Street Thread: "My desires are... unconventional. My photos are... unacceptable."

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Street Thread: "My desires are... unconventional. My photos are... unacceptable."

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Mrenda: Mar 14, 2012

Fart Car '97 posted:

Talking about why your work is or isn't working for you is one thing. This kind of stuff :

Mrenda posted:
(the black and white one is to me a very typical scene here; elderly Irish people, maybe reporting on the health of their acquaintances, maybe talking about their own issues, but all spoken in a quiet reverence to decorum.)

Is over compensating for a mediocre photo with flowery prose that everyone is just going to roll their eyes at.

Yeah, ok. Fair enough on that. But it's one small part of bigger post about my approach to what I'm trying to do.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 14:09

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 02:07

burzum karaoke: May 30, 2003

It's all coming off as post hoc rationalizations. The flickr titles aren't helping either.

You're clearly obsessed and very anxious to find something in your work worth holding on to and that's great. Don't worry about uploading photos every few days or weeks. Study your inspirations, keep pushing and building a body of work and you'll start to find what you're looking for in the edit. It'll take time, but it will happen.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 14:21

Choicecut: Apr 24, 2002; "I don't want to sound gay or anything, but I'd really like to have sex with you tonight.
I like postcards too."

--Choicecut, TYOOL 2016

Mrenda posted:

Yeah, ok. Fair enough on that. But it's one small part of bigger post about my approach to what I'm trying to do.

Just take pictures man. Isn't that what it's all about? 99.999999% of our photos won't get noticed or liked by anyone.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 15:48

Magic Hate Ball: May 6, 2007; ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this

Mrenda posted:

Street is a strange one for me. I really feel like it's going to take me a lot of effort to get my eye in for it all, and figure out how things transfer from what I see and value, to how the scene looks in a photograph.

One of the main things I'd like to try and get to is going from that single person to an interesting shot. There are tonnes of people I see on the street, often they're isolated from interaction, just walking, or carrying bags, or if there's two people they're static and talking. I can definitely say that I see something interesting to them when I'm on the spot. Whether it's their expression (which may be subtle,) they way they're holding themselves or their gait, or simply their clothes and their look (as in the first picture.) It's becoming obvious to me that the things I'm seeing in them are very fleeting when it comes to a definitive image. How do you represent the way someone walks in a static picture? How do you capture the changing in someone's face when you're isolating a single look? How do you capture your imagined ideal of a passerby?

I think, from the few formal portraits I've done that I have an eye for seeing something in a person, something that represents either them or an idea about a type of person, or a scene (the black and white one is to me a very typical scene here; elderly Irish people, maybe reporting on the health of their acquaintances, maybe talking about their own issues, but all spoken in a quiet reverence to decorum.) Now I just have to figure out how to carry that over to the street. Part of that is how I want my shots to look. The image I shared earlier of the woman glaring at me was mostly luck, right place, right time kind of thing. These are more considered. But I don't want to trade idiosyncrasies of an individual, even if they're isolated, or dare I say it potentially quite banal in 90% of photographs, for simple dynamism of the street. It's just a different approach to what I'm considering at the moment. And it's not at all my intention to denigrate the people who are doing amazing work capturing a real life and energy to their various towns and cities.

Maybe I'll end up realising street portraiture is more what I need, but for the moment I want to see if I can get what I want from a typical street approach. And that's going to be an entertaining battle.

lol

# ? Apr 26, 2016 18:23

windex: Aug 2, 2006; One thing living in Japan does is cement the fact that ignoring the opinions of others is a perfectly valid life strategy.

Choicecut posted:

Just take pictures man. Isn't that what it's all about? 99.999999% of our photos won't get noticed or liked by anyone.

Switch to film, let bored lab tech who is angry you made them work when you dropped the only roll this week, who will gently caress up developing, critique your photos. You'll never know, but they suffered.

But no seriously, to Mrenda, I only post bad things itt but I only like maybe 5% of the photos I take. I share those with a handful of friends, maybe 5% of those I like have value to anyone else, and maybe 1 in 5 of those are liked by more than a couple people.

