a commonplace photograph

No amount of toying with shades of print or with printing papers will transform a commonplace photograph into anything other than a commonplace photograph.

​
Bill Brandt

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Self Portraits

 "All photographs are self-portraits"

- Minor White

To see something ordinary

" To see something ordinary, something you’d see every day, and recognize it as a photographic possibility – that’s what I’m interested in."

Stephen Shore

Photo is mine, not Stephen Shore...

Photographic possibilites

"To see something spectacular and recognize it as a photographic possibility is not making a very big leap. But to see something ordinary, something you’d see every day, and recognize it as a photographic possibility - that is what I am interested in."

- Stephen Shore

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I wasn't familiar with Stephen Shore until relatively recently, but I've had a couple of people tell me that my photos are Shore-esque.  And while I don't really like to think of my photos along with "real" photographers, I can see the point.  I'd say I was influenced, if I'd've known about him before...  The photo below (mine!) is an example:

A crystallization of experience...

 

"Every photograph is a crystallization of experience - of real value to the maker and potential value to the spectator"

- Ansel Adams

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Note:  the photo above is mine, but not intended to equate me with Ansel Adams in any manner.  

Some People Walk In The Rain, Others Just Get Wet

 We had a pretty solid, soaking rain the other day, and I noticed this Red Shouldered Hawk, hanging out on the back fence.  I managed several photos, and hit paydirt when it turned its head with a water drop at the end of its beak.  I'm quite pleased with how this turned out:

Meanwhile, one of my photo sites does a challenge that involves putting a quote with a photo, and this fit the bill.  So here's the version with quote:  "Some People Walk In The Rain, Others Just Get Wet_ - Roger Miller

I See Myself

 

“When I look at my work, I see myself” 

- Sam Abell

Quote from a video...

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This is my photo, of course.  I'm no Sam Abell.  

Being Ignored is a great privilege...

 "Being Ignored is a great privilege...

That is how I think I learned to see what others do not see."

 - Saul Leitner

This is the closest I have to his style in my recent photos, but not very close at all...  I'll need to study and try.

To see something ordinary

 "To see something spectacular and recognize it as a photographic possibility is not making a very big leap. But to see something ordinary—something you’d see every day—and recognize it as a photographic possibility, that is what I’m interested in."

- Stephen Shore

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One of mine:

You need to just chill out

 The worst thing you can do with creativity, worst thing you can do with trying to be original, is to force it.  You need to just chill out.

- Alex Kilbe

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"The ability to make a truly artistic photograph is not acquired off-hand, but is the result of an artistic instinct coupled with years of labor."

- Alfred Stieglitz

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No one else knows

"You're the only one who knows what it was 'supposed' to look like. No one else knows that this wasn't the plan."

- unknown

Note:  This was posted on a photo site I frequent, credited to "a friend" of the original poster.

to see things new

 I am not interested in shooting new things - I am interested to see things new.

 - Ernst Haas

Bearing Witness

"Photography has been my way of bearing witness to the joy I find in seeing the extraordinary in ordinary.”

-  Harold Feinstein

Better Or Worse

 “I never have taken a picture I’ve intended. They’re always better or worse.”

–  Diane Arbus

Imposter Syndrome

 "The Fundamental Thing About My Personality Is That I Think I'm An Imposter"

-Sally Mann

An Illusion Of Reality

 "Photography, as we all know, is not real at all.  It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world."  

- Arnold Newman

The Cliche

 

"The cliche comes not in what you shoot but in how you shoot it" 

 -   David duChemin

A Way Of Feeling...

"Photography is a way of feeling, , of touching, of loving.  What you have caught on film is captured forever...  it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything." - Aaron Siskind

The best camera is the one you have with you?

 There's a saying I have repeated often:  "The best camera is the one you have with you".  And I do believe that, with a caveat.  Point being, I (almost) always have my cell phone with me, so that camera is (almost) always with me.  I can't carry my "real" cameras everywhere, much less my various lenses.

BUT, that does not, by any stretch, mean that the phone camera is the best camera for any task.  There are photos that I can take with my 400mm zoom that my phone camera can't come close to matching.  Most notably, my bird photos...

Here's a baker's-half-dozen of bird photos taken December 2024.  All with the big-zoom.  

That said, a high percentage of my favorite shots, overall, are taken w/ my phone.  9 of the past 10 photos on my Instagram (as of today) are phone photos.

  Dark Eyed Junco

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Red Breasted Woodpecker

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Northern Cardinal

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White Throated Sparrow

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House Finch

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House Sparrow

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Northern Flicker

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