photography and sex (no, not like that)

[susie_flo]

Yikes, fiends, I'm taking malingering to whole new levels.  It's almost 6pm and am still in my PJs...    have become the epitome of a slattern. 

Friday was such a lovely day.  G and I attended a wedding that was small, warm, friendly and local.  What more could anyone want?   However I seem to have lost the entire of yesterday.  I really I have no idea what happened....  but at the end of it I slept for almost 12 hours and awoke feeling as weak and groggy as a something or other...  (see, am too weak and groggy to think up a simile).

God, how yawnsome I am being.  Please don't run away.  I have wittering to do.

I've noticed a few things about photography... 

First of all, I've noticed that people are comedically disapproving of phone-pics.  Especially people who happen to be standing next to you holding a DSLR.  I can barely withstand the onslaught of scorn as I stand there snapping with my iPhone under these conditions.   Actually I do understand where they are coming from but am blaming Hipstamatic for my temporary insanity.  It's still my app-of-the-week.  I wandered around Friday's wedding taking low res, B&W iPhone pics with gay abandon and then found it hard to explain myself to a kindly elderly gentleman who was utterly bemused that anyone would want to simulate the photographic flaws of his youth.

This leads me on to another thing I've noticed.  I think this is probably specific to females wielding a camera.  In my experience, it is nigh impossible to take photos anywhere without a nearby man feeling the need to "help".   I'm beginning to believe that they just can't help it....   (tell me boys, is it like barbecues?)

About six years ago I bought my first fairly-decent digital camera and took it to a family gathering.  I was plagued for the whole day by a "helpy" older man who saw it as his job to show me a) how to use it and b) what to take pictures of...  (sigh) 

Then last year I upgraded to a shiny DSLR that was, admittedly, a little out of my league.  I'm gradually finding my way around this beast, but again am seldom able to take it out for a spin without a dad-like figure turning up and instructing me on what to point it at.  I know they mean well, but this is about as welcome as someone standing behind me at an easel telling me where to put my brushstrokes.  And having to "explain" why I am pointing at a dusty corner with no people in the frame is little short of sigh-inducing.  (G, bless him, is the exception to the "helpy" rule, having grown up with a photographer aunt and thereby under the illusion that cameras are a woman's domain).

The problem for me is that I am not really into 'photography' in the way that proper photograhers are.  I just like taking pictures and have learned enough about ISO, focusing and exposure to get by.  But I am completely out of my depth when people start throwing full-on tecchie camera jargon at me, which does nothing to counteract the image of a camera-wielding bimbo.  (I realise I might sound like I'm ranting a little, but in truth I am very sanguine about this phenomenen.  You don't get to be short, blonde and my age without having developed the hide of a mentally challenged rhino.  Plus I know that the "helpiness" is kindly-intended.  'Tis just a fact of life).

Anyway for those of you not on farcebook, I've posted a few of these low-res wedding pics behind the cut below.   (It seems I am a little bit obsessed with photos of little girls.  I think I can just about get way with saying that before The News of The World comes a-knocking).























Full set on Flickr, here:   www.flickr.com/photos/susanflockhart/sets/72157623843244309/



Comments

[stimpy-lfs.livejournal.com]

Ignore the helpy camera bores - they're good pics. I'm near the end of my photography course and one thing I've learned is that the hardware and software used to take and edit images are secondary to the composition and resulting picture....and these are pics to be proud of!

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you! A compliment from someone who knows what they're on about has made my evening. :-)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

PS... I love looking at other people's photos. Do you blog yours anywhere?

[stimpy-lfs.livejournal.com]

I should do but the course has made me reluctant to do so - lack of cofidence means that every time I finish editing and think a photo is ready I doubt myself and start to edit the edits endlessly. I used to do the same with music compositions and writing, thinking something finished one day was not right the next day. Obsessive re-refining. I should just close Photoshop and get on with uploading them to Flickr or similar.

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Ah, I sympathise. I suffer from exactly the same problem with painting, hence dozens of unfinished works and about three that I consider finished. Knowing when to stop is an art in itself.

There is a trick that artists use to help trigger the "gut feeling" of whether a picture is right or not. You hold it up to a mirror, which reverses everything and helps you to see it afresh, with unjaded eyes. (Not sure whether it would work as well with photography though, but at least it would be easy to flip the images in photoshop.)

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Aces photos. Composition is everything :)

[the-meanest-cat.livejournal.com]

Thanks :-)