Oxherding Is Fun

A very well respected photographer spoke at our last CapMac photography group meeting whose main passion was portraiture via black and white film photography — his art is excellent.  While he embraced digital workflow in his commercial work he called HDR the “tube top of modern photography” and he did not veil his disdain for flickr and its content. Not long ago at this same meeting Trey Ratcliff spoke to a packed house on his HDR photography.  The juxtaposition of traditional versus leading edge could not be more apparent.

I have this ideal that artists are explorers ready to tackle new frontiers and the tools to get them there but that is not the case universally.  HDR is just one more tool to see the world in a new way and create new art.  The technology digital arts curve is still bending upward and dragging photography along with it.  And the democratization of photography has exploded into a nuclear column rising at a breakneck speed; but it has not even mushroomed yet.  Although his overriding message was a good one, simply: “Follow your passion”, but I am wondering if that include a passion for tube tops?!?!

Anyway, here is my HDR for today, a subject fitting for the “tube top of modern photography”.

Photography is dead. Long live photography!