Collection of lenses to loan out during recent LA Zoo photo day I was working #photography
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” -George Bernard Shaw, Renowned Irish Author
This may be off topic, and bringing more of a personal issue or pet-peeve into light, but I feel it needs to be discussed
I am an artist. I have always been an artist. As a child, in school, throughout college, always an artist. In college, we learned, there are no new ideas. Yes there are ideas, but creatively as an artist, it’s all be done before.
We as artists, take inspiration from prior artists to create and inspire other artists, it’s a never ending circle. To me this is the purest form of teaching one can do, can provide and can share. Hoarding information and ideas is one of the most negative and detrimental traits in our society.
Imagine for example if those that discovered the technologies of how to capture light never shared their knowledge and their discoveries in 1814. Where would photography be today?
“View from the Window at Le Gras” Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
Would Ansel Adams be known for his outstanding black and whites? Would those that came after him that learn of the “Zone System”? A process he shared to achieve and learn the same techniques he developed?
Adams described how the Zone System was developed: “I take this opportunity to restate that the Zone System is not an invention of mine; it is a codification of the principles of sensitometry, worked out by Fred Archer and myself at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, around 1939-40.”
The technique is based on the late 19th century sensitometry studies of Hurter and Driffield, the Zone System is also applicable to roll film, both black-and-white and color, negative and reversal, and to digital photography.
What if in 1903 Wilbur & Orville Wright didn’t work well together or were not inspired by the drawings of DaVinci?
What if DaVinci, and his drawings on the studies of birds, wings, and flight, didn’t exist or were not shared. What if the one of the world’s most renowned artists, believed his ideas, were too good to share?
Without sharing ideas, techniques and knowledge, we do not grow, we can not develop new ideas or modify existing ideas. We become stagnate in the idea that “our idea” is top secret and shouldn’t be provided to others.
I am a teacher by nature. I crave knowledge and love learning new techniques, improving on my skills, and discussing.
I believe in providing as much information on “how” I did something. What I used or how I achieved that image, that edit or that idea.
I am as they say, an open book, all you have to do is ask.
“If a seed of a lettuce will not grow, we do not blame the lettuce. Instead, the fault lies with us for not having nourished the seed properly.” – Buddhist proverb
So for the last few weekends, I’ve been trying to capture these fast little creatures. They are bold, will chatter at you if you are in their space. They have no fear of dogs, especially when mine just watches them. They are amazingly fast. These were shot at 1/1000th of a second, 2000 ISO @ f4.
These are not perfect images but plan on trying each morning during the weekends when they are most active. I have learned though, it requires alot, ALOT of patience and sitting and waiting…
Since June 1916, when the Looff Hippodrome first opened its doors children and adults are taken back in time to the golden age of carousels.
