Comments on: Winter Project – Trees http://photo.rwboyer.com/2010/01/23/winter-project-trees/ All Things Photography Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:30:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: RB http://photo.rwboyer.com/2010/01/23/winter-project-trees/comment-page-1/#comment-9816 RB Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:30:55 +0000 http://photo.rwboyer.com/?p=1553#comment-9816 Ps. 80mm Zeiss - red filter. The temp was bone chilling (for me). TMX 100 in Pyrocat HD 1+1+100 for 12mins at 75 F. The prints are gorgeous. With an amazing sense of infinite detail that goes on forever. That is frozen river - not surf. RB Ps.

80mm Zeiss – red filter. The temp was bone chilling (for me). TMX 100 in Pyrocat HD 1+1+100 for 12mins at 75 F. The prints are gorgeous. With an amazing sense of infinite detail that goes on forever.

That is frozen river – not surf.

RB

]]> By: RB http://photo.rwboyer.com/2010/01/23/winter-project-trees/comment-page-1/#comment-9815 RB Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:26:49 +0000 http://photo.rwboyer.com/?p=1553#comment-9815 Michael, Thanks - I think everyone has issues with personal projects - most of my personal projects are not "done" because I keep re-inventing them from scratch. Plus my ambitious borders on the undoable. This one is actually making the winter go faster - at least psychologically. Plus - trees are the most difficult subject for me - by a large stretch. It keeps me somewhat challenged. I have made 30 exposures this winter - two have make the cut - you see 50% of my work so far. Well at least the result of my work so far. RB Michael,

Thanks – I think everyone has issues with personal projects – most of my personal projects are not “done” because I keep re-inventing them from scratch. Plus my ambitious borders on the undoable. This one is actually making the winter go faster – at least psychologically.

Plus – trees are the most difficult subject for me – by a large stretch. It keeps me somewhat challenged. I have made 30 exposures this winter – two have make the cut – you see 50% of my work so far. Well at least the result of my work so far.

RB

]]> By: Michael http://photo.rwboyer.com/2010/01/23/winter-project-trees/comment-page-1/#comment-9814 Michael Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:19:40 +0000 http://photo.rwboyer.com/?p=1553#comment-9814 I think this is seriously good advice. Projects are great, but as you correctly point out most folks are way too ambitious, so they end up not being completed. Many people advise aspiring photographers to get a "project", what you suggest is much better. It's a "No weasel room project" NWRP. 10 Prints (not 10 pictures) ,of Trees in Winter, Portrayed in a similar way, Before the leaves pop out. NWRP #1 (leaves pop early on the Maryland shore) One of the reasons professional photographers get better is that their life is a series of NWRP's. If they want to survive, they must produce, credible results, of an assigned subject, on a deadline. When the deadline comes you MUST deliver. An Asprin Bottle, a pair of shoes, a football game, or a portrait of a movie star, when the deadline comes, you have to let them go. This "forced letting go" is very difficult to learn.(I'm a serious backsilder here) Your name is on it, and you can't change it. It goes out into the world to represent "Your best work" Most GOOD photographers are hardest on their own work, (the hacks are hardest on other peoples work) Good Photographers always want and believe they can do better, so the tendency is to hold onto it, not put it out there. Sadly we are almost always right about that, most of our work COULD be better. The paradox of art is that if we don't let it go, we don't get Better. You hit this squarely on the head when you say "I want to make 10 images that I like - not that are my vision of perfect" You deserve credit for this. It is a great gift in a simple package. I call it "Waiting for the Perfect that never happens." It's up there with Fred Picker's "Assume you are standing in the Wrong place." His admonition to move, spend time, look at relationships & juxtapositions. It is one of those simple pieces of advice, that if heeded, makes you better. Not glamerous (like a new lens) just foolproof. For me, one of my projects has been the seashore or ocean in winter, which because of a personal situation I can't pursue this year. I don't like the cold either, but have noticed a natural reciprocity, the more times I've been willing to check out sunrise @ 10 degrees F, or sunset at 20, or the beach in the rain, the more keepers I get. It's been an ongoing project for me. I think that the "ongoing" is a mistake. Maybe Chapters would be better. This idea of putting a limit on time & quantity is a very good one. Thanks Can't wait to see NWRP #1 I think this is seriously good advice.
Projects are great, but as you correctly point out most folks are way too ambitious, so they end up not being completed.
Many people advise aspiring photographers to get a “project”, what you suggest is much better. It’s a “No weasel room project” NWRP. 10 Prints (not 10 pictures) ,of Trees in Winter, Portrayed in a similar way, Before the leaves pop out.
NWRP #1 (leaves pop early on the Maryland shore)
One of the reasons professional photographers get better is that their life is a series of NWRP’s. If they want to survive, they must produce, credible results, of an assigned subject, on a deadline. When the deadline comes you MUST deliver.
An Asprin Bottle, a pair of shoes, a football game, or a portrait of a movie star, when the deadline comes, you have to let them go.
This “forced letting go” is very difficult to learn.(I’m a serious backsilder here) Your name is on it, and you can’t change it. It goes out into the world to represent “Your best work”
Most GOOD photographers are hardest on their own work, (the hacks are hardest on other peoples work)
Good Photographers always want and believe they can do better, so the tendency is to hold onto it, not put it out there.
Sadly we are almost always right about that, most of our work COULD be better.
The paradox of art is that if we don’t let it go, we don’t get Better.
You hit this squarely on the head when you say “I want to make 10 images that I like – not that are my vision of perfect”
You deserve credit for this. It is a great gift in a simple package.
I call it “Waiting for the Perfect that never happens.”
It’s up there with Fred Picker’s “Assume you are standing in the Wrong place.” His admonition to move, spend time, look at relationships & juxtapositions.
It is one of those simple pieces of advice, that if heeded, makes you better.
Not glamerous (like a new lens) just foolproof.
For me, one of my projects has been the seashore or ocean in winter, which because of a personal situation I can’t pursue this year. I don’t like the cold either, but have noticed a natural reciprocity, the more times I’ve been willing to check out sunrise @ 10 degrees F, or sunset at 20, or the beach in the rain, the more keepers I get. It’s been an ongoing project for me. I think that the “ongoing” is a mistake. Maybe Chapters would be better.
This idea of putting a limit on time & quantity is a very good one.
Thanks
Can’t wait to see NWRP #1

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