I’m with Chris here. I think the Passive Voice pretentious. It is as if they
are speaking as a disinterested critic rather than the author. Imagine a
painter stating that, "This canvas was rendered in green antipasto…” or a
writer claiming that, “The script was processed in Word on on a Thunderclap Pro
with a quad core chip…” Nonsense.
I suspect it is because we are still locked into the idea of photography as a
product of the technology rather than a creative process, unlike other arts. I
haven’t noticed it with Alt Process nerds who will say, “I chose Bromoil for
this image because…” (“…it’s blurry, it smells bad, is tedious and could hurt
me?”)
Not a matter of taste - a matter of attitude. Passive is grammatically correct
but confusing, misleading and ambiguous.
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
www.soultheft.com
> On 23 Dec 2015, at 6:52 pm, Nathan Wajsman <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Chris, I think this is a matter of taste. Gramatically, either way is correct.
>
> Go take some pictures ;-)
>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>
> Nathan Wajsman
> Alicante, Spain
> http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
> http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
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> <http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
> YNWA
>
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>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>> On 23 Dec 2015, at 08:18, ChrisB <ftog@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Chaps and chapesses
>>
>> Why do so many people use the Passive Voice when describing how they took
>> their shot? Virtually no one writes, “I took this with my field camera and
>> 10mm ƒ64 lens.” Most people use, “This shot was taken with a half-frame Oly
>> with 600mm ƒ2 lens and processed in LightRoom with a bit of help from Topaz
>> Clarity.”
>>
>> Are they being coy or modest? Does writing that way make them feel as if
>> someone else took the shot – perhaps only to own up to the shot when they
>> find that others like it? Or does it make them feel important to use what
>> they perceive as a formal way of describing the shot?
>>
>> Well, the general principle that I have always adopted when writing is to
>> use the Active Voice. It has always been accepted that that is the clearest
>> way to express yourself. In the case of photography use of the Active Voice
>> will ensure that all reading the description will know for certain who was
>> responsible for that image.
>>
>> Chris
>> --
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