When I first got the roll of film back I did what I do every time I get a roll of film back, I gave it a quick once over while slide each strip into its respective slot on the file page, then I wait for a short bit and then I give them a good look at. I usually select the negative or negatives to print based on that initial gut feeling, which was the case in this first photograph.
This particular photograph and moment was the one the editors chose to accompany the write up about me that appeared in Fly Rod & Reel magazine after all, so it must be the better moment. Right?
I generally go back over my negatives,months and sometimes years later, just to see if one that I didn't print was better then the one I did, and reading Instant Connections has caused me to look at the other three moments I took that fall day in 2009.
Looking at the third frame, the following photograph was the first one I made of this angler and scene.
Looking at it now as I did then, I think passing over it was the right choice. I don't think this photograph was the right one, the composition and framing just don't work.
Moving on to the next frame on the roll, is the one, I initially selected, but when I look at the next frame after that, I begin to wonder, was it really the better photograph. The differences are subtle between the two photographs, but there are a few, that cause me to wonder.
Can you see the differences? I don't know how many seconds or so the two are part, but I am sure there are several considering the slowness involved in advancing the film on a Holga.
But then, there is this photograph the fourth and last photograph of this angler and scene.
I guess it proves that sometimes you have to live with the photographs you take and go back to them every once in a while...
So you tell me, is the first photograph I choose, the better one or are any of the other three better?
Brian
4 comments:
Brian - the last photo is the one that stands out to me. But it is of course a completely different subject matter. The first three photos are photos of an angler - the last is a landscape with an angler. The first three are a guy that "knows" what he's about. In the fourth photo the angler is forced - in the face of nature's inscrutability - to reconsider his actions, and his presumed dominance. The river is winning in the last photo or at least, the river is teaching. The angler is finding his place in the bigger picture. The angler is perhaps being mindful for the first time of the day...perhaps he is experiencing kenshō....or maybe I'm reading way too much into it. But at any rate that's what I like about the last photo - it is, to me, an unfolding story in the way that the others aren't as much.
I have to admit, as a person with little photography skills, I like them all. An interesting perspective.
Interesting perspective Anthony, one that I cannot disagree with at all.
Art is art Dwayne and you have some great art skills, so your insight is relevant too.
I still don't know why I didn't print that last photograph, when I first got the film back, but I am glad I did now.
Thanks for your comments!
I'm not photography critic, but I know what I like. I like them all.
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