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No Longer The Only One

~ A site about photography and other stuff by Richard Keeling

No Longer The Only One

Tag Archives: satisfaction

The Joy of Photography

28 Saturday May 2016

Posted by musickna in Photography

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Tags

creativity, enjoyment, expression, joy, photography, satisfaction, seeing

Green Heron and Forest by Richard Keeling on 500px.com

I can – and do – spend a lot of time thinking and writing critically about aspects of photography that both please and displease me.

But for all those words, the essence of photography and why I keep doing it is joy. Photography is – and should always be – a pleasure first and foremost. For this reason I refuse to go professional and turn down the vast majority of requests for my services as a photographer. I also find myself pulling away repeatedly from my photographic community. I usually return for a while but always with one foot resting by the door. I really don’t like photographic situations where I feel my sense of artistry is being compromised, a major reason why I feel so ambivalent about and frequently hostile towards photography competitions.

These days, thanks to sites such as this one, it’s not necessary to bend to some other person’s rules and likes to get your work into a public forum. This freeing of art from much of the restrictive access that used to constrain it has both advantages and disadvantages, but on the whole being I consider being able to bypass the editor’s or the critic’s filter is a benefit. To be true, a lot of uninspired and derivative work is now out there for anyone to see – if they can find it – but so what? What may seem trite to one viewer may be deeply meaningful to the artist behind it, and that meaningfulness transcends all. Expression for everyone is a goal to be encouraged. Repression does no one any good at all.

So keep at it, all you photographers. Embrace the joy.

 

Continuing adventures in film

02 Wednesday Dec 2015

Posted by musickna in Photography

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Tags

chemistry, developing, digital, film, patience, photography, process, satisfaction

Muny at night by Richard Keeling on 500px.com

It’s been about twenty months since I returned to using film.

I’m still using it.

As I’ve noted several times in the past, this really was not what I expected to happen. I felt sure I would dabble for a while, and then give it up when the novelty wore off, dissuaded by the extra effort required to develop and scan the film.

Every once in awhile, I still feel that impatience. This picture was taken early in the evening of November 30 and I had it scanned and up on the web by the end of the day after about 20 minutes devoted to the actual developing process, a couple of hours for drying, and about 10 minutes for scanning and a few cosmetic photoshop tweaks.

These cosmetic tweaks, by the way, have dropped to only a few to remove a bit of dust or fiber picked up during the scan. In my early days of developing, when I was not as careful and more hurried, I ended up with a lot more flaws. Mostly scratches and occasional dots of salt deposit from washing and drying too quickly. Today, I hardly ever see these. Patience is a virtue when developing film.

Still, the process would have been much quicker had this been a digital shot. But it would not have looked the same. I could make it look the same – or similar at least – by applying one of the many film emulation software add-ons to my Photoshop processing, but although the result to the eyes of most viewers would not be significantly different, it would have been different to me. It would always be the product  of a computer algorithm, whereas I what I have here is (allowing for the fact that it has been scanned and converted to digital for display) the result of chemical interaction with light.

It’s the chemistry that really appeals to me. After all, I am a chemist – it’s my job even if it involves enzymes and biologically derived materials instead of emulsion and silver chemistry. But the same pleasure I get from tracking the course of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction applies to adding developer to film.

This is probably the main drive that keeps me using film and it’s one that is going to be fairly exclusive to me. I have plenty of sympathy for those who are happy to see the back of the old world of film and have wholly embraced digital imaging. For many, it’s both easier and more satisfying.

But not for me. Since I have taken up film, my enjoyment of photography has more than doubled from when I was solely using digital cameras. That’s why I am not likely to stop.

 

The Enabling Act

09 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by musickna in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

blogging, publishing, satisfaction

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Ubuntu Update

03 Wednesday Mar 2010

Posted by musickna in Uncategorized

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

laptop, linux, satisfaction, ubuntu

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End of a perfect day

04 Sunday May 2008

Posted by musickna in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

age, home, photography, satisfaction, weekend

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Into the world of small business

14 Saturday Apr 2007

Posted by musickna in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

business, satisfaction, self-employment, work

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