“Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.”
—George Carlin (1937-2008)
Photo Quality and the Drunk Doll
This scene above was exactly like this when I found it, a mere block away from our flat. I touched nothing. I rearranged nothing.
Bizarre, eh?
At the time, I found myself wishing I had my Nik-o-Brick D850 and tripod so as to record a gigantic, high-quality, digital file. But all I had with me was my iPhone.
Then I got to thinking…
What is really important about this composition? Should textbook image quality be a priority in this case?
My answer for today: No. I think it’s really about those two key elements that catch your hairy eyeball–the helter-skelter-abandoned-scary-Suzie doll on the bench, and the empty Estrella Damm beer can on the ground. OK, maybe that bit of graffiti could be a third element–gotta have things in threes, dontcha know.
Bottom line: In this case, and maybe in the case of many of your street photos it’s more about the message than it is about squeezing out maximum pixel quality and image size (as you might want to do in a landscape).
In this case, the picture tells a story (or presents a mystery?) and it doesn’t really matter so much if there is excess noise, or a bit of motion blur, or the shadows are blocked, or the highlights are clipped or… or… or ad nauseam.
Just my bumbling opinion, in any case.
Dr. Bob Moorehead’s Poem
The doll and the beer can may bring one to ponder the state of things in the world, in our country, and in our homes these days. Well, it did me anyway.
It turns out that Dr. Bob Moorehead had something to say on this subject some 25 years back… and the words are mighty apropo still.
Some have attributed these words to the comic, language genius, and social critic, George Carlin (thus my opening quote), but, no, it apparently wasn’t penned by him, nor was it written by Jeff Dickson or the Dalai Lama.
To wit:
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