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Hey all.... for the time being I think I've reached my mental limit as far as learning the technical side of photography. I reckon it would be cool now to start looking at all the ingredients that make a photographer a true artist. Maybe something like having a weekly image (kind of like POTW) but instead of an image from one of the users, an image that is recognised nationally or globally for its merit. We could then critique it and learn from some of the worlds best.

In saying this I'm not trying to subtract from the POTW - the quality of work on this site is often fantastic and I love looking at it.

I seem to know more about photographic hardware than famous photographers and would like to even things up a bit. It would be nice to see who has pioneered certain aspects of photography and discuss this. Even if we had a month where we had 4 pics of the week from one particular photographer that would be cool.

I could probably go out and buy books on this but I really like the idea of having a community approach - and DSLR users is a great place for this.

I'm not sure about copyright issues and this could very well be the downfall of this idea.

Oh .... I can see the law suits when I close my eyes ...

yeah i thought that would be the case

what about having an external link for the picture in question then?

I've got to say that this has a lot of merit.

I, too, have no idea of the recognised photographers that have gone before us.

I'm sure, copyright issues aside, we could come up with a way of implementing something along these lines - and it would turn into a really worthwhile resource down the track

Don't know if we'd be able to get as much as one a week, but maybe a focus (excuse the pun) on a particular photographer/style each month might be achieveable.

I like this idea.

Yes, there are potential copyright issues, but I'm confident that "fair use", "educational use" and just external linking will help address those concerns.

Thanx for your input: I note that it's already been raised for discussion in the KM area, so please let us see what we can do.

sheepie wrote:Don't know if we'd be able to get as much as one a week, but maybe a focus (excuse the pun) on a particular photographer/style each month might be achieveable.

Could tie in quite nicely with the 'exercises in style' we had a while ago too...

I like the idea and there are probaly hundreds of notable photographs that could be posted or linked to without incurring copyright issues if they are being used as described by the OP.
If a photo is nationally or globally recognised, as the poster suggested, it should be readily available for discusion on a forum such as this IMO.

I too like this idea. Nothing like seeing some of the greats and discussing the "how's and whys" of their work.

ok good stuff.... if this goes ahead I'm not sure how it is implimented... if its put in a normal thread, or if Gary wants to do something else with it.

Maybe we can have a weekly thread for discussing a piece of work by a great phtoographer.

how good is this one by Ansel Adams.

kind of looks like a huge silver snake.... I've heard a fair bit about Ansil Adams mostly from hearing Mr Rockwell talk about him.. from what I'm lead to believe he's like the father of landscape photography....

More than just the father of landscape photography, Adams developed the zone system, which is a methodology for shooting and printing B&W from film.

He was a marvelous photographer, and his work is very highly regarded. He spent a great deal of his time in and around the national parks in California, and especially in Yosemite (he was SF based) and Death Valley.

It's certainly well worth investigating his life and discussing his work.

Methd: I would think that weekly might be a tad too frequent for this. BVut let's play it by ear(eye?) and see.

a link to the ansel adams website -
http://www.anseladams.com/

(this one is permanently bookmarked on my computer, and they also send out emails)

I would recommend linking to the photos - particularly one of Adams' due to the level of detail which a 400 pixel image wouldn't do justice to.

jben_net wrote:Hey all.... for the time being I think I've reached my mental limit as far as learning the technical side of photography. I reckon it would be cool now to start looking at all the ingredients that make a photographer a true artist.

Just had an interesting thought(!) while rereading this initial post, and considering the fact that methd started the ball rolling with Ansel Adams.

How does one separate the technical aspects of Adams' work from the artistic?

A master artist, he was a supreme technician who devised a whole new system that remains respected and used throughout the world of photography.

Point worth pondering, n'est pas?

Point worth pondering, n'est pas?

Je trouve drôle que le français s'opposer à quoi que ce soit à distance français entrent dans leur langue. S'il ne pas être le cas que nous nous opposons à toute distance anglaise de pénétrer dans le nôtre n'est pas?

Excuse the french its a bit rusty

I've been following this thread with interest, here are my thoughts.
Discussing really famous photographers in history, although very interesting, may be kind of re-inventing the wheel. There are countless books, websites etc. where you can read about them.
On the other hand, if you asked me who are some of the best photographers in the world today, I would be stumped.
I decided to do a google search and just as an example I found this
http://42at60.blogspot.com/2006/11/worl ... ranco.html
Maybe discussing such photographers was closer to the intent of the original post?

Discussing really famous photographers in history, although very interesting, may be kind of re-inventing the wheel. There are countless books, websites etc. where you can read about them.
On the other hand, if you asked me who are some of the best photographers in the world today, I would be stumped.

Then maybe it might be an idea to start a thread saying "this photographer infuenced me because ....." or "I admire this photographer because ... " and develope the thread that way.

focussing on an influential photographer is good - I think that its important that the thread identifies the photographer so that everyone is talking about the same photographer - not sure who nominates the photgrapher and how that is decided.

Ansel Adams and Franco Fontana are both pretty interesting photographers from my brief explorations on the net today... not sure which one we are expanding on now though as both have been thrown into the mix.

The Wiki link to the zone system is interesting - I've used this concept but never knew it was actually named something.

Oh stop press! I'm at a friends place and we have just been talking about Ansel Adams, anyway one of my friends have just pulled out 3 books by ansel adams - "The Negative" "The Camera" and "The Print" He's been kind enough to lend me them so I'll have a read and let you know what I find out

jben_net wrote:Oh stop press! I'm at a friends place and we have just been talking about Ansel Adams, anyway one of my friends have just pulled out 3 books by ansel adams - "The Negative" "The Camera" and "The Print" He's been kind enough to lend me them so I'll have a read and let you know what I find out

You are in for a treat.

Do you have any film cameras? If not, you're surely about to find yourself in the market for some.