@ennuipoet
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ennuipoet
ParticipantI read somewhere a quip that Instagram was the Autotune of photography.
I’d like credit for that, bud… 😆
That was you! I couldn’t remember who or where, I just knew that it was brilliant.
ParticipantBut the problem is that art is tied to technology. We’re at the point it’s inseparable. I mean, you’re shooting with digital and processing on a computer aren’t you?
Inseparable? No. Bloody convenient? Yes. I am not railing against the technology, but the substitution of technology for talent. I read somewhere a quip that Instagram was the Autotune of photography. No one needs it, yet it crops up in more and more places. At some point in time we stop utilizing the technology and become dependent on it.
Could I stop using digital entirely, revert to a wholly analog photography? Sure, it would take time and money, space that I don’t have but I could do it in just a few short weeks. Hell, I would probably enjoy it more than I do digital. Medium is NOT content, and that is error of the Instagram shippers! The content is shit, but the medium is so cool the content doesn’t matter. To be honest, this proves valid for 98% of EVERYTHING on the Internet.
I agree, Instagram will fade into well deserved obscurity in a short while, to that Special Hell reserved for child molesters and people who talk in theaters. Yet the culture that spawned it continues to inflate, and will not go away until someone stands up, holds a mirror to a nation of naked people and points out their nudity.
Please note, I am not saying I am in some way exceptional or my work is deserving of more merit because I feel this way. I have ten thousand times more to learn about photography, art in general, that I currently know. All I am saying is I know this, strive to change it, and accept my place in it. 😀
ParticipantKes, it’s NOT an art movement, it’s a technological one. The human lifts a device, presses and button and calls it art. There is no actual effort, no skill, no eye, no vision in 99% of what passes for photography on Instagram. Yes, there are people doing amazing things with the technology, creating compelling images and sharing them with the world, but they are swallowed in a deluge of mediocrity veneered with computer generated faux filters and then spewed out with the heading of “art”. The example you note of Peter From, he is using technology to enhance his native abilities, not simply passing a filter over the top and image and proclaiming it a masterpiece. Even Warhol and Pollock had to have an understanding of the fundamentals before they could break all the rules, nothing in Instagram teaches the fundamentals of composition, color balance and exposure, no one is learning how to do it, they are just doing it.
I don’t even think the mass of people using Instagram are calling it “art”, they are calling it “fun” and that I will agree with! It is this media driven frenzy that takes what clearly a neat idea and trumps it as the next great movement in art. They hold a false presumption that one can be good at something without taking the time and effort to actually learn it. By the logic of Instagram, I should be able to safely take and land a 747 full of passengers because I can push the autopilot button! We are going from a species of tool creators to a species of tools, whose only reason for existing is to push the button and receive a pellet!
Rav: I would, but I am scheduled to have my blinding glasses updated today.
ParticipantI see more and more of these “Pro” shoots with cellphone, and I still have yet to see anything resembling decent photography. The Atlantic covered the White House Correspondents Dinner with muthafarking Instagram!
All of this has left me with the inescapable conclusion that shit sells. It is part of the movement elevate the mundane, to make our society into some Harrison Bergeron dystopia where no one can do or be better than anyone else. If we make everything suck, and no one is good, ipso facto we are all good!
It’s not just photography, ANYTHING creative can be done by EVERYONE, by gadgetry and software. Never mind learning how do to something well, just learn how to push a button and the system will do the rest. So long as someone can make a buck by letting someone have the illusion of competence, then put it on the market.
By watering the pool of public perception, by making mediocre the goal we rob everyone of the ability to improve.
ParticipantI suppose you could argue that a leaf is made of the same material as wood, so in a way I suppose so, though I don’t think the voters would be on the same boat.
If the leaf weighs the same as a duck…?
A WITCH!
ParticipantThis is relevant to our interests:
ParticipantETA: Elsinore the staircase is awesome, mopsy I wish I had thought of supermarket aisle and Rav the blue chevrons should be hanging on my wall.
I took that on the Tempe Photowalk I hosted. It’s the canopy at a rest area. I only wish the bird poop near the center left (from this perspective) wasn’t there. Thanks for the compliment!
I didn’t notice it, but you can photoshop that right out of there no problem!
ParticipantBeeeeeeeessssssss
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ennuipoet/7112628595/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ennuipoet/6966551390/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ennuipoet/7112627699/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ennuipoet/7112626805/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ennuipoet/7112626335/in/photostream
ETA: Elsinore the staircase is awesome, mopsy I wish I had thought of supermarket aisle and Rav the blue chevrons should be hanging on my wall.
Participantannual servicing…
what the what now??
sounds like your camera needs to be neutered
That’s what I like to call my Anniversary Sex with the wife!
HEY-OH!
ParticipantI’ve confession to make, when this theme came along I was a little “meh” about it. I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t inspired by it. Then, because I’ve had a dearth of things to shoot of late because of my work schedule, I decided I would shoot new stuff and not archive dive.
The results have actually been some amazing (or least they are to me) shots. I looked at my usual haunts with new eyes, a new…hah!…perspective. I’ve fallen in love with this theme and will continue to incorporate the things I’ve done for it in my day to day photography. It was like looking at the world with fresh eyes. Thanks SilverStag for submitting this, it changed the way I saw the world!
ParticipantI’m jealous of all you doing your night photos. I can honestly say I haven’t even seen a star in the past month. Friggin’ cloud cover and light pollution here is just ridiculous. Ditto what orionid said – post the finals so I can be even more jealous.
I thought I saw a star the other night, but the NYPD Chopper turned the spotlight on me…
ParticipantSwap is fine.
ParticipantI heard back from Toronto Life today, they will be paying me $50 Canadian, which is like what, five hundred American? 😛
WOOT! I made my first print media sale!
ParticipantLens Flare is also a minor deity to the Fark Photoshopping Community,
BLASPHEMER!
Lens flare has NOTHING on Gaussian Blur! Nothing, you hear me? NOTHING!!!
Gaussian Blur is the ONLY tool worth using! Lens flare is evil.
👿 👿 😈 😈 👿 👿
Oh no you DITENT!
Clearly, the only tool of worth in the ENTIRE arsenal of Photoshop is Lens Flare! Gaussian Blur is a perversion! A DEVIANCE! If we start allowing Gaussian Blur then where will it stop? Motion Blur? Even…..(swallows bile)Radial Blur?
Won’t someone think of the children?
ParticipantWhat is the general opinion of “remnants” or colored spots coming from the sun in a photo? I chose my photos a couple weeks ago, but one of them has several spots coming from the sun. Also, what causes these? Here is an example: http://www.bender16v.com/chris/Spots.jpg
I’ve still been out trying to take more photos for this one, trying to get something better, but it has been cloudy around here every day.
What you have there is Lens Flare! The optical elements in your lens are reflecting the light causing the spots and streaks. All lenses have it to a certain degree, higher end lenses control it better. It is not always a bad thing and can be used artistically…at least one of my entries this week uses LF to my advantage.
Lens Flare is also a minor deity to the Fark Photoshopping Community,
Good article on lens flare
http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?op=article_012703 -
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