{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-blogposting-js","path":"/blog/good_photography","result":{"data":{"mdx":{"body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"date\": \"2014-12-05T23:17:53.571Z\",\n  \"updated\": \"2014-12-05T23:17:53.571Z\",\n  \"type\": \"BlogPosting\",\n  \"title\": \"Good photography is Presence, Skill, Lens, Equipment\",\n  \"entityId\": \"045e7060-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5\",\n  \"revisionId\": \"045e7061-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5\",\n  \"srcImages\": [\"arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile\"],\n  \"revisionNum\": 1,\n  \"tags\": {},\n  \"sidebar\": \"Mostly I'm writing this because I'm trying to justify to myself more lens purchases, of course.\",\n  \"description\": \"It's hard to really describe what makes one photograph awesome and another one bad in such a way that the meanings of the words that I presently use to represent abstract ideas in my brain map to the same mysteriously indescribable abstract ideas in your brain.  So it's how I view the art right now, but it's probably verifiably wrong in all sorts of ways.  \"\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, \"It\\u2019s hard to really describe what makes one photograph awesome and another one bad in such a way that the meanings of the words that I presently use to represent abstract ideas in my brain map to the same mysteriously indescribable abstract ideas in your brain. So it\\u2019s how I view the art right now, but it\\u2019s probably verifiably wrong in all sorts of ways.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The most important thing is the \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Presence\"), \" of the photographer. Sometimes this means that the photographer hiked all of the way up a snowy mountain with snowshoes and a camera and caught the perfect view.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Sometimes \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Presence\"), \" is about \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Personality\"), \". Working with models has taught me that my disposition and the way I talk to the models causes them to unconsciously do things. People are different. Some models I connect with well, others I don\\u2019t.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Sometimes \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Presence\"), \" is about \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Persistence\"), \". I went up to see Mount Rainier the other day and it was fogged in. I took photos anyway, found some stuff worth photographing. Some photographers hit the same spot over and over again, always finding new things. Other photographers are constantly exploring to find new things.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Presence\"), \" is also about \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Poignancy\"), \". Catching a set of dishes the night before they were torn down is different than other nights. Perhaps it\\u2019s me telling you that I caught the observatory before it died\\u2026 or perhaps it\\u2019s that I somehow communicated it.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The controversial work \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ\"\n  }, \"Piss Christ\"), \" that I remember from the culture wars of the 80s wasn\\u2019t poignant because of the piss, it was poignant because it was so outlandishly outr? that everybody had to talk about it. I can\\u2019t re-create something like it with my own urine and have it make any sort of effect.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Poignancy\"), \" is about \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Preservation\"), \". Pictures taken on Brownie cameras in the early 1900s were not taken with the intent of art, but now they are incredibly poignant because most of them haven\\u2019t survived.\"), mdx(props.imgs.Img1, {\n    width: \"320px\",\n    align: \"right\"\n  }), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Presence\"), \" and \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Poignancy\"), \" is that unconscious thing that makes a poorly executed unskilled photo look cool anyway. It\\u2019s also entirely about \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Probability\"), \". Catching your neighbor in a compromising position is one thing. Catching a celebrity in a compromising position is another. Carrying your camera with you helps. Much can be compensated for by taking a lot of pictures.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Next, you have skill. \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Skill\"), \" is understanding colors and composition and lighting and structure. It\\u2019s about pointing the camera in the right direction. It\\u2019s about knowing how to keep a cat in the right position, a kid smiling, and a model posing. It\\u2019s about knowing how to take a picture with a ridiculously slow shutter and have it come out OK.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I don\\u2019t like seeing skill solely as the things that you are taught. Really, it doesn\\u2019t matter. Ansel Adams always draws a comparison between photography and music. I know plenty of musicians with no formal training but who have a ferociously good ear. I know plenty of musicians with a great formal understanding of notation and harmony who are unable to produce music that people really like to listen to.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Where the presence and skill hit the pavement is the \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"lens\"), \". Recent history has greatly obscured this. A long time ago, the camera was little more than a light-tight box and so the image quality of the body was mostly to do with the selection of film. Digital cameras mean that your image quality is driven by the camera body instead of the film.