Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Aspirations

I saw this poster the other day. It's so great! I really respect the kind of entrepreneurship and aspiration it takes to put yourself out there like that. This Dog Walker In Training has my vote.
Archipelago Photography: islands of thought and image, connected with a name.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Flower Situation


I have a love/hate relationship with flower photos. I love them, because they are often beautiful and they sell like gold. I hate them because they are too easy and lovable. Flower photography is even easier than sunset photography, and even less cliche. But why? It takes very little skill to create an aesthetically pleasing flower photo, and often composition is overlooked by the average consumer. So flower photos sell. Fast. With little work. Causing photographers who are profit-driven or are novice, to lean towards marketing flower photos.
So I personally would rather sell more artistic photos, but if you put an incredibly artistic photo next to a mediocre flower photo, a lot of people would lean towards the flowers.
I'm not trying to say that all flower photos have bad composition or are made easily. Certainly not. I am trying to say though, that some are. One of my favourite parts of photography is taking an ugly or overlooked subject and showing it's true beauty. Flowers are already beautiful. Showing the beauty in an overlooked subject is saying something. Showing something beautiful, looking beautiful, says very little.
Archipelago Photography: insulae de cogitum lumenque, maritus cum nomen