Comments on: EDFAT – The Art of Seeing

By: jan g

jan g — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:49:41 +0000

What a fantastic “how to” guide to start deliberately thinking like a photographer. To have a plan, with specific action items, which if used as standard practice will become a naturally intuitive process. Thanks for such a clear, easily implimented approach to “seeing” with a photographer’s eyes.

As for the commentors that couldn’t “see” past the few typos and/or grammatical issues in this excellent article, go read your photography manuals. The rest of us will continue to learn from the professionals who are kind enough to take the time to share their experiences and techniques with those of us who appreciate it.

By: Bong Casis

Bong Casis — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:58:53 +0000

This article is really very informative and a great learning exercise to any body interested to improve his or her photography skills. Great and infomative article and it will surely be a great help in my coming San Francisco trip.

By: Kenneth Hyam

Kenneth Hyam — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:24:04 +0000

This is a really helpful article, especially the EDFAT acronym + explanation. I think the project of approaching someone you don’t know and asking for 10 mins to do a portrait session is great. I will try to summon up the courage to do this maybe five times ( a dare?). By then it perhaps won’t seem so daunting.

By: S.Kuss

S.Kuss — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:06:40 +0000

I like it! I also agree very much with Pappy about the typos being distracting.

I like the idea of having a “script” to follow. It gives direction, focus and, for us amateurs-confidence. BUT-I bet “real” photographers avoid this stuff as it can stifle creativity. Yes or no?

By: Pappy

Pappy — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:06:30 +0000

I, too, found this article to be very helpful advice, and I intend to put the advice into practice. However, I’m not sure that the “Time” section was meaningful. It’s more an observation than advice, so it doesn’t really fit with the rest of the article.

I also agree with Orovert about the quality of the writing. I see typos in lots of articles on this site, but usually I just ignore them because everyone makes mistakes. However, this article was difficult to read at times. I had to keep stopping to unravel sentences. The clumsy writing distracted me from the valuable content and and, like Orovert, made me question the professionalism of the author and this site.

I happily offer my services as a proofreader because I’ve found this site to be very valuable to my education as a photographer.

By: oldwolf

oldwolf — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:20:24 +0000

Good article Jim. About damn time you got on the front page.

By: 0rovert

0rovert — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:27:53 +0000

This sounds like a really useful exercise. Thanks for sharing it outside of the forums. I am really going to have to work up the courage to try this out!

All of that aside, the article needs a serious proof read. There are grammatical mistakes all over the place. Although it is still readable, it is not professional and definitely not the caliber of writing that usually appears here.

By: Darlene

Darlene — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:44:02 +0000

When I did my first out-side-of-the-family portrait session, I didn’t have the faintest idea of how to approach it. If I had had this list, I would have more confident, and accomplished. I will be using this list from now on for all my photographs. Thanks so much for sharing. I, too, believe this is one of the best articles on how to that I’ve read here.

By: Eric Mesa

Eric Mesa — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:32:23 +0000

No disrespect to any of the previous authors, but this is the best (or def in the top 3) article I’ve read on here so far. The technique sounds great and the pictures are quite inspiring.

I am just a bit too shy to go up to a stranger and start photographing them like this. One technique I’ve read over and over is to talk to the person as you shoot. Even this article mentioned it. But I guess I just need to work on my photography more because I think if I were talking to the person I wouldn’t be paying as much attention to what was in the viewfinder – at least if I wanted to have a meaningful conversation.

I had to work up a lot of courage to get this shot in South Beach.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericsbinaryworld/3353713966/

By: jay

jay — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:49:11 +0000

This is a really great approach that I will definitely use in the future. Great article!!