Flickr, this thread, etc, do not matter in the game of findIng your thing, just find your niche and refine it until its natural to you then share stuff with others. You should think less about why and more about pressing the shutter release, then look at the results after a little time has passed, identify what works, and focus on that.

Repeat this process until you no longer care what this thread thinks.

Then post in this thread.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 19:42

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Post in this thread as much as you want. Do your thing, gently caress the haters (but listen to critique and think about your process and your photos and what you make and grow your style).

# ? Apr 26, 2016 19:53

Choicecut: Apr 24, 2002; "I don't want to sound gay or anything, but I'd really like to have sex with you tonight.
I like postcards too."

--Choicecut, TYOOL 2016

Hahaha..I keep thinking about trying film, but it seems like a pain in the rear end and apparently lab techs are dicks.

You're pretty much spot on though. You have to give zero fucks and keep on shooting. I have yet to take a photo that I really think is awesome. Initially I think some are cool, but two days later I realize there isn't anything special about them and they are poo poo photos like every other "photographer" has on Flickr.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 19:58

VendaGoat: Nov 1, 2005

Awkward Davies posted:

Post in this thread as much as you want. Do your thing, gently caress the haters (but listen to critique and think about your process and your photos and what you make and grow your style).

Someone in this thread posted a good opinion.

Burn this loving thread down.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 20:01

vxsarin: Oct 29, 2004; ASK ME ABOUT MY AP WIRE PHOTOS

Choicecut posted:

Hahaha..I keep thinking about trying film.

Do it.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 22:54

Choicecut: Apr 24, 2002; "I don't want to sound gay or anything, but I'd really like to have sex with you tonight.
I like postcards too."

--Choicecut, TYOOL 2016

vxsarin posted:

Do it.

I actually have a basically new Pentax IQZoon90WR that my mom got as a gift in the mid-90s. I don't even think it's had a roll of film through it. Most likely it's a piece of poo poo and I really have no idea where to begin with using it. I suppose I could read the manual.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 23:02

vxsarin: Oct 29, 2004; ASK ME ABOUT MY AP WIRE PHOTOS

Choicecut posted:

I actually have a basically new Pentax IQZoon90WR that my mom got as a gift in the mid-90s. I don't even think it's had a roll of film through it. Most likely it's a piece of poo poo and I really have no idea where to begin with using it. I suppose I could read the manual.

Insert film. Fire shutter.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 23:16

Helen Highwater: Feb 19, 2014; And furthermore; Grimey Drawer

Point reflective end at cat. Mash buttons.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 23:24

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

Film owns and dev is easy as gently caress, no need to trust your precious garbage photos to lab techs. Buy an MF camera, shoot film, don't post in the street thread. :whatup:

# ? Apr 26, 2016 23:26

Choicecut: Apr 24, 2002; "I don't want to sound gay or anything, but I'd really like to have sex with you tonight.
I like postcards too."

--Choicecut, TYOOL 2016

Helen Highwater posted:

Point reflective end at cat. Mash buttons.

I have a cat and can mash buttons.

# ? Apr 26, 2016 23:31

Pham Nuwen: Oct 30, 2010

big scary monsters posted:

Film owns and dev is easy as gently caress, no need to trust your precious garbage photos to lab techs. Buy an MF camera, shoot film, don't post in the street thread.

sage advice, every word of it :snoop:

# ? Apr 26, 2016 23:39

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

big scary monsters posted:

Film owns and dev is easy as gently caress, no need to trust your precious garbage photos to lab techs. Buy an MF camera, shoot film, don't post in the street thread.

Take boring minimalist landscapes and post in the MF thread :snoop:

# ? Apr 27, 2016 00:39

8th-snype: Aug 28, 2005; My office is in the front room of a run-down 12 megapixel sensor but the rent suits me and the landlord doesn't ask many questions.

