Prompt
If I understood, would I have this look on my face? ~ Alan Alda
On Writing
Breathe the sentence in. Exhale the sentence. Inhale and exhale each word. Now inhale and exhale the sentence. Then, go!
There is only one rule, keep your hand moving.
Don’t worry about grammar, spelling, or punctuation. If you feel stuck, keep writing anyway. Try going back to the prompt and write it out until other words arise, then write those—or, repeat the last word you wrote again and again until new words appear—or, write, “I am stuck,” or “I can’t think of anything,” as long as you keep your hand moving. Writing is physical, the words will move through your body and come out of your hand—just keep it moving.
Now go – for five, ten, fifteen minutes . .
(when you are done, feel free to share your work in the comments – or share on your own blog)
holly troy ~ sacred folly 
Hi Holly. Below is a first and last paragraph I added to some quotes from the past for your writing prompt 11:
When a photographer asks me if I can do “straight” or “pure” photography, my blank look must have some perplexity in it. “Please tell me about a time in the past when photography was pure?” I ask. The blank stare I get back is telling. These “purists”, as they like to think of themselves, act like photographers like me who use raw files are cheaters, as they speak with sparkling eyes, and pompous gesture about how they produce “perfect, pure” jpegs straight out of the camera. It’s hogwash. To me these sluggards are too damn lazy and uncreative to work with raw files. They would rather let the camera make the choices about adjustments and colors to the jpegs instead of doing it themselves with raw files and then exporting their final adjustments to jpegs. There are many good reasons for letting the camera do all the work for you. Modern digital cameras have very good senses about what they see, and allow people to produce great photos without getting bogged down in the technical aspects of taking a photograph. But I have a problem with ignorant people telling other people what they think “pure” photography is, and acting like they are superior photographers, while seemingly ignorant of the fact their cameras are making them look good. Photography has never been, and never will be, a “pure” art form. The “purists” could learn something by looking back to some photo history:
“To paint or to photograph —
That is the question:
Whether ’tis more to my advantage
to color
Photographic accidents and call
them paintings,
Or squeeze the bulb against
a sea of critics
And by exposure kill them?”*
“It is only a general tendency towards the mysterious and bizarre which these workers have in common; they like to suppress all outlines and details and lose them in delicate shadows, so their meaning and intention become hard to discover. They not only make use of every appliance and process known to the photographer’s art, but without the slightest hesitation, …overstep all legitimate boundaries and deliberately mix up photography with the technical devices of painting and the graphic arts.”†
From “A plea for Straight Photography” by Sadakichi Hartmann, 1904.
“Photography: Essays & Images” Edited by Beaumont Newhall, p.185.
*Sadakichi Hartmann, “Camera Work 6” (April 1904), p.25.
†Originally printed in “American Amateur Photographer 16” (March 1904) pp. 101-109.
I have to admit, I’m very guilty of carrying on photography and working with the mysterious and bizarre that Hartmann complained about for eight pages 116 years ago.
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I love this! I had no idea what “straight” photography is. I thought they might mean analog – with actual film. 🙂
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The issues comes from people who have never used film don’t realize how much manipulation is done with film from processing to printing. The closest to “pure” photography was shooting slide film. Exposer and composition were right there. But then if you printed a slide, all kinds of adjustments were required. If you have ever used Photoshop, the majority of the adjustments come from what was done in darkrooms in the days of film.
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🙂 I used to work at Fotomat when I was in high school. I got to keep all the expired film for my own use. I had so many photos from my punk days (but now they are lost along with the negatives).
I took photography in college in the 90s. I spilled developing chemicals on my foot and got burned!
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I still have film cameras and a darkroom. The darkroom doubles as a recording studio at the moment. It sounds like it was stop bath that burned you feet.
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On another subject. Did you see my latest parody “Livin’ La Vida Lockdown”? I posted it on Sunday.
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I will go check it out! I love your posts.
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