Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Picture Hunting

Quite honestly, I am terrified by the technical aspect of taking pictures. Unlike drawing or painting or sculpting, photography requires a knowledge of the camera that I must learn to work up to and a patience to capture the rare moments of art within life. Most art forms are born completely by the artist's skill and imagination, but journalistic photography is also dependent on the subject.

Even though I feel a little over my head, looking at the work of accomplished photographers like David Snider has been very inspiring. For the first time, I am looking at photos from many different perspectives: figuring out whether the photo is a portrait or a scene setter, analyzing the use of light, and looking at the angle the photo was taken. And then there are more subjective ways of looking.Why did the photographer choose to take this picture? What does it say about its subject? What does it make the viewer think and feel?

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