Positive thinking.

Salutation to the Dawn.

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of beauty
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow only a vision
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.
- Kalidasa, Indian Poet.

Cheap cameras have always been there.

Sometimes is tiring to read articles or blog posts of people whining about how cheap digital cameras (specially entry level Digital SLR´s) has made easy for "amateurs" to shoot their own photos, I find this funny because it has been like that since the early times of photography, yes we are talking about the very start of the XX century!

Skipping the Camera Oscura and Daguerrotype (which are relevant to the history of photography but not really to the point of this post) we arrive at the time when George Eastman started the philosophy of democratizing photography (and making tons of money too ;) it isn´t like he was af the founder of a photography for all NGO) In other words he was the precursor that made Pictorialists angry because he sold the really popular Brownie camera. This little camera started a movement called Vernacular photography: people everywhere had the chance to have a camera and shoot pictures of their family, their vacations, their dogs, cats, everything, they were able to capture the very moment when they were together and they were smiling forever in a photograph without any kind of complication, also this movement gave birth to photojournalism, Crime Scene photography, sports photography, etc. At that time Pictorialists were a strong movement but encapsulated in their own bubble far from the real world in some ways and distant from what the vernacular movement was.

Around this era an 8 years old chap started to compile photo albums of his family life, vacations, etc. His name was Jacques Henry Lartigue, a kid from a wealthy family who lived in Paris which had access to the latest and most fanciest gear thanks to his father who was also a photographer, but the gear wasn´t what made Lartigue a revolution in photography it was the unique way in that he captured the life of Paris in that time; photos of people jumping in the air were amongst the repertoire of amateur photographers but what made Lartigue was the ingenuity and flair he used to do it in a much better and unique way matching the change of attitude Paris had in that time capturing the essence of how people, animals and things were around that time, he photographed sporting events too at some time, his work was discovered when he was around 70 years old and was claimed as the genius he was and his photo albums are a treasure to the photography world.

And here´s the thing to those who are or aspire to be professional shooters: Were we any different than the Vernaculars at our humble beginnings? Weren´t we using cheap cameras to shoot photos? How´s an AE1 program, Pentax K1000, Olympus Pen or Nikon F2 we got cheap with some lenses any different from the people shooting now with Rebels and trying to find their way in photography today?. If not we wouldn´t have Annie Leibovitz, Joe Mcnally, Michael Grecco, Patrick Demarchellier, or any of the good photographers we have today.

The state of what photography is today wasn´t paved only by artsy fartsy photographers it was also paved by how popular photography evolved in its own history time frame. Some say that the expansion of Digital SLR´s has changed the market and while it is true that it has changed partly because of the number of players in it today the real issue is that we should look at content providers and stock houses as the primary place to blame how the market is today because they are the ones who are offering pennies for photos or doing things for "exposure".

There´s not a single change on what photography has been in terms of how accessible the gear is, there has always been equipment for everyone out there, so stop complaining that entry level digital SLR´s cameras are cheap because if it weren´t for the democratization of photography that has been present in all the photo history neither of us (everyone watching this and me) would be shooting photos today.

:) I really hope this blog entry finds you well, have an awesome weekend!

So here I am.

Well I have played with the idea of making a blog before but never actually gotten into doing until today, I will be trying to add content in the near future :) , what will I be writing... that´s a tough one... I can assure you I won´t be writing to try to sell you kits of gear or pushing you to buy any brand of gear neither, as a matter of fact I will try to keep the articles/tutorials without camera or lighting brands (today you can do virtually the same stuff with every camera in the market they have progressed so much that in the end it is a personal decision and not a life or death choice).

For now I can link you to an interview that my dear friend and great photographer Don Giannati (Wizwow) has in LE and an Article I did as a guess writer for LE too!:

http://www.lighting-essentials.com/eduardo-frances-san-salvador-beauty-photographer/

http://www.lighting-essentials.com/posing-and-lighting-the-synergy-and-concept-guest-post-by-eduardo-frances/

Wishing you the best

Eduar