I'm pretty much through reading other blogs on the web. Maybe you're ready to throw in the towel on blogs as well. Even this one. I think, pretty much, we've all gotten to the point where we've sucked out all the knowledge there is to squeeze out of topics like photography and cameras and we're just sticking around for the camaraderie and the occasional blog post about a camera we were smart enough to buy. And, if the later is the case we're mostly just looking for an approval of our choices. It's either that or we go to our usual blogs just out of habit. Something to read over coffee. Maybe a break from political fights streaming everywhere.
The problem is that nearly every blog is someone's opinion. Generally an opinion formed in vacuum of facts. "Everyone is doing this....." "Nobody is doing this..." "This niche is dead...." "Don't eat this or you'll die!" "Eat this now or you'll die!!!" "Sony cameras are the best." "Leica cameras are the best." "Nikon cameras are the best." Or, my favorite: "All the cameras are crap now and we should all go back to shooting film." And it's the same on other kinds of channels. Camping blogs. Car blogs. Etc. In fact I'm waiting to see "retro" on those other channels. A return to tried and true canvas tents. A renaissance of carburetors in long luxury cars. Along with more V-8s.
Many photo blogs "spill a lot of ink" begging for money and fostering the presumption that all photographers are impoverished and living on the edge. Again, my point of view is quite different. A lot of working photographers I knew retired wealthy. I guess it all depends on where your focus lies. And who you hang out with. Some of us think prints and the printing of photographs is dead. Others cling to the idea that prints are some sort of "gold standard."
One of our favorite long time photo bloggers just announced that he can't give portraits away for free and is toying with the idea of paying people to come by and have portraits made mostly so he can control the process. My point of view is exactly opposite; people pay me to make portraits and portraits still seem to be in demand. People ask for what they see and like. Show work to get work. Show art to get collaborators. Two points of view exactly opposed. Maybe it depends on where you live. Or how you market. Or some other disconnection.... Blame it on the overall market? Blame it on a trend? At one point do we conjecture that some people are just bad at doing the business end of the art game and that being able to sell a concept is a secret to success? More people who might want to collaborate... if they are exposed in advance to the kinds of work you want to make...
Peter McKinnon (very famous YouTube photo influencer with 5 million+ followers) buys two Leica models, loves them and spends half a video stating that he doesn't understand them, doesn't know how they work, hates the lens cap and thinks they are too expensive. And ends by, again, telling us how much he loves them...
Diet books are back. An endless cycle. Will a new appreciation of pickle ball be far behind?
Maybe I'm just in a funk after a long week of actually making a living by photographing mostly people, for a large ad agency, for the money, but I'm thinking we're all just tired of hearing anything more about photography. Really tired. Hence we have the once exclusively writers about photography grasping for new topics and trying hard to hang on to audiences in spite of the topics going off the rails.
I think we've all finally gotten the message: All cameras are good enough. All lenses are good enough. All post processing software is good enough. The new smart phones are good enough. The new tripods are all good enough. Everything is too expensive now. Only dentists use Leicas. Everything we learned in the film days is as useful as a book of matches in a hurricane now. Photographers are no longer envied. Inflation is uncomfortable. Film is too expensive. "I hope my spouse doesn't find out about my new: Lens, Camera, Flash, Ferrari!!!" (might be a good idea to stop lying to your partner about joint finances).
I think we're all tired of street photography. I know I'm just exhausted at the prospect of having to look at yet another portfolio of "dramatic" black and white landscape prints/images. I'm tired nearly to death of images of half naked women trying to look "sexy" on share sites. About the only thing I still find interesting on the web is videos about rescued dogs. And that's quickly getting endlessly self-referential.
How to reconcile all this with my trip to an art gallery today where the average price of contemporary paintings seemed locked in at an average of about $75,000. Somebody is buying art or big galleries wouldn't exist. Just because you and I are not splashing out $125,000 for a Banksy print doesn't mean that someone else isn't. It's all so wildly dis-associative.
If we're all too poor to buy new cameras and lenses (as some contend) how then to explain the fact that cars costing over $100K are so in demand that there are waiting lists for them --- but not for middle class cars? If the Leica Q3 is so outrageously overpriced then why are the waiting lists at dealers around the world pegged at 18 months to 2 years? Somebody is buying them.
