Photos from your neighborhood

Camper6 said:
It's not really all that easy. Recognizing subject matter. Lighting. Composition, etc. has to be learned. Of all? In my opinion. Subject matter.
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I never said it was easy, I said it was easier that it's ever been before. Although one has to learn about composition, lighting, etc... it's much easier to do that now than it was before because you can get almost instant results to see how what you did turned out.

I did take four semesters of photography related classes and two of cinematography in college so I have a decent theoretical background in those areas. However I think that it's so easy to go online and post your pictures to be critiqued it will be easier to pick up those skills without having to take expensive college courses or other courses.

Also if one gets a camera with lots of different settings the manuals these days generally make it pretty easy to pick up the knowledge about how to use those features.

Depth of field and how to use it, the difference between using a long lens and a short lens (or being zoomed in or zoomed out) are somewhat more involved to pick up but it's possible to do so. I do also think that having experience with 35mm film based cameras has given me a better understanding of the trade offs between aperture and shutter speed that seem more difficult to pick up with a digital camera.

I still think the bottom line is it's much easier to get decent photographs with today's digital cameras than cameras of the past. I think that it is also easier for people to get photos they enjoy now than it was in the past.
 

Whatever the equipment you have that makes it 'easier', it still takes the 'eye'. That's not learned. That's an innate ability not easily learned. And it takes work. Willing to get up early in the morning or go out late at night and in inclement weather. Being able to spot a great opportunity. Etc., etc., etc.
 
Our small market town Square in autumn....

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Painting from an old pic of Main Street in the little town where I grew up. It still looked a lot like this when I was young other than streets were paved and vehicles were a newer make.


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Most everything has been torn down now or converted to ugly storage units. I moved back near to what's left of the town six years ago and still drive through from time to time. The loss of the old buildings ...esp the old train depot (doesn't show in the painting) makes me sad. The little white building with the green roof was the first gas station for miles. The owner of the first car in town built it when he bought his car. Since no one else in town owned an automobile for several years, it took awhile for him to show a profit. :)

The current owner of the old Corner Grocery building with the Coca-Cola sign got permission from the Coke company to keep the sign restored. The building is now a laundromat. Ironic that he has Dr. Pepper dispenser next to it...




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Camper6 said:
Whatever the equipment you have that makes it 'easier', it still takes the 'eye'. That's not learned. That's an innate ability not easily learned. And it takes work. Willing to get up early in the morning or go out late at night and in inclement weather. Being able to spot a great opportunity. Etc., etc., etc.
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I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think that most humans are able to perceive what they consider beautiful and can learn what they can do to best capture that beauty with a camera. I think it has more to do with learning to be more aware of whats going on around and in the same field of view of what they want to capture. Then it takes learning how cameras work and how adjusting the way they capture the light that's coming into them to best represent what one finds beautiful.

I think the getting up early, enduring inclement weather etc... are only important if that's where one find's beauty. There are plenty of beautiful scenes and images available during normal every day. Once again I think one just needs to learn to be aware of what they find beautiful around them and then learn how to best capture it.
 
asp3 said:
I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I think that most humans are able to perceive what they consider beautiful and can learn what they can do to best capture that beauty with a camera. I think it has more to do with learning to be more aware of whats going on around and in the same field of view of what they want to capture. Then it takes learning how cameras work and how adjusting the way they capture the light that's coming into them to best represent what one finds beautiful.

I think the getting up early, enduring inclement weather etc... are only important if that's where one find's beauty. There are plenty of beautiful scenes and images available during normal every day. Once again I think one just needs to learn to be aware of what they find beautiful around them and then learn how to best capture it.
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If you want to find out how 'good' your photography is, then enter contests against some of the best. I have.
 
Camper6 said:
If you want to find out how 'good' your photography is, then enter contests against some of the best. I have.
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This may be the source of our disagreement. My definition of good in terms of people taking good photos was more of one where most people would go wow and say it was a good photo. If the measure of good is being able to win (or place or show) in a photography competition judged by photo critics then I would agree that most people are unable to rise to that level of photography.
 
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