The Joys of a Photographer.....

Sometimes people tell me, "Wow what a fun just it must be SO easy to do what you are doing"  I wish that were the case, but it's far from reality.  On a normal event I may take 300 to 500 photographs, out of that I may only use about 100 of those and at times that's pushing it.  The reason is, the lighting may have been off, the people moved, a drunk bumps into me or all of a sudden the smoke machine is cranked up to full force.  Other times the people you photograph just don't like the first photo you take and want you to retake it, but then tell you they liked the other one better.  

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE what I do and have met some of the most AMAZING people in the process.  Some of which have become good friends.  So at times it may not be as fun, but the good definitely outweighs the bad!

Here are some photo's from my most recent photo gigs.

2011 Gayborhood Games

Wednesday's iCandy Strip 

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2011 Philadelphia Naked Bike Race

What is Photgraphy?

However any definition of fine art photography is merely to serve as a loose working notion of what might differentiate certain photography as art.

From its very origins, photography has contained an unresolved tension between the mechanical, scientific tool of the camera and the natural desire to use it for the creation of beautiful images.

Essentially, the term fine art photography is used to refer work created with such a desire in mind, to articulate an impression, a feeling about, or relationship with the world.

Galleries and museums, particularly those dedicated to modern art, have done much over the decades to ensure photography's spot amongst the other arts. But quite when, how and why it can be confidently categorised in this way remains an open, if fairly pointless, question.


I really don't think it's worth getting too exercised over the attempt to deliniate a mark between different categories of photography, and arrive at a fixed definition of fine art photography.


Is Photography Art?


Often people confuse what is the craft of photography with its artistic value. I have read many articles proposing that where a photographer is closely involved in the process of actually creating a physical image, leaving their mark at each stage - from selecting the exposure to adjusting tones in the darkroom - they can be more readily called an artist. The assumption being the more visible the photographer's hand, the less an image's value is attributable to a mechanical device.

But this seems to be fighting an uphill battle. You might as well paint over the photograph once it's developed or printed just to preserve its artistic integrity beyond any doubt! It's a view that led Pablo Picasso to remark:  

"Two of the most frustrated trades are dentists and photographers - dentists because they want to be doctors, and photographers because they want to be painters"