May 07 2008
Camera Position 63 : Beauty and Background
What is an “arts background”? Whether we know it or not, I think we all have one. Having a background in creativity is about synthesizing things that we already know and combining them with new things that we learn to come up with wholly new ideas.
Venice, Sunrise - Photograph by Jeff Curto
(click for a larger view)
Welcome back Jeff - I’ve really missed your stimulating presentations & this one certainly didn’t disappoint. The idea of “Beauty in Photography” is one to which many of us aspire, but find it hard to pin-down. For me, your images of hands on stone do this so well & are a real treat to the eyes and to the imagination.
Please keep coming with this kind of material as it’s so enthusing.
Thanks again for your hard work on the pcasts.
Best wishes
Roger
Thanks, Roger…
It’s been a wild-and-wooly winter and spring for me… thanks for hangin’ in while I was away.
Thanks, too, for the kind words about the work. I sure do love doing it!
-Jeff
Jeff - I’m a new listener (found you via the Photocast Network). I want to thank you for putting together such great material. Along with some wonderful photos which make me want to take a trip to Italy.
I’m not “artistically inclined” being far too technical and left brained. But I acquired a point and shoot digital camera, started taking some pictures for posting on my blog, whereupon I promptly ran across the “old eyes” problem - in that I can’t see the darned LCD at all clearly. In other words I point, frame the picture I want to take, try to let it auto focus, then shoot and pray - with varying results.
This led me to looking into DSLR’s - which appear to have tiny viewfinders until one gets to the higher end cameras… this led me to looking into “How” cameras worked, some of which I do remember from the days of using our old Pentax K1000, (as I research the type of camera I want to buy - haven’t got it yet). Which led me to the realization that I wasn’t even thinking about the picture itself! (I get so caught up in the technical part of it - I forget the end product)
So (after all that wordiness) I am very happy to have found your site, I’m downloading some of the older podcasts - and only just today heard the “Zone” podcasts. I’m looking forward to checking out the pdf’s that you have so kindly provided. I like the concept in this podcast about relating what is read with the visuals to create your own concept which stays with you. This works well in my type of thinking
I will never be an artist - but, if I’m going to take photographs, I would at least like it to be worth the trouble when I finally get to the finished photo. I have lots of things to learn so it should be many fun hours.
Hi, Teresa;
“Never Say Never.”
I think you have to assume that you’ll be the best photographer you can be. If art ends up happening, so much the better. I think, frankly, that art happens when people put passion for subject together with the technical & visual expertise to express that passion in a way that it becomes universal.
Think about how, when you tell a story to a friend about something that happened to you that you were just really interested in… it’s a great story and the friend laughs and you laugh… it all comes together. If you think about how you told the story, it’s not that the story is all that carefully planned… it’s about *how* you told it and the fact that you were *really* engaged in telling it. It brings your background together with your interest in communicating that message.
It’s art.
Keep shooting!
-Jeff