Thursday, December 24, 2009

Simplicity: by Ken Rockwell

I come across hundreds, actually thousands of photo hobbyists and serious photographers. Here's a secret: out of all these people, I have only spoken to two people in my entire life who both know the technology behind pixels and profiles, and who can make good pictures. I'm dead serious: the men who can go off for hours about bit redithering never create any good pictures, and the people who crank out awesome work usually know very little about what goes on inside their cameras.

Real photographers don't care — they care about the picture, not the camera. I know of only two guys who know about both. This isn't an insult; they guys who make great pictures could care less about lens coatings — or even if their lens is clean!

I'm not counting Ansel Adams among these people, since I never got to work with him. He would be a third. He always clarified that he was an artist who just happened to use a little bit of science in creating his art, and most emphatically that his art was about his vision, not at all about the tools he used to create it.

I don't know about you, but given the choice, I'd rather know how to take good pictures than be able to tell you how a camera works.

Nicely said, Ken. I must say that my experience mirrors yours pretty well.

Posted via web from Now This is Cool...

No comments: