Digital BW, The Print

I believe that Steve Kale did indeed understand the post, and I agree 
with him.  You are certainly correct that all mechanics are not 
photographers .  . .   but all photographers must be mechanics in some 
fashion.  I've photographed and processed -- both wet and digital -- 
for over fifty years.  I can't recall any form of photography that 
didn't require a fair amount of technical knowhow.  How much depends on 
each individual's choices.  As with anything else, at some point an 
extra investment (either time or money) in technique yields 
increasingly small improvement in result.  The wasted time and energy 
beyond this point is unfortunate . . . you can call it anal 
retentiveness if that's your choice of concepts.  But at the other end, 
all of us have seen in our own work and that of others well-conceived 
ideas that we didn't have the ability to execute.

Turn it around -- eliminating all the technical stuff (think 
point-and-shoot, program mode, etc) is possible, yet how many of us 
rely on it exclusively?

Mitch

On Feb 10, 2008, at 6:32 PM, Robert W Shearer wrote:

> Sorry you were not able to understand the post. You are confusing the
> ability to use the equipment with tech anal retentiveness. An artist 
> knows
> how to use his brush but he does not spend hours and days agonizing 
> over the
> best wood for the handle, a writer uses his computer but he does not 
> lose
> himself in the process of which the computer uses to put his words on 
> the
> screen nor do the great musicians of the world lose much sleep over the
> electronic process which amplifies their voice. The only daydream here 
> is
> that which would believe that mechanics are artists.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of 
> Steve
> Kale
> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 5:46 PM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] Re: Epson Exhibition Fiber - A Review
>
> Nonsense.  If don't know how to use your camera you can't take a
> picture.  Just as a painter must know how to handle a brush in order
> to capture on canvas the image in his/her mind's eye, a photographer
> needs to know how to handle the tools of his trade. Else you can
> daydream all you want but not be able to share that creativity in a
> photo.  Now of course, technical ability doesn't make you an artist.
> But it's hard to practice without both creative and technical
> skills.  Explore both.
>
>
> On 10 Feb 2008, at 20:18, Robert W Shearer wrote:
>
>> Nah, photography is about a lot of things but the least is
>> technology. The
>> ability to see an image in the mind where no one else has, the
>> instinct to
>> be somewhere, the presence of mind to capture that image while
>> everyone else
>> is standing around with their mouths wide open, the pure instinct to
>> understand the story that you can tell if you capture the image.
>> That is
>> photography. Just as CEO's hire mathematicians but don't do the math,
>> generals have soldiers but don't do the fighting. That is the
>> technical
>> aspect of photography. You can be a great photographer without ever
>> being a
>> technician but you will never be a great photographer no matter how
>> great a
>> technician you are in the darkroom or with an inkjet printer. Ansel
>> Adams
>> was first a great photographer who took Fred Archer's idea and
>> applied art
>> to technology. When was the last time you said, oh look! There is a
>> picture
>> by Fred Archer.
>>
>> _____
>>
>> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
>> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
>> Nemo
>> Niemann
>> Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 1:58 PM
>> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: [Digital BW] Re: Epson Exhibition Fiber - A Review
>>
>> Photography has always been about the technical. In my mind, it's the
>> melding of the technical and the aesthetic/art. In my wet darkroom
>> days, I had a a chart of a myriad of film/developer combinations, all
>> of which gave me a different look/feel to the negative. In a way, the
>> Zone System is the penultimate techie form of "analog" photography.
>>
>> If anything, digital has made taking photos easier for the layman --
>> just ask all those Art Directors turned Photographers I compete with
>> these days, because they think "anyone" can take photos, if they have
>> "the eye". Don't get me wrong; the equipment doesn't make the
>> photographer, per se, but it's an extension of the eye. Photography
>> has always been about the technical, we just never called it that,
>> because computers weren't involved.
>>
>> --- In DigitalBlackandWhit
>> <mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint%40yahoogroups.com>
>> eThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Robert W
>> Shearer" <rwshearer@...> wrote:
>>>
>>> The one real "negative" if you will pardon the pun with the digital
>> age is
>>> that far to often, it becomes more about the technology and less
>> about the
>>> image.
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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> LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, 
> CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, 
> DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE 
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> RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, 
> THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF 
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