So many photographers are perfectionists.

I have come to the conclusion that I am not a perfectionist, but rather  a "good-enough-ist".

I don't have the best cameras, lenses, and photo processing software, but if the results are

what I am aiming for, I believe that's good enough. 

My composition and lighting techniques are not always by the book, but they work.

I may not create perfect photographs, but they are absolutely the best I can do, so

for me they are good enough!

"Tools and technique ought to be an extension of consciousness, but they can just as easily be a protection from consciousness.)"

-Rollo May

There is a need to be careful not to allow the creative forces get lost in the technical adjustments in making a photograph.  Is technique more important than vision?

I'm thinking that this is another way of looking at the left brain/right brain issue.

I have been reading a fascinating book titled Group f.64 by Mary Street Alinder.  I was particularly interested in chapter 9, The Enemy Mortensen.

Ansel Adams is well known and remembered; William Mortensen, not so much.  In the 1930's Mortensen was a very active portraitist in the pictorialist movement, while Adams along with Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham and others formed the f.64 group which emphasized realistic photographic scenes with great attention to detail.  

Adams scorned the manipulated images of pictorialism, while Mortensen disparaged Adams' realistic scenes as documents lacking artistic expression.  Both artists produced carefully crafted work, but were philosophically miles apart. The different styles led to a very personal dislike.

It seems to me there are parallels with debates today regarding the use of digital post-processing, falsified and manipulated details versus small adjustments in contrast and color.

Both Mortensen and Adams consider their respective work as fine art, bu they have different definitions of what fine art is.

And so the debate continues!

It has been suggested as an artist/photographer to "find your style and stick with it".  I've also been told to diversify, and not get in a rut.  I'm trying to sort out these two philosophies.  Are they conflicting, or are they referring to different thought processes?  

I resolve this contradiction by photographing a wide variety of subjects within the category of nature/landscapes. In my mind I am sticking to my style this way, but I can create a wide range of images.

 

Most of the process of photography is failure.  If it were possible, I would go out and take the greatest photo of all time, wit one shot, and come home with a successful career! It doesn't work that way.

But if I can get one really good photograph out of a hundred, that makes it all worthwhile.

Recently I have undertaken the project of sorting and editing thousands of slides taken by my mother, mostly during the 70's and 80's in her travels with Dad after their retirement.  So many of these pictures were pure documentary, without any formal photography training. She could just appreciate and record a scene with a natural eye for beauty.

I am viewing most of these images for the first time, and I'm realizing this is a huge project that wont't be done quickly, and I am just plugging away and enjoying the process.  I have come to the realization that Mother has influenced my own photography more than I knew(beyond being an amazing parent!).  

"When you buy from an independent artist you are buying hundreds of hours of experimentation and thousands of failures.  You are buying days, weeks, months, years of frustration and moments of pure joy.  You are buying nights of worry about paying the rent, having enough money to eat, having enough money to feed the children, the birds, the dog.  You aren't just buying a thing, you are buying a piece of heart, part of a soul, a private moment in someone's life.  Most importantly, you are buying that artist more time to do something they are truly passionate about; something that makes all of the above worth the fear and the doubt; something that puts the life into the living."

Rebekah Joy Plett

"When you buy from an independent artist you are buying more than just a painting or a novel or a song.  You are buying hundreds of hours of experimentation and thousands of failures.  You are buying days, weeks, months, years of frustration and moments of pure joy.  You are buying nights of worry about paying the rent, having enough money to eat, having enough money to feed the children, the birds, the dog.  You aren't just buying a thing, you are buying a piece of heart, part of a soul, a private moment in someone's life.  Most importantly, you are buying that artist more time to do something they are truly passionate about; something that makes all of the above worth the fear and the doubt; something that puts the life into the living."

Rebekah Joy Plett

Photography has been a hobby for as long as I can remember.  I am self-taught and consider myself an amateur in the sense that it has always been a passion of mine.

My work is landscape/scenic photography, some of which I consider fine art.  In my mind the best way to view an image is the print.  I do use photoshop processing, bu I try to keep realistic style as a basic element.

I wan to put out a product that will catch the viewer's eye and communicate in an original way.