Dorkroom Short Fiction Champion 2012; Young Orc

Fart Car '97 posted:

Talking about why your work is or isn't working for you is one thing. This kind of stuff :

(the black and white one is to me a very typical scene here; elderly Irish people, maybe reporting on the health of their acquaintances, maybe talking about their own issues, but all spoken in a quiet reverence to decorum.)

Is over compensating for a mediocre photo with flowery prose that everyone is just going to roll their eyes at.

Except the B&W one of old people is actually good? The other ones are a bit boring though. On the subject of titling photos, it's hard to do and not sound like a goddamn idiot. I tried it once and didn't like it so now I stick to "untitled" or just a dot on flickr.

# ? Apr 27, 2016 02:10

windex: Aug 2, 2006; One thing living in Japan does is cement the fact that ignoring the opinions of others is a perfectly valid life strategy.

Choicecut posted:

Hahaha..I keep thinking about trying film, but it seems like a pain in the rear end and apparently lab techs are dicks.

Repeating chant of do it.

big scary monsters posted:

Film owns and dev is easy as gently caress, no need to trust your precious garbage photos to lab techs. Buy an MF camera, shoot film, don't post in the street thread.

On the flip side I kind of feel like the chance of the lab loving up is part of the process. Zen of photography bullshit and all. The first roll of 135 I loaded into the new camera, I was super selective about shooting, and when I finished it and went to rewind it, I bumped the advance lever and the spool jammed, and I lost the roll because it did not occur to me to use a darkroom/bag to try to recover it. poo poo happens.

# ? Apr 27, 2016 03:51

Lily Catts: Oct 17, 2012; Show me the way to you
(Heavy Metal)

8th-snype posted:

On the subject of titling photos, it's hard to do and not sound like a goddamn idiot. I tried it once and didn't like it so now I stick to "untitled" or just a dot on flickr.

Yeah my titles are my least favorite part of my photos (but 500px likes titles). I should probably stop.

# ? Apr 27, 2016 03:56

Spedman: Mar 12, 2010; Kangaroos hate Hasselblads

8th-snype posted:

Except the B&W one of old people is actually good? The other ones are a bit boring though. On the subject of titling photos, it's hard to do and not sound like a goddamn idiot. I tried it once and didn't like it so now I stick to "untitled" or just a dot on flickr.

I just use the name of the location of where it was taken, like the suburb or city and leave it at that.

# ? Apr 27, 2016 04:13

HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

Yeah, mine are all just the name of whatever album I put them in.

ie. 99% of them are titled either Snapshots or Whistler2016

# ? Apr 27, 2016 04:21

Geektox: Aug 1, 2012; Good people don't rip other people's arms off.

Schneider Heim posted:

Yeah my titles are my least favorite part of my photos (but 500px likes titles). I should probably stop.

Are these your photos? You should stop putting those filters are them, they really don't look great, the reds in your colour photos are practically neon.

# ? Apr 27, 2016 09:24

Lily Catts: Oct 17, 2012; Show me the way to you
(Heavy Metal)

Geektox posted:

Are these your photos? You should stop putting those filters are them, they really don't look great, the reds in your colour photos are practically neon.

Yes, they are mine. Thanks for the feedback.

# ? Apr 27, 2016 10:09

Choicecut: Apr 24, 2002; "I don't want to sound gay or anything, but I'd really like to have sex with you tonight.
I like postcards too."

--Choicecut, TYOOL 2016

big scary monsters posted:

don't post in the street thread.

Not posting in street thread.

Waiting on John Doe by Eli Misel, on Flickr

Some lady with a bag. by Eli Misel, on Flickr

loving Blocked Again! by Eli Misel, on Flickr

Choicecut fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Apr 27, 2016

# ? Apr 27, 2016 23:27

Awkward Davies: Sep 3, 2009; Grimey Drawer

An offering to the poo poo thread. From when I was in Beijing about a month ago.