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Furthermore, modern computer power lets designers algorithmically model all of the features and properties of lenses and try out a wide variety of designs. Modern machinery allows you to create lenses with complex aspheric designs with complex coatings and then assemble them into a design that can be built cheaply with the required tolerances. And tiny sensors make it easy to make lenses.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Thus, your lens still really matters. It\\u2019s just that even cheap kit lenses are actually pretty good. Even the camera+body combination in your iPhone is actually pretty good.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"You can\\u2019t capture birds in the distance with an iPhone camera. The lens is not narrow enough. Similarly, there are pictures that require the photographer to capture them with a wide angle lens.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"On the other hand, I know some people with animal magnetism in ways that I don\\u2019t have and they can get really close to skittish birds in ways that I can\\u2019t. And wide angle lenses take some skill to get right. So \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"skill\"), \" is more important, but you can put the widest wide lens and the narrowest telephoto on any body in the system.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"It\\u2019s even about the tasteful use of a bad toy camera lens or a pinhole non-lens.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Finally, the rest of the \", mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"equipment\"), \". Again, because of recent advances, you can get a mirrorless body or a dSLR for not a whole lot of money with a good-enough kit lens. You can build a studio with a high ISO and some regular lights. You can use a rock or two as a ersatz tripod. So it doesn\\u2019t matter as much as it used to.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"And sometimes the rest of the equipment drives the more important things. When you buy a SLR or interchangeable mirrorless camera body, you are locking yourself mostly into one system of lenses. There are adapters, but adapters come with consequences. Given that the lens is often times more important than the body, you can\\u2019t just get whatever happens to be on sale at the moment.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Part of why I ended up going for my Olympus is because I liked the Micro 4/3rds lenses better. Part of why Fuji has done well with their mirrorless camera system is because Fuji has also shipped their camera with a bunch of really nice prime lenses. Micro 4/3rds has the best set of pancake lenses. Fuji has a great set of prime lenses with some special features. Canon\\u2019s SLR mount has traditionally had the best telephoto lenses, Nikon traditionally has had the best wide angle lenses.\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","id":"3ec17738-b3e8-5a3b-81f2-8db10b06a887","fields":{"sidebar":"<p>Mostly I'm writing this because I'm trying to justify to myself more lens purchases, of course.</p>\n"},"frontmatter":{"date":"December 05, 2014","title":"Good photography is Presence, Skill, Lens, Equipment","type":"BlogPosting","description":"It's hard to really describe what makes one photograph awesome and another one bad in such a way that the meanings of the words that I presently use to represent abstract ideas in my brain map to the same mysteriously indescribable abstract ideas in your brain.  So it's how I view the art right now, but it's probably verifiably wrong in all sorts of ways.  ","sidebar":"Mostly I'm writing this because I'm trying to justify to myself more lens purchases, of course."},"srcImages":[{"id":"ef6e7fc6-0831-57b6-8f56-24a33c88188f","key":"e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb","maxSize":1024,"size":414359,"srcSet":"/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_t.jpg 67w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_m.jpg 162w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_n.jpg 216w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_w.jpg 270w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb.jpg 337w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_z.jpg 431w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_c.jpg 539w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_b.jpg 690w","srcPath":"arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile","width":690,"height":1024,"sqSrcSet":"/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_s.jpg 75w,\n/b2/arts.photo.night.bracewell1-095d6e41-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_e5a50a01a785acbf86e2c5c02fcc70bb_q.jpg 150w"}],"excerpt":"It's hard to really describe what makes one photograph awesome and another one bad in such a way that the meanings of the words that I presently use to represent abstract ideas in my brain map to the same mysteriously indescribable abstract ideas in your brain. So it's how I view the art right now…"}},"pageContext":{"id":"3ec17738-b3e8-5a3b-81f2-8db10b06a887","parent":"/blog","name":"good_photography","depth":2,"title":"Good photography is Presence, Skill, Lens, Equipment","type":"BlogPosting","date":"2014-12-05T23:17:53.571Z","hidden":null,"breadcrumbs":[{"url":"/"},{"name":"blog","url":"/blog"},{"name":"Good photography is Presence, Skill, Lens, Equipment","url":"/blog/good_photography"}],"excerpt":"It's hard to really describe what makes one photograph awesome and another one bad in such a way that the meanings of the words that I presently use to represent abstract ideas in my brain map to the same mysteriously indescribable abstract ideas in your brain.  So it's how I view the art right now, but it's probably verifiably wrong in all sorts of ways.  ","updated":"2014-12-05T23:17:53.571Z"}},"staticQueryHashes":["1062461325","1937434333","2193146810","2240196328","3649515864","815954065"]}