“Photography is not a ‘difficult’ medium. All photographs are, by definition, ‘easy’ to make—you just push a button. The value of the medium lies in the photographer’s calling a moment in time to our attention—a moment we might otherwise have missed—and saying ‘this is important.’ It takes something simple and fleeting and turns it into something emblematic.” – William Eggleston
I’m not that much of an Eggleston fan, but this is so true. The moment, the place, the perspective is the important part. I get a lot of people that say to me “nice camera” (which is true) but 99% of the goodness is from knowing what and when is important. I used to go to rather incredible (even to me, now) lengths to get the pictures I thought were important, and, by and large, I did. Then digital came along and made the technical part of it all much simpler. It looks great on the back of the camera. I guess people can’t see the years of sweat and blood and adventures and wild things that led to it. All the barely surviving (literally near death many times), the relentless pursuit of it, the late nights, the early mornings, and the hundreds of thousands of pictures I’ve taken that have honed my photographic skills to be what they are. “Nice camera.” Yeah.
There was a point to this, but I’ve forgotten. Have a nice day. There should be some photos soon.
