Looking for the Photography Easy Button

6FPS V2#9 - Photography and More
A Newsletter by Chuq Von Rospach
October 12, 2020

Editorial: The "You need to vote" bully-pulpit

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

After months of Covid keeping most of us mostly locked up in our homes, and here in California some crushing heat waves, massive wildfires and poisonous air that was hazardous to breathe from the smoke, this week, things started to settle out. It's cooled off, the air is clearing out, the skies are blue not orange, and fall migration has been going on in force.

I'm also at a point at work where I've met my deadlines and I can back off a bit, so I've started taking some short breaks during the day to get out a bit for solo outings. I really needed the outside and the quiet and the quiet rhythm I get into when birding to help clear out the cobwebs in the brain and now, I am feeling a lot better about things compared to two weeks ago.

Today (as I write this: Friday) I rang off at noon and went out for an extended outing at one of the parks that was heavily threatened by the first but fortunately, mostly left unharmed, and I took my camera. I started out feeling really unsure and rusty, but it started to come around pretty quickly, and after not too long, I was starting to see and shoot in a way that felt comfortable to me, and getting some nice results.

I can not tell you how good it felt to want to carry a camera and want to take good images with it, and then going out and doing so. It's been a rough few months for all of us, and to be blunt summer is my least favorite season, especially here in the Bay Area with boring blue skies and a fairly slow and frequently boring set of birding options, and fall is always a time of rebirth for me and my image making -- but this year feels even more so.

I have been carrying the camera, but often, not even turning it on. Almost as if it was an excuse to be out there and not the reason -- the reason being simply a need to not be inside at the desk one minute longer. Having gotten out a few times, I feel the stress receding and the motivation returning, and that can't be a bad thing.

It's early for a day trip out to the wildlife refuges for us, but the reports are showing the sandhill cranes have arrived, and so Laurie and I are heading (by the time you see this: have headed) out to Merced NWR and San Luis NWR to do some early scouting, look for photo opportunities, and, well, be outside, actually leave the county for the first time in over six months, and try to soak it up and take it in.

Increasing the frequency of 6FPS

Last issue I asked opinions on increasing the frequency of 6FPS by publishing a mini-issue of For Your Consideration two weeks off from the main issue. The feedback was positive, at this point I'm still considering it, but I've also come to think a bigger thing I want to tackle first is to increase the imagery in this main newsletter -- which has taken on new priority now that I'm actually making images again. I will continue to figure out if the special FYConsideration issue makes sense, and if so, I'll fire it up down the road.

VOTE! Make sure you VOTE!

We are under a month to the election. My ballot arrived a couple of days ago and I'm starting to fill it out. I expect to drop it off at an early pick up location within the next week and be done with it. This is my official bully pulpit demand that if you are eligible to vote, that you do so. I'm not telling you who to vote for -- that's between you and you -- but last election turned on about 70,000 votes, so out of everyone voting, it doesn't take many to change a result.

You may not love either candidate, but it doesn't matter. Not voting for the one you think is better makes it one vote easier for the one you dislike more to win. Don't throw away votes on third party candidates to make a statement, and don't stay home. Those actions help the candidate you least want to win.

So please -- get out there and vote.

And with that, on with the show!

What's New from Chuq?

Looking for the Photography Easy Button

I got into a bit of a discussion with a friend and fellow photographer recently, when he said:

Too much talk about sky replacements these days and not enough about how to photograph them better: Richard Wong

My response was People don't want skills, they want an easy button. That will always be a differentiation between a "serious" photographer and a "casual" one. Whether anyone but "serious" photographers will care is open for discussion. (probably not).

This ties into many of the ongoing discussions among "serious" photographers, whether it's "improper" photo manipulation, the idea of trophy hunting for images rather than creating your own unique images, and a the general ranting and whining about how people's phones can't take "real" images (hint: they absolutely can).

For the purposes of this discussion, or for that matter any discussion where I throw out the phrase "serious photographer", here's how I define that term:

  • A photographer that uses a camera with removable and interchangeable lenses

  • A photographer that routinely does post processing on images beyond hitting an auto button or laying on a filter or preset.

That second one is important because there are now many good, serious photographers who use primarily or exclusively a phone camera but who do significant (and interesting) post processing work on the images. This separates them from the "click and post" Instagrammers and the more casual image takers.

I've talked about this topic before, back when I took a detailed look at Luminar, which was way back in the before times (January). The ease and quality of the sky replacement tool both caught my attention and worried me, because it was a clear sign that the easy button was taking on new territory. That has been the trend in digital photography since day one: I have images I took over a decade ago that at the time took me hours to process and get them where I wanted them. In reprocessing them today, I can get the job done in minutes (often less than 10) -- and they're a higher quality image.

The tools keep changing and improving. A side effect of this is the ongoing commodization of photography; what used to take lots of practice and building a skill set to accomplish in making a photograph has now been bundled into an easy button or a preset or a set of tools like Luminar, and once that happens, the photographers who's business models depended on those skill sets find themselves increasingly marginalized out of the market by the sheer number of really good images now being created by images takers that used to be reserved for the image makers.

Now, I'm not declaring this heresy and demanding it be burned at the stake. Neither am I saying that it is the future of photography and we should all joyously adopt it into our lives. What is is -- is reality. There is this constant march to make the difficult in photography easier and available to the casual user. In general, I think this is a good thing -- let's make this endeavor we love more accessible to more people.

Having said that, though, if you're one of those who's business got wiped out by the onslaught of easy, I sympathize. I've seen that happen before in writing, and we've seen it in music, and we're seeing it in computers with app development where it's way harder to make a buck because people have decided apps should be free. And we're seeing it with photography, and it's going to continue. Whether we like that or not is irrelevant.

I do believe that over time many photographers get used to the newer technologies and learn how to adopt and adapt it. But the more stuff that becomes routinely easy to do, the less people need to hire specialists that do it for them, shrinking the market.

What's unclear is where that leaves us enthusiasts. We are increasingly becoming a niche group, much like vinyl enthusiasts in music, woodworkers who insist on hand tools and the like.

My suggestion: don't worry about that, just continue to enjoy what you're doing. if you're happiness with what you're doing depends on others validating it for you, you're doing it wrong, and that's the problem, not the increasingly powerful easy button.

Start somewhere. And sometimes, getting started is the hard part.

For Your Consideration

Photography

Birds, Birding, and the Outdoors

Health and Fitness

  • Interior Department Finalizes eBike Regulations For National Parks: they are to be treated like non-powered bikes under the final regulations. As an e-bike owner, I think this is a bad decision; however, as an e-bike owner, I think a lot of the attempts to restrict them severely or ban them are just as bad. There's a middle ground that needs to be found, since e-bikes are a wonderful accessibility tool for people -- like me -- who no longer can physically do the walking. Trail enthusiasts have to get past the idea that if you can't do 10 mile hikes you don't deserve access, especially given our aging population that is interested in enjoying the outdoors.

Technology Nerdery

Fun Stuff

The Pandemic and Black Lives Matter

See you Soon!

And with that, I'll see you in Jult with the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along.Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq (chuqui@mac.com)

(P.S.: some links in this newsletter may point to products at Amazon; these are affiliate links and if you use them to buy a product, I get a small cut of the sale. This doesn't make me rich, but it does help pay my web site bills. If you use the link to buy something, thank you. If you prefer not to, that's perfectly okay, also.)

About 6FPS and Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqui@mac.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.