2012
Slow Photography Movement
No, I’m not going to discuss how to keep things sharp during long exposures, time lapse or using a view camera. My new quest in life is to create a slow photography movement, not unlike the slow food movement. I’ve noticed a somewhat alarming trend in recent years, especially during 2011/12. Yesterday as I made my way home along a slow, winding dirt road in central Vermont I listened to a story on NPR about campaign ads, most specifically online ads. The report stated that during the ’08 campaign YouTube viewers watched 1 billion minutes of Obama campaign videos online, that’s a collective 2,000 years worth! The point was that media is being generated and consumed at an unprecedented rate and volume and in the case of advertising can be modified and redistributed rapidly depending on effectiveness using real time data.
With the rise of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, 500px, Google +, and others photographers are falling into the general scrum of all media producers who are vying for the short attention spans of online viewers. Think about the venues in which you share your work. Now think about how long one of your images, or anyone else’s for that matter stays “visible” in the stream. I bet not very long. Take 500 Pixels for example. If you post an image during a moderately high volume period of the day it can easily slip to the 3rd, 4th or 5th page within a matter of minutes, unless of course it gets a lot of votes. Getting votes of course means that your image is “popular” (notice how I didn’t say good) and will likely stay near the top of the heap longer. The images that stay near the top of the heap longer tend to garner more attention and subsequently more “followers” which in turn can easily generate more votes for the next image you post, thus perpetuating the cycle.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but can lead the unsuspecting photographer into a rabbit hole of sorts. First, because the feedback loop doesn’t lend itself to careful reflection and critique it may foster false impressions about ones work: either that it’s better than it is or unfortunately the opposite, that it’s not as good as it really is. Secondly, in an attempt to “keep up” or become “noticed” I’ve seen a lot of photographers loosen their standards for what images they share online. The reality is that it’s impossible for most mere mortals to create truly great images at a pace that’s necessary to keep up with the online Joneses and their insatiable appetites. This is even more problematic when the definition of great seems be capturing an extreme and improbable weather phenomenon or occurance. The result is a lot of second or third tier images being released onto the world, which does nothing to promote our or your craft. Finally, I don’t know about you but I work damn hard for the images I’m most proud of and get really depressed when I can measure their online lifespan in minutes or at most hours. There are generations of bacteria living on my doorknobs longer than some of my images are enjoyed by the masses online.
It’s my feeling that landscape and nature photography should neither be created nor consumed in this manor. The slow food movement has become popular in part as a response to our culture’s increased consumption of and reliance on heavily processed, factory-farmed food. We want convenience, volume and speed. However, this type of food doesn’t nurture our bodies nearly as well as whole food, which of course can lead to all kinds of health issues. In addition, we miss out on an almost equally important facet of food; the spiritual and social nutrition that comes from preparing and enjoying a meal with friends and family.
The same can be said about our images. Here are a few ideas for incorporating “Slow Photography” into your life and craft.
* Print your work. Better yet, print it and show it. Apply for gallery exhibits, hang prints in your house or office, give it away to neighbors, I don’t care just get it on paper. The medium is much more conducive to long-term enjoyment than a computer monitor.
* Limit your online posts to when you really have something great to share. Obviously something great is highly subjective and I don’t mean to stifle your creativity but you’re only as good as the last image on your wall. Do you really want to be known as a great HDR cat photographer?
* Join a camera club and preferably one that doesn’t meet online. Help organize shooting trips, slideshows, how tos and meet and greets. I don’t know about you but I have a lot more fun with my analogue friends than the digital ones. Plus pizza and beer tastes a lot better in person.
* Invite your friends over for a slideshow night. Your friends already think you’re an awesome photographer and should be published in Nat Geo so there’s nothing to fear and they’ll love seeing all your new work.
* Slow down when shooting, editing and processing. Enjoy the time you have in the field, after all it should be about connecting with the natural world and not merely harvesting the light to share online. Also edit carefully and process well. Take the time to learn good processing skills and practice, practice, practice.
How about you, do you have any other ideas for helping to further the Slow Photography Movement (SPM) and improve the health of our visual bodies?
This is a recent image made in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I was leading a field trip for the students in my summer digital photography class to photograph the lupines surrounding the picturesque village of Sugar Hill. As everyone disbanded and headed for home I stuck around to photograph the last of the summer light on this field. I’ve been after a good shot of this location for a number of years and the right conditions final presented themselves, no wind, beautiful blooms and summer twilight reflecting on the meadow to accentuate the magenta and purple flowers.
