a record of what I saw so that in the future this could serve as a prompt to my memory of the experience of those days. thanks. For other photographs, I may have other reasons.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Well put, Cany 143

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Interesting reply. I agree with most of what you say. When you say that his photographs "...do not speak to the soul, they do not make me want to look again and again". I would say well over 95 per cent of the images I see on this site do not "speak" to my soul. That is not to say that I do not care for the image. I think that you touched on what would be an interesting Hog topic and that is "what does speak to your soul"?

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Mr Shapiro, Your reply was both interesting and apt. If I could arrange things on a cosmic basis, I would convene a coffee shop conclave of some of the long time photographers who post on this site and just sit back and soak up the conversation. I think that often when a person posts here they are not necessarily looking for a "here is the answer" response, but rather are seeking a connection with someone or an affirmation of what they are saying and by extension of themselves. I am struck by the number of grandparents who post children of their grandkids and ask for comments on the photography when what they really want to hear is how cute the kid is. They certainly don't want to read "your photograph was a standout on all fronts, but that sure is a homely kid". At any rate, I always look for your contributions.

RodeoMan Loc: St Joseph, Missouri

Old Man I like your images and agree with your comments. I enjoy knowing the "context" of an image. For my own images, I always identify them so that years later, I am able to know what I am looking at. Of course, if I take a picture of, say, "Joe's Hamburgers" I won't write "Joe's Hamburgers" on the back of the picture, but I might write "this is the place where I had the absolute worse burger I have ever had the misfortune of eating. For me photographs serve as index to memory and connection with others, anything that assists in this is not bad in my point of view.

Bunko.T Loc: Western Australia.

Like beauty, words are in the eye of the beholder.
I've been browsing my thousands of pics from my lifetime, & wonder what becomes of them when I reach my use by date. But it includes many that would, or may, interest some by looking back at what is becoming history. I like to tell a story in my pics, so over the years it's a time line. But words?? That's for others to formulate.

cactuspic Loc: Dallas, TX

In a world where our thoughts, both visual and verbal, have been communicated so many times before, it is difficult to say something truly original. The best we can do is to communicate with integrity and as much insight and creativity as possible. This is not a new concern Didn’t Shakespeare write that there was nothing new under there sun? Maybe problem is that no one has the patience to hear a thousand words verbally.

Penny Gehrig

Sunset reflections on ice


Mountain Blue Bird


Sunrise


Sandhill Cranes

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

That was Solomon - but he was in a discouraged ‘funk’.