A Bit of An Extreme, or Not

(from upper-left to clockwise) GX200 with the wide-angle converter, GXR P10, CX1, CX3 and R10

Taken together the GX200 which took this photo, I am handling six Ricoh cameras in one go. The thought of making such a line-up shot compelled me to do it. I looked at the image and mumbled, "This is a bit of an extreme."

Really? I doubt.

Although I don't own all of these cameras, I bet lots of us have as many cameras – maybe overlapping ones too -- as shown in the photo. These owners have simply been compelled to buy. Honestly, most of us have either become sophisticated camera buyers, review readers or technology connoisseurs or all of them than real photographers.

But, to another extreme, are you too sophisticated a photographer? I mean, maybe you have been engrossed in all sorts of knowledge about photography to beef up your photographic skills. Then, having read books on the topic aplenty and after a full day of shooting, you discover that the images are technically overwhelming but soulless.

More often than not, we find ourselves in this quagmire of being either an extreme camera critic or an extreme photography learner. We may have got over it but later on, we could be trapped again. It is also our experience that we stumble upon a photo by a tyro which is however one of the best we have ever seen. It is expressed with such a huge sense of freedom that you see not the strengths of the camera or the rules of photography but just the soul of the photographer.

If you feel yourself a bit of an extreme after all these years in photography, why don't you pick up your camera and shoot as your eye sees it and your heart dictates? Free yourself of the bondage to the technicality of the camera or the principles of photography which you have known enough, and just observe with your soul and shoot.

You wanna be a bit of an extreme, or not. For me, not.

Comments

A Real Hero

(Grip On Reality: This photo was taken on my way to work. I was walking past trucks parking on a cul-de-sac when the ropes caught my attention. The light was right, the colour was right and the criss-crossing pattern was perfect and I held up my GX200. People passing by checked me out and wondered what could be made out of such a boring scene. To me, the fun in photography is that the photographer makes something interesting out of what is not obvious to most at the scene. The ropes tied in knots somehow reminded people I know who are in the grip of the recession) You must have also known a friend or two, or even yourself, being baffled by the spiral downturn of the economy. Bank went bankrupt and the rich was faced with a shrinking wealth. A friend of mine has just had his salary cut by over 10% and some of his colleagues started to be shed. But, wait. Was this done really for the sake of continuing the business? Or is there a factor or greed in it? I wonder whether the

New Low Prices

The window shopping some hours ago has almost provoked my AgIDS illness. Just in case you’re in Hong Kong or are coming here, and have the money to burn (All in HK$/ body only): GX200 = $3,280 GRD2 = $3,380 LX3 = $3,180 G10 = $3,280 Prices are available form a gear shop on the 1st floor of the Mongkok Computer Centre. Besides these new low prices, I found that Wing Shing Photo (55-57Sai Yeung Choi St., MK Tel: 2396 6886/ 91-95 Fa Yuen St., MK Tel: 2396 6885) is offering a Sony A700 + Carl Zeiss Lens package for HK$9,980 (hopefully, a bargain will make it some hundreds cheaper).

Eye Contact

(Leica D-lux 5) The digital era may make it easier to end up with fave shots. Even lousy photos may be turned likable after a few clicks in the post-processing workflow. But if digital advancement or amendments have any bearing on the cultivation of personal style, no photographers will need to discover his or her own photographer’s eye. Undoutedly, this is out of the question. Only with a trained photographer’s eye can we give a thinking gaze and capture an eternal moment, in our unique style. Style is the soul of a great photo. A few posts have been written in GXG to touch on the topic of photographer’s eye. Instead of finding an answer, which would require academic discussions, the posts are intended to give my general reflections and spark interests in moving towards further exploration of the topic. The posts can be viewed after the links: 1) Photographer's Eye: Storytelling 2) Photographer's Eye: Little Show of Observing 3) Photographer's Eye: Sight-Worthy 4

GX GARNERINGS

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