riomaro's photostream  

This collection of photos is primarily a notebook or journal for documenting my peripatetic interests. Also a notepad for remembering places and things. And for learning about the [too many] features of my cameras.

If any of my photographs deserve the epithet "artistic," it is almost always by accident, and due more to whatever talent for observation I have than to my technique.

It occurred to me after seeing several hundreds or perhaps thousands of flickr photos, that photographers can be divided roughly into two categories: 1. those who are more interested in showing off their cameras and lenses, their technique, and their ability to photoshop all reality out of their images; and 2. those who want to show a slice of that reality, without letting artistic pretensions get in the way.

Those in category #1 can be spotted right away by one or more of these signs: 1. their names appear watermarked on their photos; 2. the subject of their photos, animate or inanimate, have no blemishes or imperfection; 3. their colors and lighting effects cannot be found in nature; 4. they work or aspire to work for a postcard company; 5. the comments they elicit are almost always about technique and composition, not the subjects of the photos.

A camera is in a way like a dog: you have to walk it and keep an eye on things.

Non-photographic interests:

found objects
design, esp. incorporating found objects
Bertolt Brecht
cooking
wabi-sabi
critical thinking
surfing the net
photography of daily life
Situationist International
modern art, esp. Arp, Calder, Miro, Schwitters, Dada
Firesign Theater
Classical music, esp. Mozart, Bach, Ravel, Sibelius, Cage, Milhaud, Poulenc, Bartok, Scandinavian wind music
Jazz: Ellington, Ella, Mingus, Davis, Coltrane