Posted by Doug
Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:00:15 GMT
Discussions of talent vs. learned skill draw me in like a moth to the flame. I regularly get beat up over this, but I sincerely believe that natural talent or “giftedness” is over rated. That’s why when Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist David J. Leeson talks about the subject in a piece called The Voice Inside, I’m inclined to listen. When he supports my own thoughts, I’m inclined to post about it!
In fact, I have often said of my own life and career that I have always learned more from defeat than I ever did from victory. To win is an odd form of loss. I’ve seen it wreck young photojournalists who win big awards. Perhaps it is the mistaken sense of entitlement that ultimately ruins them – a belief that such things are supposed to happen to them. And when they don’t, they are left with no foundation from a lifetime of defeats. They know only the hollow sound of winning. A sword is forged in fire.
That’s where passion enters. I do not believe I was endowed with a special gift for something. Rather it was through hard work, determination, divine guidance and raw passion that allowed me the experience of a lifetime, to live as a photojournalist and travel the world with a singular purpose. All I ever wanted was to make a difference. I had my chance and I believe there is more to come.
This essay strikes me as similar to Craig Tanner’s The Myth of Talent. Both are highly skilled and acclaimed artists, but from different genres. Both have attributed their success to learning from failures and hard work. I recommend reading both articles.
See also my previous articles on this topic: Art, Talent, and Fear, and Red
Posted in Photography | Tags talent | 2 comments
Posted by Doug
Tue, 13 Dec 2005 02:13:33 GMT
Big day for photo processing. I’ve added galleries for:
Posted in Family, Photography | no comments
Posted by Doug
Mon, 12 Dec 2005 19:14:01 GMT
This weekend I was the photographer for Montgomery Community Church’s Christmas Show. Make no mistake, I’m not a professional photographer. This was a hard environment to shoot. Overall I’m mostly pleased with the results. I saved about 50 images, probably 20 or so I’m actually proud of. You can browse through them in my gallery of MCC Xmas Images
Shane is a friend of mine and the worship minister at MCC. He invited my family to the show last year. My camera was about a month old at the time, and I couldn’t help but shoot the show. I got a few good images that he liked. His official church photographer moved away, so left without a better alternative, he asked me to shoot this year’s show. I think I did better than last year. I certainly kept more images. Of course, I was shooting a lot more images too. Last year, I was kinda sneaking around and taking a shot here and there. This year I was pretty much continually shooting.
In fact, I really didn’t get to enjoy the show as much. Knowing they do three or four shows, I should have attended one just to watch and enjoy. Then I’d be more in the loop to know what to shoot and be better prepared. Oh, well… maybe next year.
BTW, these were all shot with my Canon Digital Rebel and either my Canon 50mm/f1.8 or my Sigma 70mm – 200mm/f2.8. After a few sample shots, I set my ISO to 800 and left it there. I didn’t want mucking with the ISO to be something I had to worry about while shooting. The stage lighting was hard to deal with. Plus the choir was wearing white shirts with a spotlight on them. They also made heavy use of blue lighting filters that tended to blow that channel. My Rebel was having a hard time keeping up with both auto-focus and auto-exposure. No doubt a Canon 20D would have done better.
Posted in Photography, Christianity, Community | Tags Cincinnati | 2 comments
