Understanding photography via the electric guitar

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

05/30/2010 11:44:46 PM · #1

Yesterday I watched a great documentary available on instant view on Netflix called It Might Get Loud. The documentary is in essence about the electric guitar, but it gets at this topic through the eyes of three guitar players: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2, and Jack White of The White Stripes. What I found interesting was how differently the three approached their craft. The Edge was all about pushing the boundary with new technology. His bank of modulators, and other electronics (I don't even know the names for all of them) was huge. He uses a different guitar for nearly every song in a concert because they are specifically set-up for a certain sound. Jack White, on the other hand, was nearly the opposite. He saw the art of his craft in suffering. He likes old, cheap instruments that he needs to bend to his will. If it isn't hard to do, Jack doesn't think it's worth doing. Jimmy Page, on the other hand, started out on a classic Stratocaster. His driving style was the hardest for me to characterize, but you could easily see it was different than the other two. Interestingly, of the three, he appeared to have an early career that was willing to play anything, including Musak sessions, to pay the bills.

And that got me thinking.

DPC sometimes flares into factions and camps. If you aren't doing a certain type or style of photography, you aren't authentic. You have no cred. Would that picture make it on 1x.com? No? It's crap. Did that shot score a 7.0? No? Worthless. This is, of course, a fallacious way of thinking. There are many ways to approach the art and each way may have its own master. The Edge could not do what Jack White does and vice versa. Is one better than the other? Hardly. Are they both masters? Quite likely. In the film they had jam sessions where one of the three led in a song they played and the other two would follow along in their own style. It was mesmerizing, but also great fun to watch how intently The Edge watched Jack to see what he was doing. You could tell it was like learning all over again. He was out of his element.

Anyway, a bit of rambling. I highly recommend the film. At the very least it got me to explore The White Stripes some more as I only had a rudimentary knowledge of them.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

05/30/2010 11:51:03 PM · #2

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

Jack White, on the other hand, was nearly the opposite. He saw the art of his craft in suffering. He likes old, cheap instruments that he needs to bend to his will. If it isn't hard to do, Jack doesn't think it's worth doing.

I find this interesting and can relate to it. Though I do make full use of the gear and software available to me, some of the photos that I take the most pride in are the ones where I pulled off a great shot with inferior equipment to what others were using.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

05/30/2010 11:53:58 PM · #3

Here you go Spiff, you'll enjoy this clip... :) Jack White makes a guitar...

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

05/30/2010 11:59:19 PM · #4

That was pretty cool and reminds me I need to go participate in the pinhole camera SC.

tehben

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux M MF - Chrome

05/31/2010 12:03:34 AM · #5

So paralleling it, Jack White would use a pinhole camera, The Edge is all about PS and Jimmy Page just puts his high end DSLR on auto and shoots away... :D

It was a cool movie BTW.

signal2noise

Leica M9

05/31/2010 12:12:31 AM · #6

Jason, that is a stellar analogy! Thanks for posting. I was one of the few that saw IMGL at the theaters and as someone who can riff a few tunes on the guitar, I took a lot away from the movie... especially an even greater respect for Jack White. But I never thought about a comparison of the the three as their philosophy might apply to photography. Brilliant. I don't know whether to go plug in the amp right now or go shoot in the studio. Inspired!

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

05/31/2010 12:44:48 AM · #7

Originally posted by signal2noise:

I was likewise quite impressed with Jack White. Although he was the youngest of the three, he was the most intriguing.

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

05/31/2010 08:53:32 AM · #8

Originally posted by tehben:

So paralleling it, Jack White would use a pinhole camera, The Edge is all about PS

missed focus ;-)

Originally posted by tehben:

Jimmy Page just puts his high end DSLR on auto and shoots away

JP was more like try every setting except for auto, try every body, try every lens, try every gizmo, try everything

JimiRose

Nikon D90

Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR

05/31/2010 09:54:18 AM · #9

Originally posted by DrAchoo:

Here you go Spiff, you'll enjoy this clip... :) Jack White makes a guitar...

That's pretty awesome...

Apple iPhone 5

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

05/31/2010 10:07:06 AM · #10

My camera has been out of tune for a while now.

06/01/2010 11:17:56 AM · #11

bumping for those who surf during work... ;)

tehben

Canon EOS-5D Mark II