C. M. Franke | Photography

R ecently there has been a HUGE controversy brewing within the photography community regarding the comments of some so-called "rock star photographers," wherein they sell beginners on the admonition to just grab a camera, go out and shoot a wedding [as if that were somehow the time to learn!] and 'fake it until they make it.' Phrases like "spray and pray" have moved over from the world of gunfighting, and military ops (yes, that's where it originated) to now describe a photography technique that consists of popping off countless images in the hopes of capturing a good one. There is also a huge trend toward people being obsessively concerned with marketing themselves as wildly successful photographers; and gaining FB friends, Twitter followers and building up a ginormous fan base of people that will apparently just randomly write checks and send them. There is one key element that gets lost in the mix of all this 'feel good and...

This week I worked on a Single Shot Cinema image that was fairly fresh in mind. I didnt want to put it off for too long, although I did procrastinate it a bit because I knew it would take a while to 'refine the location' (ie: it was shot in a garage that needed about two hours of cleaning to get junk out of camera range) But other than the cleanup and sweep-down, it went very fast, and very smoothly. There is a really unusual aspect to it that I cant reveal until I get the final image worked up in Photoshop, since I dont want to "spoil it" for [all three] people that read this blog. But it's definitely atmospheric!             I n any event, as I was "striking the set" I was once again struck with the realization that these Cinematic Style shots are great - and they let people "star" in an image that looks like a movie, and all that... yet there is another idea that keeps coming back to me. One that 'serves the greater...

A while back I posted a rambling little blurb wherein I debated putting titles on Single Shot Cinema style images. Since I have always loved the title-sequence of films, and it seemed like an exercise in literary skill to come up with cute little monikers for the shots, I went ahead and... came up with cute little monikers for the shots. Just like being at the movies, but with individual images, right?           W ell, in time I came to look at them and realized a few things. First , the titles were essentially 'forcing' viewers toward a narrative direction that they might not have gone in, if left on their own. Essentially, "This is the story you should be seeing." While that is good (if not vital) for a motion picture with a definite theme, it sort of takes away from the Cinematic Style approach to still photography, wherein viewers are brought in with the express purpose of having them make up the 'rest of the movie' in their heads. In a nutshell: It...