Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/22

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Squares and sabotage
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@neteze.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1999 21:27:02 -0800

At 10:39 PM 11/22/1999 -0500, Dan Cardish wrote:
>And IN MY OPINION, good environmental portraiture is much more difficult to
>master and more satisfying an art form than "real documentary
>photojournalism".    Sheesh.

Hardly. Why are you taking such offense? Environmental portraits are easier 
to do, because you can say to the person "Sit over there." You can take 
your time. You can think about it. You don't need to react fast, and you 
have plenty of time to do it right. Photojournalists do it all the time as 
well (portraits).

With documentary photojournalism (I said "real" to distinguish it from set 
up photojournalism, not portraiture) you have to catch things on the fly. 
To make great pictures, it takes timing, luck and darn hard work, without 
controlling the situation. No matter how you view it, it's harder to do 
well than doing portraiture well for that reason.

Having an eye for either genre takes skill that one has or not. It's not 
something that can be taught or imparted. But the actual work doing them is 
different in the requirements they have for their practitioners. It's not a 
matter of opinion any more than whether or not it's harder to drive the 
Indy 500 compared to the freeway. One takes better reflexes and timing than 
the other.

Eric Welch
Carlsbad, CA

http://www.neteze.com/ewelch

Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.