Technical Details: Canon 5DII, TS-E24mm , 3 stop grad ND f22 @ 3.2 sec ISO 320
Kurt Budliger is a full-time professional photographer specializing in landscape, outdoor lifestyle and fly-fishing photography. He is a frequent contributor to Vermont Life Magazine and works with a variety of other editorial and commercial clients throughout the year. His fine art prints of the Vermont and New England landscape can be found in many private collections around the country. Kurt teaches a variety of photography classes throughout the year, both in formal college settings as well as more informal field based workshops.
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Gorgeous image! Love the glow of the lupines! I would love to know why you chose f/22 for this shot. I think I have just spent 30 minutes exploring the depths of this photo, and it was time well spent!
Hi Deb, thanks for the kind words. I actually needed f22 for DOF on this as the camera is right on top of the foreground. Even with the forward tilt of the lens things weren’t quite there with anything less. I could have done a little focus bracketing/blending with a more optimal aperture but I hate spending time on the computer and prefer to do it in camera. Ask me in another few months and I’m likely to have another opinion though
Love it! So much can be said about this. I used to post every day to flickr and 500px, and my photos got a good amount of attention. It was empty and meaningless attention, though. Photography is art, not a media frenzy…and should be approached as such. Since last September I have ceased posting on these kinds of sites in order to refine my personal art and concentrate on the more “concrete” aspects of photography. It is incredibly more fulfilling, and without the online “comment traps” in your ear, your development, productivity, and creative vision actually increases. Wonderful, wonderful post.
Love the shot too. The flower color matching the sky color is very effective in tying the frame together. That’s also one gorgeous church.
Thanks Matt and good for you!
I haven’t been visiting and commenting on Ian’s blog lately because I’ve been busy but I’ve seen all three of you guys have been darn busy! You’re post is a really good look of the state of social media and photography.
I have both a Flickr and 500px account. I like your observation about 500px. In my opioin, that website is a joke and I’m thinking about canceling my account there. Both 500px and even Flickr seems to be a popularity contest at times. I’m not saying I’m a super talented photographer but there are many photos on Flickr and 500px that are ok but get tons of views based on who the photographer is and how many contacts they have. Even the comments seem to be the generic “great shot” or “cool colors”. When I make a comment I like to say a couple neat things about a picture and add meaningful comments.
Like you I’ve begun to only post my best images online. I won’t even go out and take pictures unless the weather and sky are what I want. By doing that I think it forces me to really appreciate the one keeper I finally get instead of being an image factory of sorts.
Looks like the scenery in Vermont is great this time of year. I really like the overall tone and feel of your image. The contrasting pruples, greens and even the white from the church are prefect compliments. I even like how the pruple flowers act as a directional cue towards the church.
Thanks Van! Something tells me I’m preaching to the choir with the readers of this blog…
Thanks for this Kurt. I’m not sure which I enjoyed more, your wonderful image or refreshing words – so I guess it’s a double bonus round! I have a bit of a corollary to add to your SPM. Having just returned from a brief but furious-paced photo sprint through Colorado and eastern Utah in search of ‘next great photograph’, I witnessed a rather strange phenomenon: photographers arriving at a location, machine gunning a couple dozen bracketed frames and then racing to next set of bookmarked tripod coordinates. About half way into my trip, it occurred to me that I, too, sometimes fall into this “trophy hunting” attitude. The result, however, was missing out on actually seeing and enjoying these spectacles of nature. I realize that I need to slow down more and smell the flowers, so to speak. I was first drawn to photography by the raw beauty and grandeur of the landscape. But if I’m only seeing it through the viewfinder for mere moments, I’m missing the bigger picture. On a different topic; are you saying I shouldn’t post my HDR cat portfolio anymore?
“But if I’m only seeing it through the viewfinder for mere moments, I’m missing the bigger picture.” Kind of reminds me of that TV ad from a bunch of years ago that depicted a large screen TV set up on the rim of the Grand Canyon with everyone huddled in front enjoying the stunning image on screen, the same one that was right in front of them mere steps away.
And no Marc you shouldn’t stop posting to your HDR cat portfolio because your cat is really cool, unlike everyone else’s.
Great post Kurt. Please see my new website: felinehdr.com.
Sorry I just couldn’t resist.
So you’re the guy that owns that url, damn you
It’s for sale if you want it.
Seriously though, your article got me to thinking about the best venue to have your work seen, assuming you are trying to generate income from it. This may seem strange, but I’m not convinced that the web is the best place. Sure, a web presence will get you a lot of views, but that isn’t necessarily going to butter your bread. In fact, I’m starting to think that the more a person’s work is seen, the more outmoded it becomes. After all, photographs are ideas (among other things). Ideas are shared, expanded on, but mostly they are copied. This copy-cat mentality hits on the heart of the problem of displaying our work on the web. Our work starts to lose value the moment we share it with the world.