Truck dude

Beijing, China

Beijing, China
(x-posted from 35mm)

Awkward Davies fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jan 20, 2018

# ? Apr 29, 2016 03:46

8th-snype: Aug 28, 2005; My office is in the front room of a run-down 12 megapixel sensor but the rent suits me and the landlord doesn't ask many questions.

Dorkroom Short Fiction Champion 2012; Young Orc

Awkward Davies posted:

Beijing, China by spike mccue, on Flickr
(x-posted from 35mm)

This one's dope, the others are kinda meh.

# ? Apr 29, 2016 03:49

Spedman: Mar 12, 2010; Kangaroos hate Hasselblads

# ? Apr 30, 2016 03:55

Karl Barks: Jan 21, 1981

47mm crop mode on my ricoh gr. how the hell do people get close pictures of people in 28mm without getting pushed away? blowing my mind

Untitled by Sean Beck, on Flickr

# ? May 1, 2016 18:08

Magic Hate Ball: May 6, 2007; ha ha ha!
you've already paid for this

Karl Barks posted:

how the hell do people get close pictures of people in 28mm without getting pushed away?

Sociopathy.

# ? May 1, 2016 18:34

wedgie deliverer: Oct 2, 2010

Karl Barks posted:

47mm crop mode on my ricoh gr. how the hell do people get close pictures of people in 28mm without getting pushed away? blowing my mind

Untitled by Sean Beck, on Flickr

You can ask people.

"Hi, I'm real sorry to bother you, but I love your [hair/hat/makeup/whatever feature you are interested in]. Would you mind if I took a picture?"

# ? May 1, 2016 20:51

Karl Barks: Jan 21, 1981

hi liter posted:

You can ask people.

"Hi, I'm real sorry to bother you, but I love your [hair/hat/makeup/whatever feature you are interested in]. Would you mind if I took a picture?"

yeah, I'm cool doing that with my slr, but it seems stranger with the ricoh. I use it more for snap shooting.

# ? May 1, 2016 21:56

underage at the vape shop: May 11, 2011; by Cyrano4747

When i was in the city saturday night there was a dude using what drunk me thought was a ricoh. He literally waited until my group walked past and just hit the shutter. Still not sure if he was a street shooter or a perv but just do that I guess.

# ? May 2, 2016 10:41

elgarbo: Mar 26, 2013

A Saucy Bratwurst posted:

street shooter or a perv

Pretty sure these are synonymous.

# ? May 2, 2016 13:38

big scary monsters: Sep 2, 2011; -~Ｓｋｕｌｌｗａｖｅ~-

elgarbo posted:

Pretty sure these are synonymous.

I dunno, you can be a pervert and still have good taste.

Milan

# ? May 2, 2016 18:17

Fart Car '97: Jul 23, 2003

It's a perfectly normal thing to stand in a spot and take pics of people that walk by tho??

# ? May 2, 2016 19:20

Karl Barks: Jan 21, 1981

Fart Car '97 posted:

It's a perfectly normal thing to stand in a spot and take pics of people that walk by tho??

perfectly normal?

# ? May 2, 2016 19:31

Fart Car '97: Jul 23, 2003

100%

# ? May 2, 2016 19:33

Thoogsby: Nov 18, 2006; Very strong. Everyone likes me.

Karl Barks posted:

47mm crop mode on my ricoh gr. how the hell do people get close pictures of people in 28mm without getting pushed away? blowing my mind

Untitled by Sean Beck, on Flickr

did you shoot this from inside tasty burger?

# ? May 2, 2016 19:57

Karl Barks: Jan 21, 1981

Thoogsby posted:

did you shoot this from inside tasty burger?

hahaha, yes. you can see my reflection in the left side of that picture. I sit at the window bar and shoot pictures sometimes.

# ? May 2, 2016 20:23

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# ? Jun 4, 2024 02:07

HookShot: Dec 26, 2005

When did the thread title get changed? Because the new one is amazing.

# ? May 2, 2016 22:40

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Creative Convention > The Dorkroom > Street Thread: "My desires are... unconventional. My photos are... unacceptable."

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