photograph by ernst haas
-”The camera doesn’t make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE.”
Ernst Haas
Today’s quote comes from Ernst Haas (1921-1986). Haas was a master of using color in his images and he was not afraid to experiment with motion and blur. A good deal of his work is very impressionistic. I was first drawn to him because of the use of color and his impressionism. It is very appropriate that he speaks about seeing over the issue of what camera you are using. This falls very much in line with my recent post ‘Don’t Be a Lame Photographer‘ where I spoke about unskilled people jumping into photography because they think that it is easy and they don’t need any special skills sets. Over my years of teaching I have had several students come up to me lamenting their poor photographs and saying , ‘Well if only I had a (insert your favorite expensive professional camera name here) I could take better pictures.’ To which I like to reply, ‘You would not take any better pictures, just sharper images that are still weak.’ Too many people still just don’t get it. You have to learn to see before you can photograph effectively. Photography is all about seeing and then having the skill set to properly record it. Just like I quoted Henri Cartier-Bresson in my post last week saying , “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst“, you have to see and you have to practice. Add to this technical knowledge and you have three of the most important elements of photography ; seeing, recording, practicing. So learn it, live it, love it. Heck, you should buy the tee shirt.
Gary Miller
Red Photo Houston Wedding Photographer
Eye Candy and Brain Veggies
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[...] image you can see the influence of Ernst Haas. For more on Haas you should read my post, ‘But You Have to See in Photography‘. I wanted to get a good mixture of old amusement parks and new ones to compare the [...]
[...] time my influences were Ernst Haas and Jay Maisel. You can read more about Haas in my post ‘But You Have to See in Photography.’ I dabbled a little with black and white but that was only when I took a basic darkroom [...]