Fishing vs. hunting

[michael de kooter]

I agree with you that you never soleley "fish" or "hunt" .

Looking at my own style however, I am mostly a hunter...regardless of weather, time of the day or location I will look for anything that catches my eye ...simple things, beautifull things, stunning things.

Other times I know that a certain kind of photo can only be obtained through planning and waiting, and here the fishing begins.

- michael

[Jonathan Wienke]

I would say I use a combination of styles. Sometimes I go "hunting" around just to see what I can find. if I find a particularly good spot, I will make a note of the best time of day to get the best image, and then come back and "fish" for the shot I want.

[jdemott]

I enjoyed Michael's recent article about styles of shooting.  Both photos are great and the article adds to the enjoyment of the photos.

It has been quite a while since I went shooting with anything other than a camera, but I can recall a number of scouting trips before the start of hunting season--trying to search out likely locations for duck hunting.  When the season began, there were often cold hours before dawn, sitting motionless,  waiting for first light and the chance for a good shot.

Likewise, I'm not much of a fisherman, but the little I've done often involved being willing to move around when the pre-selected fishing spot wasn't productive.

In other words, I found that hunting involves some "fishing" and fishing involves some "hunting."  My photo style is the same way--a mixture of both "hunting" and "fishing."  Sometimes I scout out a location and wait for the light.  When that happens, sometimes I am rewarded, and sometimes I have to move on.  On the other hand, sometimes I am hunting around for some quick shooting and instead of a quick shot I find a spot I just have to come back to for a carefully planned "fishing" shot.

The one constant I'm looking for, regardless of shooting style, is to find the light and to find the mental "zone" that lets me see the light rather than objects.  If I can find that, then I feel the hunting (or the fishing) has been successful.

[Dan Sroka]

Back in college I studied psycholinguistics: the connections between cognition and language. I remember one study which was exploring the difference between the cognitive concepts of "looking" vs "seeing". "Looking" being an active searching with your eyes, while "seeing" is a more passive consumption of whatever is in front of you. This is very similar to the hunter/fisher metaphor.

What is interesting is that the researcher noticed that children blind from birth translated these sight-oriented concepts to their world. A blind child will use her hands differently when "looking at" or "seeing" what is in front of her. When "looking" she actively uses her hands to explore the object, while if she just is "seeing" it, her hands move over it much more casually. Cool stuff. Always amazes me how children learn!

Don't know why I bring this up on this forum, but Ray and my conversation over on "Landscapes and Color" has gotten me in a philosophical mood.

Dan