the heel press

A double exposure of the St Johns Bridge, taken with my Holga camera as I rode across the bridge, no I wasn't driving.  The fun thing about double exposures, holga, and windshield shooting is that with any of them you never quite know what you are going to get.  Combine all three of them together and the results are even more unpredictable.  It is this unpredictability that I am particularly drawn to.  This is a vision not even my imagination would have created, yet my $25 dollar plastic camera did.  Amazing. 

This particular photo by the way is dedicated to a good friend, with whom I recently had a discussion with about subpar photography.  They are a big fan of this bridge so hopefully they like this shot too.  But these sort of discussions can drive me a bit mad at times.  Especially considering I hold their photography in very high esteem.  They have a wonderful vision of this world, and a true passion for seeking out and capturing the magic of it.  Seeing someone of such ability fail to realize in their own work their ability for causing the rest of us marvel is a travesty.  Our photography is what we make of it, nothing more and nothing less.   It truly troubles me to see someone whose photography could be something more, make it something less.

Photography is such an incredibly subject business.  You take a soulless metal and glass device that has no opinion, thoughts or feelings...in other words, bias, and you use it to capture something as unique and undefinable as one's own vision.  There is no way to be able to quantify this.  It is what we believe it to be.  I do not like to think of good pictures or bad pictures.  To me, a slightly out of focus shot of some 40 year old man from the 1950's may be boring (it often isn't) but to that man's granddaughter who is seeing it 50 years later, it is priceless.  Maybe this shot of the bridge, which I find intriguing and mysterious, might bore or confuse another.  How can one possibly label a photo as being necessarily a "good" shot or a "bad" shot, or a "subpar" shot for that matter then?  You show it to ten people and you will likely get ten different responses.  Majority opinion then?  Surely not.  Because majority opinion would often be unimpressed with all your personal family photos, yet we still love to display them at home.

Each photographer shoots at least partially themselves, even if the photograph is meant for some other audience.  It is their vision they are recording, their craftsmanship being put to the test.  Ultimately I believe the person's opinion who matters the most when it comes to your photography is your own.  And yes, I agree, the opinions of others, especially the nice and constructive ones, certainly make an impact too.  I guess what all this long-winded rambling was about, was me just trying to say, don't do yourself that injustice by failing to see what you are capable of when you pick up a camera.  Do not fail to believe in yourself, for to do so is to limit yourself, to handicap your ability to see.  One does not have to be an arrogant snob about it either, instead of thinking good or bad, think potential, think vision, think possibility.  I am always a little sad when I see such great photographers producing great photography, which everybody else enjoys except for themselves.  Alright then, off of my soapbox.  Hope you made it this far, now get away from that comp and go take some photos.  ;-)