NOT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

When I was a kid, our family used to take National Geographic magazine.  I will always remember being absolutely stunned by the photographs.

Then, when I was in high school, my parents bought me a 35mm SLR.  I loved that camera (Nikormat FT2).  And I always had a latent desire to take National Geographic quality photos with it.  We all did.  Of course, that never happened.  There might have been one slide (moment of silence for Kodachrome 64) that I took in Greece which might have come a bit close to the average Nat Geo photo.  Then again, probably not.

In Focused Photography, we are not trying to be National Geographic photographers.  Rather, we are simply pointing and shooting so as to record the three dimensional aspects of the building that interests us.

During our recent trip, I started to note how many tourists had either their cameras, phones or tablets up to their eyes as they were taking their pictures.  (Tourists look kind of stupid to begin with, and they look really stupid when they are taking pictures with their iPad.)  And it was just about everyone.  Everyone was in the National Geographic mindset, hoping that this would be the one that is a masterwork.  Or at least the one good enough to post to social media.

We are not National Geographic photographers.  Just like we are not representational artists.  Our photos, like our drawings are merely a matter of recording.  We are not trying to take world class photos.  And our drawings are not art.

The drawing above is of Mausoleum Diocletian in Split, Croatia.  One of my record point and shoot shots that I used to make my drawing and envelope understanding is below.