Learn Photography with Glenn Bennett - (Who?)
"A photograph, like a distant galaxy in the night sky, sends light from the past to illuminate the present."
The World Turns - Sizergh Castle by Starlight.
The technology changes - from a stick daubing pigment onto a cave wall, to the 'smart' devices that proliferate today - but the obsession with the Image remains. It is clearly one of the features that makes us different to other species: the ability to identify and recognise a person, object or place from its representation in an Image, yet still comprehend that the Image is not the actual thing. But the Image retains its power. We collect Images in ever-increasing numbers - of our family, our children growing up, our pets, the places we visit - and we never seem to have enough, we do not tire of accumulating them.
For some, the pursuit of the Image becomes a hobby, for others, more of a way of life. Bill Shankly, erstwhile manager of Liverpool F.C., once made the observation that "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, [but] I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." And that is how Photography is seen by some.
If you are one of those who sees Photography as indivisible from life itself, read on.
"The Infinite Monkey Theorem"
"Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite amount of time, and eventually they will produce the works of Shakespeare".
From this often-quoted metaphor rises the supposition that, given enough time, and if enough trials are attempted, then pretty much any desired outcome will eventually occur by simple random chance. Ignoring the mathematics that demonstrate how extremely low the probabilities are in practice, this idea roughly translates in a photographic setting as:
If you take enough photographs of strange small cars driving up and down hillsides, then eventually you will take a picture of a car with its front wheels in the air.
French Chemist Louis Pasteur said however, in his famed aphorism, that "In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind". This gives us hope then, that with a little preparation, we can obtain just such a photo in a much shorter timeframe.