Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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.