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I don't have any theory of photography just preferences. I prefer sharp to blurry. I prefer black and white to color. I prefer the evidence of mankind to mankind itself as subject. I prefer details to panoramas. I prefer a long scale of tones for final prints. I prefer not to develop a style, but find that I do anyway. I break with these preferences quite often.
The Zone System's emphasis on precise control of the technical aspects of photography, and pre-visualization has its place. But so does "set the camera on Auto and bracket." Photography, unlike most plastic arts, has room for serendipity. Sometimes one "sees" a final image in one's head. Sometimes one just takes a picture because it somehow strikes one as interesting but doesn't at the time suggest a final image. And sometimes those "random" shots become something wonderful, later, when one has the negative in hand.
I've tried to make gallery jpegs as suggestive of what a fine print will look like as possible. To best view images in the gallery it helps to work with a calibrated monitor because I've prepared my images to match a calibrated monitor. Both Microsoft and Apple provide control panels for calibrating your monitor. It's well worth doing. If you work on a unixoid system, calibration is not usually available, but if you set contrast to it's highest level and work with a fairly dark brightness level you'll be not far off optimal calibration. You can also go to this site and adjust your monitor so that it comes closest to showing evenly spaced changes in tone from black to white. (It would be nice to browse at this site also. There are some good pictures to be found.)
The gallery is inclusive rather than selective. My intention is to have all my best work here. But there are also some images that I consider borderline but other people have liked. I confess that I only know how I respond to photographs and am quite in the dark about how others do. I've met people whose tastes parallel mine closely as well as others whose tastes don't. I'm always happy to hear what people think about my photography. Send me E-mail any time you feel like it. I prefer praise, as who wouldn't, but find censure just as useful, if more ego bruising.
Images here are for sale.
Back to sciencething.org
Back to Fine Photography, well worth the visit.
Comments are always welcome