You’ve articulated something that’s been kicking around in the clutter of my brain without me putting a finger on it and you’re absolutely right on! I go back and forth with the web, kind of like an abusive relationship. I’m tempted to put my energy into more of a brick and mortar approach, especially since there seems to be a bit of a renaissance of sorts for locally produced and sold goods.
I’m personally thinking of throwing myself into the art show world and using the web as a tool for people to find out about me as an artist (i.e., for artist statement, contact info, etc.).
I agree with you. In these day I thinking about haw many hours i spent on social media and internet……..more than i spend in the field with my camera. Internet is a great resource, especially for learn about photography, but sometimes became a drugs.
Thanks for your advice.
Antonio
PS: sorry for my english
Thanks Antonio.
First, superb image! The glow in the lupines and sky is wonderful. The arrangement of flowers lead us right into the image and accentuate the depth. Vibrant, crisp and beautiful.
Regarding your articel? Awesome post! I couldn’t agree more. It seems inevitable that our lives as photographers will have phases that we go through. As we shoot more, we feel we have to do something with all those images. As we post more to flickr type sites, it is easy to get caught up in the instant gratification of the ‘great shot’ comments. People are generally sincere and well intentioned, but the comments rarely force you to do any serious evaluation. Personally, I would rather post one really good image every few weeks, than clutter the web with ‘today’s mediocre shot’.
I recently printed some images for a show and was pleasantly surprised to see how good they looked on paper. Your comment about paper vs. screen is so true. In fact, printing those images made me rethink my workflow, which up till now has been geared towards web presentation. So I totally agree with your suggestion to print and hang some images. Along with that I would suggest that before posting to any site, whittle it down to the best of the best. You will feel good about what you post, and the next time you are in the field you will be more selective and thoughtful about each shot.
Thanks Jeff. Yes processing for web is very different than for print, good for you!
This was a great read, Kurt. It got me thinking, and it definitely made me want to make some prints, and more importantly find a way to share them. On the other hand, the answer to the question of how much imagery is too much imagery is not so cut and dry. Take my post on G+ today as an example (https://plus.google.com/115469569932946930879/posts/P43yZLiSd1p). It was below average, even for me, in terms of the response it received. Then again, it seemed to resonate with you and at least intrigue on other viewer.
The truth is, the only reason anyone got to see that image was that I had time to share something and nothing in particular to share. I dug into my archives, found something that I could never quite get to work in color, and decided to make it work in black and white. The result was not “portfolio grade”, but I like sharing photographs with others even when I wouldn’t want somebody to pay me for a print.
Thanks for provoking thought.
I hear you Kent, and don’t get me wrong I’m not totally bagging on or rebelling against the social media thing. Lord knows I contribute to the chatter often enough. I often think how awesome it would have been to have access to this info and conversation as I was learning photography, and I’ve definitely made a new analogue friend or two because of it. I’m just getting frustrated with the overall pace of the “sharing” online, it doesn’t foster contemplation and appreciation of an image like hanging a fine print on the wall does. I’m just left wishing my images were being enjoyed for more than 20 seconds at a time.
As for your G+ post, I’d hardly say that when you dig through the archives you’re coming even close to the bottom of the barrel or adding to the “noise” online. I think one of the reasons your image resonated with me was because I’ve seen so many of this general subject from you in color and I really liked the monochrome, it was so different. Keep up the awesome work!
Beautiful, what a fine shade of magenta permeating the entire image. First time commenting on this, but you are so right on! I’ve been thinking about the same thing for awhile. Now I should say it’s my nature to shy away from the online “frenzy” thing. When I finally got the good toys a few years ago and kicked my long-simmering love of photography into gear, my desire was to go out and shoot, see new places, experience new things, and record beautiful images of it. So now, several continents later, I’m finally sharing by building a website and doing a little blogging. But before any of that, I bought a nice printer and filled a (big) house’s walls with my photos. Now I want to show them. My first impulse was definitely not to share them online (except with my FB friends, and photo club cohorts). I did slideshows after every trip.
Your post just came at a good time, since I may have been straying into dangerous territory. Sometimes I think everybody around me is going off to some other virtual place, and here I sit in a meadow, not a smart phone to my name, contemplating the organic world.
An idea for slow photography: if you get to a place expecting great light, or if the light was great but started to fade as you huffed and puffed to your spot, slow down, take a deep breath, and look around. There is still something to photograph in 99% of cases (might just be better than what you were planning to shoot). And if only average photos are in the cards, slow down anyway and enjoy this beautiful planet we call home!
Amen brother! Send a link when your website is done, would love to see it!