No, I think mostly we age out of hobbies and habits. I've spent a lot of time typing about things I know but I don't think there is anything else in the tank. I like posting stuff because I also like to look at the slides shows of the work. But blogs, videos and podcasts about photography only remind me that we got nearly everything we needed to get figured out figured out years ago. Now we're just like people at church singing the same hymn every Sunday and sinning all week long. We want photography to go back to being cool and interesting. Maybe it will --- at least for people who haven't drained the entire subject into our brains and soaked in it for decades. Hard to know.
Today was our first day under 100°. I walked through downtown. I noticed a big increase in private security services. I notice things looked cleaner; more locked down. I guess we're gearing up for ACL Fest or something. An inpouring of tourists again. Dear God, I just hope it's not another bout of Formula One. I can't bear to hear that F1 really is a "sport" because the drivers lose 7 pounds of sweat during the race. So do people who sit for too long in saunas... Ah well.
Leica SL2 camera. Voigtlander 50mm APO Lanthar lens. Timberland boots. All good.
The beginning of the end of a city's coolness corresponds with the arrival of double decker tour busses.
At least they are not riding on the sidewalks....
Red.
More red.
10 comments:
"Same as it ever was" haven't we all been kr*zy since the Endless September days of Usenet and before that ... :-) ?!?
"endless september usenet" is your google search friend :-)
To win at the highest levels of motorsport you have to be in very good shape, takes a lot of training. I used to be an F1 fan, but it has gone Hollywood, just another TV show now.
Well, I am tired of the Web, Trump, climate change, Roundup, earthquakes, terrorists, Tesla, Consumer Reports, staff writers and columnists of WSJ, anyone being "serious" about photography, horse crap pretending to be art, people with loudly voiced opinions and other assholes, MSNBC and FOX, plastics, HFCS, traffic, sarcopenia, corns, McDonalds, and ...........
I am NOT tired of the writing in the VSL blog or the TOP blog.
Also: sunrises, sunsets, my kids and grand-kids, breathing clean air, the ocean, the variety of trees around my house, the nearby county parkland with its large lakes, warm clothes, cool clothes, dry clothes, changes of seasons, well maintained streets, waking up in the morning, my wife's singing, Polish food, live concerts, friendly people, good coffee, ... ∞
1) The youtubes that I was surprised by are all the “reaction” ones, say to a song. Stopping it and giving an opinion or a nod or whatever then playing and stopping and commenting. Well, ok. Someone cares, somewhere.
2) The pet rescue videos, especially abused dog ones, seeing recovery. I am a sucker for those, having a rescued dog, an escapee from a puppy mill. Sweetest and friendliest dog ever.
3) It is noteworthy that the new pickup with perhaps highest demand, with a waiting list and a long wait at that, is in fact the cheapest. Ford Maverick. Cheap as a Civic.
4) Photography-wise, HHHR is new to me and being a methodical sort often photographing still objects, I am beginning to use it a lot. A noticeable step-up in the image, even using vintage lenses that supposedly cannot resolve the higher megapixels.
5) Now to try more in-camera stacking for product/macro shots. New processors are the science fiction level.
6) Always interested in new gear, potentially the new Panasonic to be announced the 12th???
You photograph for a living. Mike writes for a living. I think that explains your differences when it comes to making portraits.
Hi John, I kinda think I might be a writer as well. After all, if we're keeping track Amherst Media published five of my books which have sold over 250,000 copies. Not earth shattering but it is a track record. And there were and are royalty checks attached to each project. And a novel. And two ghost written books about marketing. And 5,600 blog posts. I think that means I make some of my living as a published writer.
But yeah. I do a lot of portraits. Not just for money but also for fun and for artistic fulfillment.
I'm not sure I got your point...exactly.
We were talking about taking portraits, right?
https://www.instagram.com/dgphotoholic/
The master of approaching strangers and getting them to collaborate on making portraits. Amazing.
Hmmm. I count eight books by Kirk. Still waiting for MJ to finish one. Who is actually the writer John?
R.A.
Is a late blooming father ( 62-year-old with a 14 year old kid ) my initial reaction is sometimes to scoff at what they feel is cool and exciting. Until I remember that was the kind of stuff I thought was cool and exciting when I was 14.
All of what you say is true to some extent (been there done that) right now, somewhere, someone, probably younger, but maybe middle-aged, is experiencing a new reaction to a photograph or a video or some other experience. And then starts to explore, say, photography for the first time. It's all new to them. That's the thing I remember when I start getting jaded/cynical about things.
As far as this blog, I love it, I love all of the tangents you go off on, and some of the truly thoughtful and wonderful responses you get in the comment section. I also love your grumpy posts too :-)
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