I don't look for poetry... - DPChallenge Forums

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED

09/09/2016 07:05:05 PM · #1

So this is probably a useless thread, but I discovered something very interesting on the poetry challenge.

It's been a crazy time around here, and I wasn't able to vote on vacation. Since getting home a week ago, I've been swamped and haven't voted as much as I should have.

So last night, last minute, I figured I'd better vote on poetry. I had grand visions earlier in the week of actually writing poems, though it's definitely not my bailiwick.

So as I voted, I tried not to vote on the photo as it was -- I tried to hear or feel a poem.

There were some absolutely wonderful photos, but they seemed to just stand by themselves. I didn't feel poetry in them. But they would have normally been my favorites in the challenge.

I wasn't going to write and poems, because I was incredibly tired. But as I voted, a few of them just needed a poem. They exuded a poem. How could I not write it?

And those photos were not my usual type of photos.

It started with this one:

and then these were added:

Bear's really deserved one, but my brain gave out before it happened.

Yet some of the best "photos" as I think of photography didn't want poems.

Is that why we have the, for lack of better terms, the artsy fartsy crowd vs the documentarians? Do you hear poetry when looking at photography? Do our photos lack verse? I always saw them as two separate identities, and never saw a need for verse. I'm thinking I've been missing a lot.

tanguera

Nikon D750

09/09/2016 08:09:06 PM · #2

Very interesting observation, Wendy.

pixelpig

Sony Alpha a55

Sony DT 1.8/50mm SAM

09/09/2016 08:19:51 PM · #3

Oooh YEAH! I so agree! Well said.

mariuca

Fujifilm X-T30

Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS

09/10/2016 04:58:38 PM · #4

Wendy, your last sentence needs an answer from pretty much every person who uses eyes and brain. I am away now but I'll definitely get back to this.
Last but not least, thanks for your comment and appreciation of my picture.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

09/10/2016 05:07:01 PM · #5

Originally posted by vawendy:

Do you hear poetry when looking at photography? Do our photos lack verse? I always saw them as two separate identities, and never saw a need for verse. I'm thinking I've been missing a lot.

I guess

sfalice hasn't gotten here yet (I think she's more familiar with this), but there is a genre called "ekphrastic" writing based on/related to a specific piece of visual/physical art.

posthumous

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

09/10/2016 06:22:18 PM · #6

I also felt like some photos begged for poems, while others not. But I couldn't put these into two neat categories, like "documentary" and "artsy." Sometimes a documentary shot hints at a story that is rich for poetry. Other times, an "artsy" shot is so lovely I don't want to add anything to it, including words. Honestly, I was more inspired by titles than images, at least this time around.

pixelpig

Sony Alpha a55

Sony DT 1.8/50mm SAM

09/11/2016 11:34:20 AM · #7

Ray Bradbury � 'Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.'

NiallOTuama

Google Pixel 2

09/12/2016 03:51:19 AM · #8

very interesting. i think you just articulated something that i have a tough time articularing. cheers! (and thanks for the poem!)

blindjustice

Canon EOS-60D

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

09/13/2016 03:59:24 PM · #9

Perhaps it is because I am a fumbling novice at taking "technical pictures" the likes of rock-star Wendy, but I only look for poetry.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

09/13/2016 04:57:22 PM · #10

Originally posted by blindjustice:

Perhaps it is because I am a fumbling novice at taking "technical pictures" the likes of rock-star Wendy, but I only look for poetry.

I used to only see the technicals. It's still what I see more than anything. The lighting is something that sings to me, but that's still a technical. But that's as close as I get to poetry. That's why I keep trying to "get" the lighting working.

blindjustice

Canon EOS-60D

09/13/2016 07:13:16 PM · #11

Originally posted by vawendy:

Originally posted by blindjustice:
Perhaps it is because I am a fumbling novice at taking "technical pictures" the likes of rock-star Wendy, but I only look for poetry.

I used to only see the technicals. It's still what I see more than anything. The lighting is something that sings to me, but that's still a technical. But that's as close as I get to poetry. That's why I keep trying to "get" the lighting working.

Here's some unsolicited flattery, you've got an envious amount of left and right brain photography, (except for the parts the squirrels have eaten, or that you left on the road during one of your perilous adventures.)

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

09/13/2016 09:59:34 PM · #12

That's very kind of you, but my brother told me the truth a long time ago. My brain ended up in a mud puddle one day when I sneezed.

He also told me I could be replaced by a dirty dishrag.

I guess dishrags are brainless. Who would have known? :P

NikonJeb

Nikon D850

09/14/2016 12:52:49 PM · #13

Originally posted by posthumous:

+1

What he said....

I think it's funny that Wendy of all people put this forth....her images just tell me so many stories so often that I can literally "hear" what I view in them.

Here is a stellar example of one that just screams stories......

Who can see this one and not hear it????

But others are just like Don said......just there for reverential viewing......

And there are those ones that just make you smile, speak to you, beg for a story, yet tell one at the same time.....

At least for me, anyway.....YMMV