Archive for the ‘Polls’ Category

Repetition, photo by Kajsa Stolberg

Hello!  Kajsa here for the weekend post.  The last poll we did asked which late photographer you would shadow if given the chance, and Ansel Adams had the largest response with Henri Cartier-Bresson in close second.  I can understand these choices given each one’s expertise and reputation. It’s always great to hear all of your responses and to see how different everyones tastes are so I hope you’ll participate in this week’s poll too.
This week I’m curious to know if your photography reflects your personality.  Are you a naturally shy person who opens up and becomes adventurous with your camera in hand?  Or maybe you’re an outgoing, outspoken person who finds photography to be a quieter way to express yourself?  Personally, I’m not the type of person who will get in your face when we’re talking and I stay true to that behind the camera.  I’m drawn to geometrical shapes and repetitive patterns because I don’t have to confront anyone or step on anyone’s toes to get my shot. Now think about your own work…  and answer this poll in the right-side column: Do your photographs capture your personality? Feel free to explain with a comment!

Simple objects in the style of Walker Evans. Photo by Kajsa Stolberg

Kajsa here today and as we finish off January I’m looking at the results of the last poll, “What is your New Year’s (photography-related) resolution?” with the majority of you striving to take more pictures.  We’ll see how each of us owns up to our resolutions come next December, but I wish everyone luck!

The next poll is in consideration of our forefathers in photography. One of my favorite classes in college was The History of Photography where I was introduced to everything from pinhole photography to debates on the exploitation of human images found in modern magazines. Many of our tests covered the lives and work of the prominent photographers in history and I still find it interesting to reflect on their lives and the influence they’ve all had on photography as we know it today. Photography has taken many roles in its relatively short lifetime and these photographers made something great of the medium that has evolved from an experimental process into a way to document history and eventually has become a major form of art. How cool would it be to practice landscape photography with Ansel Adams in the West, or follow Diane Arbus and her social outcasts, do portrait photography of the famous with Richard Avedon, capture the decisive moment with Cartier-Bresson, document the Great Depression with Walker Evans or Dorothea Lange, photograph World War II with W. Eugene Smith, help establish photography as an art form with Stieglitz, Steichen, Weston, or Strand, or be at the scene of grisly crimes with Weegee? There are too many late greats to list them all, but from this list,

Bunny Island, Kajsa Stolberg (1/4000s @f5.6, 80mm, ISO 400)

Kajsa here after the holiday break and we’re talking the new year.  I always forget about the New Year’s resolution tradition… heck, the snow’s usually melted before I acknowledge it – like the year I promised myself to start yoga and finally took my first (and last) class in August.  This year is different though and I am going to take the resolution seriously.  My new year’s resolution is to get out and shoot more pictures.  I’m not breaking any ground with this, or claiming to be unique, all I’m saying is that my current output needs to be bumped up a notch.  So, with that said, I want to know what your resolution is this year and we’re going to find out with a poll:

 Loading ...

Sunsets and Sailboats, adjusted using Lightroom preset

Kajsa here, and I’ve got a question for you all.  I’ve been helping John with his blog for a few weeks now, and it’s about time I get a better sense for the crowd that follows him.  I’ve seen the polls and responses that he’s posted before, so I’m going to post one of my own.  Today I want to ask how important your viewer’s reaction is to your work:

 Loading ...