musings from the photographic memepool [the shallow end]

When I started working with cameras and light sensitive materials I wanted to emulate what I considered a great photograph, in the beginning it was Ansel Adams, Minor White, Walker Evans, Edward Weston, et al. The idea that a photograph was just that, a fine sharp and precise rendition of the object/s placed in front of it, the print being an interpretation of negative. This usually entailed lugging a great big tripod around, cause you only shot large or medium format anyway, because you were using fine grained slow speed film, at really small apertures to get the finest sharpest age you could.

Fast forward a few years, to the beginning of flickr, and you see groups worshipping the idea of shallow DOF. Why, I wonder? The technical limitations of Digital cameras and the size of CCds and lenses makes it easier to get great depth of field at 'relatively' wide apertures, compared to film.

Digital Photography has made shallow DOF something to aspire to, for the sake of the technique alone.

Shallow DOF is just like any other photographic technique, to be used and exploited by the creator to get the idea across or tell the story they need to tell.

One of MY favourite photographic techniques to use is time, hence the exif data in many of my titles. The mophone's ability to fleetingly interrupt time in a discrete yet challenging way is what draws me to it. After all to paraphrase one my of my students, photography doesn't freeze time, it simply allows you to see the moments you missed. Camera Phone's just add to that challenge.

In the end a good image is a good image, despite the technique/s used to create it.