Photo Equipment, puppies, Elvis and how much money should you spend on equipment

[mjh]

While I like abstracts as much as the next if I am honest Puffer the photo you posted does not even look in focus to me. I must not be an artist as I would have deleted it in camera. Here is an example of a photo I was blown away by, not mine of course.

Disclaimer: I am have no training, never read manuals and don't even own a single book on "photography". Now I have lots of coffee table books with (to me) incredible images and think "wow, but what if you did xyz a little differently...."

 

[AussieByron]

If you or anyone else wants, I can PM you why reduction of image size or quality is not the best safegaurd of your work. I Just don't want to hijack the thread.

Please do diverdoug

Regards Mark

 

[Nemrod]

I don't want to enter the fray as I am sure the concept of a "craft" or an "art" photo/image is beyond me but I think there is yet another category, a "documentation" photo. Myself, I am not trying to do art or craft or even take "nice" or "decent" or "pretty" pictures. I am simply trying to document what I see which I think is why I prefer a wider view that more closely resembles what I see and the perspective I see as I explore the underwater world.

When I was a geology student most of us carried various 35mm cameras in the field. We were not doing art, we were not aware of any craft, we were documenting insitu the outcrops, fossils, rock strata relationships we were describing in our field notebooks. Latter as a working geologist I continued to use my camera in the same way. Seriously, any "art" I did then or now is purely accidental, it is not on my mind, I am simply documenting best I can what I see. I think also that is another reason why I often don't like PS alteration of photos as I don't find them realistic of what I saw or was likely actually seen by the diver who took them.

Well, y'all carry on, it is an interesting conversation.

N

 

[AussieByron]

Lets use a definition of the term Art.

I grabbed this definition of Art from Wikipedia but of course if someone has a better definition by all means use.

Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items (often with symbolic significance) in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, photography, sculpture, and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics, and even disciplines such as history and psychology analyze its relationship with humans and generations.

Using Puffers statement that if you quote a technique, style, and medium when showing an image its a craft and not art. It automatically cancels any possibility that it could be Art.

Lets use an example:

Here is an image of mine. Two different shots edited into one with Photoshop. DSLR was use and so was a wide angle lens for the Shark Suckers. I even changed the Sharksuckers photo to black and white to match the moon photo.

Now according to Puffer this is Craft as I have stated technique.

Now someone out there might view this image after I have told them about how I took the image and say "This image affects my emotion, senses, intellect". Could it be said that it is Art or is it still Craft.

Now if someone else out there looked at this image without know how or why this image was produced and their senses, intellect, and emotion were affect by what they see is it then Art or is it still Craft?

Remembering that Puffer has quoted "Art is in the eye of the beholder" or what the viewer sees in their mind.

For me personally it gives me a sense of freedom, the feeling of being lost, and even a feeling of friendship.

I would like to know others opinions.

Is this Art or Craft?

Does this image affect you in any manner regarding emotion, senses, intellect?

Is it pleasing to your eye?

Regards Mark

 

[diverdoug1]

I hate Sharksuckers! Cool image though.

 

[vladimir]

How do they orbit the moon, Mark? I mean, there's no water up there. Or am I missing something?






Very nice photo, in my opinion; artistic and well-crafted.

 

[Longshot270]

I think it is possible for a picture to be a craft and artistic. For instance I just finished sifting through over a hundred great pictures of mine to find four for a photo contest. I posted my top 7 on a forum to see what everyone liked because I'm not on the panel of judges. Granted, when I do this, I objectify the picture but people can still recognize the artistic touch of what I felt standing there holding the camera.

 

[diverdoug1]

While I like abstracts as much as the next if I am honest Puffer the photo you posted does not even look in focus to me.

I guess an arteest need not bother themselves with such bohemian pursuits as in focus images!

 

[beautybelow]

While I like abstracts as much as the next if I am honest Puffer the photo you posted does not even look in focus to me. I must not be an artist as I would have deleted it in camera. Here is an example of a photo I was blown away by, not mine of course.

Disclaimer: I am have no training, never read manuals and don't even own a single book on "photography". Now I have lots of coffee table books with (to me) incredible images and think "wow, but what if you did xyz a little differently...."

Maybe there should be another category.... "really cool". A combination of Art, Craft and being in the right place at the right time.

 

[AussieByron]

I hate Sharksuckers! Cool image though.

Straight away the feeling of hate of the subject. Thats an emotional reaction to the image.

It could be Art ???

Regards Mark