A Walk Among The Tombstones
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No, not the Liam Neeson film but an experimental episode where I talk and walk while shooting in my local historical landmark, Green-Wood Cemetery (and, yes, the Liam Neeson movie WAS filmed there). In this episode, I give you a little update about how it's going for me now that I no longer submit images to Instagram. Yes, another social media update but a couple of surprising consequences I've discovered. Then, an experiment. I decided to mic myself up and take a walk thru Green-Wood with my camera and have a chat about what's going on while I do; sort of a "inside the mind" dialogue, which I decided to share on this show. Let me know if you dig this self-introspection or not. I figured it's summer and why not try something new.
Who Am I?
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In this special episode, I continue a conversation started on episode 203 of Shuttertime with Sid and Mac. A mashup of sorts, Sid and Mac invited me onto their show and rather than make it one long show, we decided to record it in two parts, the second part here on Street Shots.
The question we ponder is what kind of photographer do you want to be? We chat about all the different paths we can take when we decided to make photography our expressive medium of choice. We also take some inspiration from this video of photographer Jay Maisel talking about how to be a better photographer.
Before you listen to this episode, please go here and listen to part one on Shuttertime with Sid and Mac. Please give me some feedback if you enjoyed this mashup or not. We may do it again in the future to promote cross-border podcasting goodness.
Aftermath
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Yes, I did say I wouldn’t be talking about social media again, but I thought it might be important to start exploring the aftermath of reducing my presence. What is it like not to be “beholden” to social media. Well, the results are interesting. I spend this episode giving you an update of what it's like to be on a social media “fast.” It's been just over a month since I quit uploading images to Instagram and all sorts of things are happening but I’ll just talk about a couple. Who am I now that I don’t immediately share my images with the rest of the world? I’m sure this is a question we all wrestle with. Hang out with me for an hour or so and hear what I’m doing about that.
Seeing
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"Contrast by Hornbeck" is an iPhone camera app recommended to me by my friend, Mark Reierson, when I recently told him I was stuck in a visual rut. The app has the ability to distill a scene into an almost truly black and white image with very reduced grey tones. Mark's idea was to get me to look at the world with this app and to see things differently and maybe jar me out of the rut.
On this episode, I bring Mark in to discuss just what made him latch onto this app and how it changed the way he saw the world he wanted to photograph.
Photographers use apps and cameras and film and filters to alter the way they see the world and thus alter how a photograph ultimately looks. This is not new to the digital world; it's been happening since the invention of the craft. Join me and Mark in what I hope is a fascinating exploration around how we record what we see.
Show Links:
Nineteen Eighty Six
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The more things change, the more they stay the same.
After finding and reading an entry from an old journal of mine from 1986, I decided to no longer add any more images to my personal Instagram account. How did this journal from 32 years affect my decision? Was it only the words from my past, or was there something else that led me to pull the plug on my Instagram account? Taking this trip into my photographic past has shaken me up a little and surprised me in a way I didn’t think it would. Let’s hang out for the next hour or so and let me tell you a couple of stories.
I know I’ve been talking a lot about quitting social media these days, on this show and other podcasts. I’ll try to make this one of the last times (if not *the* last times) I spend a good chunk of my energy on it. We need to move on.
Stopped In Our Tracks
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Sparked by a topic suggestion from a listener, Antonio called up his longtime friend Sean Justice to talk about what are the not-so-technical aspects that make a photo “great.” Sean’s an educator and visual artist living in Texas, and was the perfect fit to discuss the question of “what makes a photograph stop us in our tracks?” Spoilers: there’s no (simple) answer. Sean and Antonio aren’t after an answer; it’s the question that drives their discussion. What moves us to take a photo? Can we be stopped in our tracks by our own photography? Why is a photo great to our eyes but not to someone else? Tune in and hang out with Sean and Antonio as they pose more questions about what makes a photo “great” than they can answer. There will be a Part 2.
Links:
Social Character
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Episode 72 - "Social Character"
Antonio is pondering the wisdom of social media (yes, again) and whether or not it makes sense to give it all up or to use it that benefits being a photographer. The current trend now has a lot of people shutting down their Instagram accounts and Facebook pages, but does that make sense if all you want to do it share your imagery? Also, he talks about our ever-changing and evolving photographic personalities and how that is reflected in the cameras we choose to use.
Show Links:
The Write Stuff
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On this episode, Antonio speaks with Minnesota-based photographer and podcaster, Dave Szweduik. He’s been a friend of the show for a while now and this chat has been a long time in coming. Lately, Dave’s been putting pen to screen, as it were, writing some incredibly thoughtful (and perhaps a little provocative) blog posts on his photography website. Three recent posts delve into what it means to be a successful photographer, how social media plays a role in that, and the idea that the pressure of creating art may be killing our passion. Dave and Antonio talk about these posts in particular and also about the tasks of maintaining a blog as a photographer. For Dave, writing about his thoughts and feelings about the photographic journey is almost as important as taking the photos themselves.
Show Links:
"Is the pressure of creating art killing our passion?"
"Photography Success, Chasing The Wrong Dream?"
"The Photographic Long Game : A classic approach to photography"
The Why
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In this 70th episode, Antonio ponders the "why" in photography. Why do we care about taking pictures? Why do we want to share our photos in social media? Why do we care? Why, why, why? We all would like to know the "why" when we take pictures and why we want to show them and why we keep them. and why we photograph what we photograph. This is more a stream of consciousness than any really defined subject of photography. Join Antonio on this wondering journey, as he begins this discussion which is sure to continue well past the end of this show.
Show Links:
Why do we take pictures? – Sushicam
Overexposed? Camera Phones Could Be Washing Out Our Memories : NPR
“Mirrors With Memories”: Why Did Victorians Take Pictures of Dead People? | Mental Floss
This Photographer Deleted His Social Media with 1.5 Million Followers
