Landscape, Nature and Travel Photography

Sunday night I took a few moments to look at my copy of Eliot Porter’s "In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World". For those that are unfamiliar with Eliot Porter he was one of the first photographers focusing on nature and wildlife in color versus black and white. His work has proven to be quite influential inspiring several of today’s iconic wildlife and nature photographers including Art Wolfe.

In fact it was Art who urged me to pick up a copy of "In Wildness is the Preservation of the World" and I’m really happy that he did. In viewing the photos with in this book and his other work on display in various museums across the country I’ve come to not just appreciate Porter’s fine eye , but the incredible influence technological advances have had on this genre of photography.

For most modern day photographers looking at Eliot Porter’s work it may likely be anti-climactic as many of the photos will likely seem common by todays standards. In fact over the past year, although not directed at Eliot Porter, I’ve read more than one blogger claiming that modern amateur photographers are worthy of being considered artists and their work “art” as their work is as good if not better than past photographers. Personally I find such claims to be a joke and easily discarded. Why?

What people lose track of when viewing older, historically relevant, photography regardless of genre is that the artist in question often pushed the technology of the day to its edge if not beyond. Looking at Eliot Porter’s work in “In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World” I’m reminded of this with each turn of the page. At first glance the photos will appear to be common and perhaps unfocused. Yet a closer look at the composition, lines, and arrangement of color and texture tells another story. Considering how easy it is for modern photographers to generate color images digitally or with modern film the difficulty in attaining such images 20, 30 and even 50 years ago is completely lost. Seeing as how most photographers are off the cuff shooters these days an appreciation for technique is almost nil.

Sadly in this day and age contemporary photographers assume the work of past greats was as easy to capture as it is today. Larger cameras, reliance on technical knowledge versus in camera light meters, the lack of preview, etc. are but a few factors many easily look past. When I look at each of Porter’s images I don’t just see or appreciate what has been captured, I see the challenges to how it was captured. It is that facet of appreciation that transforms an every day image into a great image.

For those making the claim many of todays modern photographers are on par with those considered photographic greats I most certainly laugh at the claim. Photographic greats whether historical or contemporary are not defined by access to audience alone, but by how well they combine aesthetics and push modern photographic technology & technique to its limit. Something to think about the next time you view a photograph from your favorite photographer.

On that note I’ll end this entry with my favorite photograph with in “In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World’.

Spruce Trees in Fog, Maine, 1954
courtesy of Off the Coast, A Landscape Chronology

Technorati Tags: Eliot Porter, nature, landscape, photography, philosophy

I had an interesting conversation a couple weeks ago with a neighbor, Saïd Nuseibeh, who is a professional art photographer. Although I have known Saïd is a professional photographer we’ve never talked at great length all that often and until recently, we never talked much about photography itself. While catching up, Saïd and I ended up talking about use of the term “shooting” or “photo shoot” and it struck a nerve.

This all started as we were discussing what we had been recently working on. At the time I had just wrapped up a trip to Yosemite. In casual conversation I mentioned I had just been out to shoot Yosemite and had a great photo shoot. Saïd, with his dry sense of humor, then asked me what I shot it with and started naming guns. Mind you Saïd has photographed a lot of subjects in the Middle East so perhaps he’s a little more sensitive to the term than most. As we talked about this more I started to give it more credence.

Ever since this conversation I’ve been consciously working to avoid using the term “shoot” when I describe photographing something. To my surprise I use variations of this term quite heavily both when talking and writing. “Photographing” a subject is far different than “shooting” it and I can understand where Saïd is coming from.

How about you? Do you “shoot” or do you “photograph”?
My challenge to you… if you use the term “shoot” try to avoid using it for a week in speech and writing. After a day or two you’ll catch on to how often you use it and after another day or two you’ll feel quite liberated in no longer using the term.

n

Technorati Tags: photography, philosophy, shoot, photograph, term, terminology

From time to time a lot of buzz will surface about GPS devices for photographers that will track, map and embed GPS coordinates in the EXIF metadata of captured images. I use a GPS in the field when I’m out in remote locations not just for safety but to mark locations I’ve either photographed or plan on revisiting. To date I can’t say that I’ve missed having this information embedded in my EXIF metadata. I suppose it would be of benefit so that I wouldn’t lose the information, but a good photographer is also a good note taker.

This weekend I started to ponder, assuming this information were more commonly embedded, would photographers really be open enough to reveal it on a regular basis for geotagging? I can’t talk for others, but I can talk for myself and I more than likely would not be an open book with this information. For obvious locations I wouldn’t have a problem in sharing the information, but for special areas I’ve spent a great deal of time researching and/or exploring to find I’d likely keep it to my private notes. There is always the possibility of exceptions and I might open up for some friends, but even still it wouldn’t be the general public. Of course I run the risk of playing my cards here and looking like a real hardcase, but I’m just telling the truth. The more effort I’d put forward to find a location the less likely I’d be willing to share it.

What about you?

n

Technorati Tags: photography, GPS, EXIF, metadata, geotagging, gadgets, philosophy