Kurt – spot on post! And it resonates in so many areas of life, not just photography. I grew up as part of the MTV generation, where attention spans were driven to shorter and more abrupt cycles. A flashed image here, sound bite here. And now with the internet, I succumb to even shorter bites of information. In fact, it is implicitly understood that for effective advertising, blog posts, etc., appealing to the short attention span is ideal. I see it in my children (aside from my oldest having ADHD, which on wonder is so dramatically on the rise). I’m getting spent trying to keep up. The latest this, the best that. Although I intrinsically know this isn’t how I want to live, we also have to compete in a world that is out of our immediate control.
So kudos for bringing this topic up regarding photography. Like so much in life, a slow, holistic absorption delivers a much more satisfying experience. And I S-L-O-W-L-Y absorbed this image and love it! Born and raised in New England I can feel the evening in this image. One of my favorite songs is Time Passages by Al Stewart, and I especially love the vivid imagery in the line “All round the day was going down slow / Night like a river beginning to flow”. Always brings to mind a smoothly developing dusk such as this. Excellent comp and exposure, and I’m always drawn to blues and purples. Well done!
P.S. – Pizza and beer aren’t slow food, but they are certainly best enjoyed with friendly company!
Right on Don, thanks for your thoughts.
P.S. I eat my pizza s l o w l y, unfortunately I drink beer fast
Kurt,
Excellent observations and I am happy that someone finally put it into print on a widely read blog! I touched on this a little bit a while ago (see the section I call “Fotolosophy” on my website http://mountainmemories.zenfolio.com ) as there seems to be a lot of clicking the shutter release without taking time to think since the digital age of photography began.
To me, one of the best and worst “fast photography” gizmos to come along is the cell phone camera – best in that it can record news incidents and accidents, and worst in that people try to use it for landscapes all too often and then send them to photo websites and email them to every friend and relative on their contact lists.
As for pizza and beer, good stuff but some nice red wine can be savored and enjoyed slowly.
Great post, Kurt! Enjoyed reading all the comments, too, as this is a great subject you touched upon. I briefly attempted to throw myself into the social media photog scene with guns ablazin’. It didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t really my cup of tea. To me, it seems like one big popularity contest and who can get the most followers. Sadly, it’s happening more and more in every facet of our interaction. Mediocrity is becoming the norm and it’s even more disturbing that it’s widely accepted.
Thanks Travis
Completely agree, Kurt. Personally, I use my 500px site as a quick web gallery and really don’t care about comments. Sharing work online and maintaining an online presence is part of the business these days, but all of your bullet points are substantive and certainly seconded by me! Excellent post, man!!
Thanks Tony
Great advice. The social networks have value but living FOR them is a potentially fatal disease (to your photography). Good (slow) food for thought here.
Thanks for writing this blog post. I agree with you and coming from someone starting out I think a lot of the “practice” of social media is counter productive.
Many of the responses on 500px are intended to not show praise of the image but to increase views of their own work. You see many times “Nice shot, check out my work!” While scanning other images uploaded about the same time as mine I see the same comments “pasted” into other photos that either are better or much worse than my own (I’m not saying I’m great, please don’t read it that way).
Many times it depends on the time uploaded. I have uploaded images of my own that I really liked to only get 12 views. It’s depressing! Notice no one ever gives an actual critique. People want followers, they won’t say a cross word or give anyone a negative comment.
I will say this – 500px has shown me amazing post processing work!
[...] Slow Photography Movement | Dreamscapes Team No, I’m not going to discuss how to keep things sharp during long exposures, time lapse or using a view camera. My new quest in life is to create a slow [...]
What a great read, Kurt! I have had this idea bouncing around in my head as well and I really appreciate your articulation. I think your slow photo movement will definitely catch on. I see many photogs wandering away from the media frenzy to evaluate their mission and purpose.
Recently I have increased my participation on the many bandwagons and am working to keep their place in my life confined to (what I consider) their strict purpose: entertainment. Social Media is a time-suck and is there for people to wander around. Sometimes they stumble on images/artists they want to follow, sometimes they just “like” or +1 things, and those aren’t a statement on me, my art, or anything else of substance, it is just how the post/image struck them that day. While I enjoy the exposure social media allows (it is how I came to this blog in the first place) I still have to make the active decision on what to click, what to read, and what images resonate with me. Similarly, I have to focus attention on the quality of my posts/images so that when someone does land on my stuff, I am not embarrased by my phone shot of my dogs (no cats here!)
Take your time-out and switch to pinhole with self-made cameras. Real fun. We did it with students in two schools in Italy. The exhibition was a success.
[...] Slow Photography Movement | Dreamscapes Team No, I’m not going to discuss how to keep things sharp during long exposures, time lapse or using a view camera. My new quest in life is to create a slow [...]