[Leica] The great thing about teaching a workshop...

[hans.pahlen at telia.com (Hans Pahlen)]

I looked at the photographs yesterday, and I really liked them. I think the 
photographer has a great talent for the documentary style, also a 
previsualisation as all of the pics were made in a similar way, with a light 
blurry feel that added lots of athmosphere..
I don't think the program in an automated camera can create that same feel 
throughout a whole series of pictures. Any camera on auto can be used in 
this way, for example an M7 would produce the same pics with similar ISO and 
F-stop. It is the photographers choice to use auto to achieve results he/she 
wants to capture. If the camera was allowed to decide on full program auto 
in this case, autofocus, auto-ISO or auto pop up flash would have destroyed 
the photographers creative ambitions.

So I think this young girl really has great talent, I do share BD:s 
enthusiasm. The workshop helped her develop as a photographer and maybe also 
to discover new talents, that is very rewarding for a teacher.

On LUG, I see pics that I like a lot, but also pics that I find less 
interesting. But I like to see all sorts of pics, so please continue to 
publish, everyone of you. Even if I don't write so much here, I do look at 
all your pics.

Finally, I also need to say this:
Friendly and constructive critique is one thing, but questioning someones 
work as a whole really is something else. Personally I would be very sad and 
discouraged if my own humble pics were to be questioned in this more or less 
brutal manner.
Years ago, I learnt from someone -also here on the LUG- who told us his 
grandmother had taught him:
-If you cannot say something nice, don't say anything....

My 0.02$

/Hans

> What I meant was this:
>
> 1) A lot of the atmosphere of this series comes from the blurry feel:
> movement blur, out of focus subjects. As I understand she shot this in 
> auto
> mode. In other words, the feel was determined by the camera, and not by 
> the
> shooter. So no previsualisation, meaning no decision while shooting on 
> this
> effect. That's a pity because it would have added something more to her
> talent.
> 2) Another part of the atmosphere comes from the fact that it is B&W. 
> Which
> adds to a certain "reality". The B&W was done by you, very well even. Not 
> by
> her.
> 3) So it might be interesting to see the color versions: IMO that is the
> real test. It is a lot more difficult to produce strong color work than 
> B&W
> (IMO again). I'm willing to elaborate on this, if necessary.
> 4) She captured some intense scenes, I stand with that, but, and this may
> sound very blunt, she witnessed a situation that was intense by itself. 
> Were
> these people she knew?
> 5) Leading to: 20 out of 200 is not that much in such circumstances. A 
> first
> selection of 60 out of 200, and then weeding out some more, generally 
> leads
> to 30 or 40 out of 200.
> 6) True, one could say that you don't see this kind of quality often on 
> the
> LUG. But then again, not everybody on this list is PJ'ing. I'm pretty sure
> if that were the case, we'd see such work more often.
>
> This does not imply that I do not like her work, on the contrary. I just
> wanted to put some question marks by your description of her having "it".
>
> As always,
> Kind regards,
> Philippe
>