If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough

[vin_petrol]

Watching the BBC D-Day reconstruction, with Robert Capa featuring prominently, reminded me that a large part of my early years consisted of "wanting to be a war photographer when I grew up." I thought this was the coolest job on Earth. I wanted to be riding a Huey in the Mekong delta, flak jacket on with peace sign painted on the back, a couple of Nikons slung around my neck and a backpack full of Tri-X, living with the press corp in the Holiday Inn in downtown Saigon, picking up tips on where the best pictures could be taken. I thought the sound of a motor drive was the best sound there was. Tim Page was my obvious role model.

Some of my favourite films are those with war photographers in: Under Fire, The Year of Living Dangerously, Full Metal Jacket, Frankie's House, Salvador.

I did the best I could by doing loads of amateur photography, and working on York Uni's newspaper Vision, but I didn't need a steel helmet. I did wear an an ex-German army shirt with the sleeves cut off, and filled the pockets with HP5, but that was the closest I got. I never could afford a Nikon.

Unfortunately, the world had kinda moved on by the time I graduated. Still photographs from war zones had been supplanted by moving images. It did seem like a lot of hard work, and probably quite dangerous too. So I became a computer programmer instead.

Comments

[mister-ed.livejournal.com]

So I became a computer programmer instead.

Still living on the edge then? ;p

I wanted to be an astronaut, a fireman and a travelling artist (in that order) when I was a yung-un. Then I wanted to be rawk-star in my teens.

[vin_petrol]

I wanted to be an astronaut

Yeh, me too. Sadly, my poor eyesight stomped on that one from a very early age :-(

Then I wanted to be rawk-star in my teens.

Well, you're working on that one now!

Fortunately, my *complete* lack of *any* kind of musical ability meant I've never had to worry about this one. I should have become a music journalist, I suppose :-)

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

You mean that entry in Grapevine was..... false? ;)

[vin_petrol]

You mean that entry in Grapevine was..... false? ;)

*cough* you got me there guv, bang to rights...

[For those who don't know: Grapevine is the York Uni alumni magazine. Poeple get to write in and say what they're doing these days, and everyone else is always doing something extremely worthy or exciting (i.e. "exploring the Amazon", "running Coca-Cola", "irrigating the Sahara"). I may, perhaps, have got slightly annoyed at this, and in my only ever entry in Grapevine I said I was off to Florida to train as an Astronaut with NASA. This was not entirely true.]

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Actually I think you claimed to have been the first Englishman on Mars. ;)

Agree totally about war photographers, have you seen that wonderful (but expensive) Capa collected works?

I think Don McCullin is my favourite photographer though - not only for his war work but also his "social documentary" stuff... his autobiography ("Unreasonable Behaviour" is mindblowing).

[vin_petrol]

have you seen that wonderful (but expensive) Capa collected works?

Ooh no. Every year I drop hints near Christmas that a big book of Vietnam photographs would make a good present, but none has been forthcoming as yet...

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

A typical Grapevine entry could be summarised as:

"TARQUIN WANKSHAFT (Langwith, Basketweaving, 1990)

Hi! My life is incredibly wacky and zany! After graduating with a Third in Basketweaving I joined the incredibly fun KPMG graduate training scheme, where it's just incredible laughs all the time! One day a column of figures didn't quite add up!!!!! Still sinking gallons of real ale and shafting loads of totty. Hi to Wanker, Shagger and all the Tosser Posse!"

"PIPPA WANKSHAFT (nee LIFESTYLE-ACCESSORY), Derwent, Droopy Frock Wearing, 1990)

Married Tarquin Wankshaft in 1991. Busy Working Mum."

I wonder how many affairs were discovered that way? ;P

[vin_petrol]

PIPPA WANKSHAFT (nee LIFESTYLE-ACCESSORY), Derwent, Droopy Frock Wearing, 1990)

I remember this girl really well. She wouldn't shag me :-)

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Much of my undergraduate career was taken up with lusting after women who wouldn't shag me. In later life I decided to only start lusting after women who [b]would[/b] shag me - one finds one's own depth ;)

[mister-ed.livejournal.com]

I don't know.. you coulod have become one of the UK's top DJ's.... ;)

[vin_petrol]

I don't know.. you coulod have become one of the UK's top DJ's.... ;)

Aye, I could have tried that too. I think what's happened with my life is that I chose one thing I was passionate about (computers) to make a career out of, and kept the other more artistic things (acting and photography) as lovely hobbies I can indulge in whenever I want to, with no pressure.

Perhaps in an alternative universe, there's a DJ Vin, or actor called Richard Ashby (which was always going to be my stage name) who fiddles with computers in his spare time!

[mister-ed.livejournal.com]

And maybe another universe with "Supreme Overlord Vin"!!

I think I may well have met him once....

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a truck driver, because I liked bacon sandwiches.

(Actually I wanted to be a photographer, later, and I did a lot of photography, but for reasons too tedious to explain I dropped out of college after two weeks, then had to sell my camera to rent a flat... blah blah blah).

[vin_petrol]

I wanted to be a truck driver, because I liked bacon sandwiches.

Not Yorkies, then? :-)

(Actually I wanted to be a photographer, later, and I did a lot of photography, but for reasons too tedious to explain I dropped out of college after two weeks, then had to sell my camera to rent a flat... blah blah blah).

Have you got a digital camera? If not, try one out. They're quite fun to use and you can delete crap pictures as you go along. It seems I'm getting back into photography after many years off from it.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

I've got one, but it's a far cry from a Canon A1, especially as I used to use manual exposure a lot for different effects. Actually one of the things I used to do that I was reminded of recently was to push film speeds to silly values - 64,000 ASA or whatever the maximum of the A1 was. You can't do that without chemicals!

I have started to take photographs again, with a digital camera, but my results have been a bit disappointing. I need to keep trying though.