Palm Springs 98º

Style Vs. Good

I recently read an article from a 1960's Surfer Magazine. The presumption was you either had style or were good, you couldn't be both. With the dawning of the new era of competitive surfing one had to perform all of the "moves" or "tricks" to do well or be the "best".

His point was that all of the tricks or moves were the same and to be good you had to use them. There in lies the problem, if you were a stylist you surfed how you felt and didn't necessarily incorporate all of the tricks or moves into your riding style. To be good you had to give up the individualism and perform as the "judges" expected you to surf. You couldn't be a good surfer if you were a stylish surfer.

This started me thinking about photography and how with post-production work on the computers, the individual photographer's style doesn't necessarily matter. The person working the mouse and keyboard can completely create a "good" image from the original in a few clicks and filters.

I use post production programs and am not married to the old days of film and chemicals, but it does give me pause when I look at an image and wonder if that represents the photographers style or what the editor thought made a good image.

Above two un-worked samples of what I hope is stylistic but still good...

DSLR Dolly Test

DSLR Dolly Test from william Livingston on Vimeo.

Seal Beach March 11, 8:49AM

Abstract Kind Of Day

Some days just don't make sense and you don't know if it's you or the Universe!