Camera work

Sled hill, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Yesterday I started reading the book Stieglitz, Camera work which is a collection of photography images and essays published in the magazine Camera Work: "[it] was a quarterly photographic journal published by Alfred Stieglitz from 1903 to 1917 that was known for its high-quality reproductions and its effort to establish photography as a fine art." The introductory essay was quite deep, providing insight in the early stages of photography as a unique art form. And the photos are inspiring even today.

To provide some contrast to the fine art aspects and the roots of modern photography, Kottke.org pointed to an angry but entertaining posting titled Photography is for Jerkoffs: "5) Take pictures of everyday shit from stupid angles but make sure it's all SYMMETRICAL and that it isn't MOVING."

I guess you do have very different views about photography. And from the earliest times, the tension between "art" and "commercial" photography remains. My photography is something different - you could say "snapshots", or "personal", or "not art/commercial" - but at least it is mine. Such as the photo here, where I tried to capture some motion - not symmetrical and moving, and of course blurry.

I ordered from eBay (my first time shopping there) an accessory for my LX3, "Lens Adapter UV Filter Set for Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3". I think this allows better use of the camera in a snowstorm or such bad conditions - with the adapter (extension tube) I don't need to protect the lens so much, and I can also try out various filters to experiment with photography. I'm thinking about getting a polarizing filter, and for next summer also a neutral density filter to get motion blur even in bright daylight.