Mar 21, 2007

Humor

I thought that midweek would be a good time to bring up the subject of humor in photography; something to help us make it to the weekend. A good laugh is healthy. However, when it comes to photography most people are usually pretty serious. Nonetheless, we still like to grab a shot if we see something funny. But unlike our ‘serious’ photography, most of these shots stay unseen and without an audience. I can understand why, as it would seem to detract from the ‘professionalism’ of serious artists. But we don’t have to be totally serious all the time.

I was surprised that when I Googled humorous photographs I came up with tons of ‘hits’, but perusing through them I found that they were mostly all the expected rude humor or stock photo sites, where the images really weren’t all that funny. I did find this site, which was pretty funny, at least as far as statues go. When I looked through my images, I really couldn’t find all that many that were funny either. I did find this one, which I remember made me smile at the time I took it, but now it really doesn’t do a whole lot for me either.



Copyright Howard Grill


I was thinking it might be fun if folks that were reading this blog e-mailed me some of their funny shots, if they have any, and I could post them as a blog entry. I thought it might just be interesting to ‘put it out there’. If I don’t get any I won’t post any. If you send one I would certainly post it with a copyright notice, unless you would prefer to remain anonymous so as not to detract from your serious photography. Likewise, if you know of any websites with humorous photographs please comment or e-mail and I will post them.

Let’s see what happens!

7 comments:

Mike Bartolotta said...

Howard,

This is so true. Most photographers I know (myself included) always seem to be looking for that captivating, artistic, serious shot. In a way, I feel it's sad that there isn't more humor in photography...well, tasteful humor, that is.

I am going to search through some of my old photos and see if I can find any...and from this point forward, I think it would be well worth my while to try and capture some humorous images (or at least look at things from a lighter side) as I work my way through "The Patchwork Project."

Thanks for the bright idea!

Unknown said...

Not sure if is funny but it makes me smile..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/craig_photography/351124834/

Oronet Commander said...

Sometimes the depiction of humor can even bring sadness, like in this one...

http://www.ivia.es/rcanet/CPB/CPB_0039.jpg

Anonymous said...

My sense of humour is notoriously weird, so I'll just post one that I know quite a few people enjoyed:

http://www.pbase.com/patterns/image/70354112

Howard Grill said...

David...That is a good one. Enjoyed your other images quite a bit as well.

Adiemus said...

Hi Howard
Just added this shot to my blog - hope you enjoy! I promise this was not set up in any way, Bo and I just came across this old log that had been sitting at Napenape for some years now, but someone had graffiti'd it recently...
http://www.adiemusfree.blogspot.com
Look at March 25th post!'

Howard Grill said...

Adiemus, cool shot. Also, thanks very much for the nice writeup and link. I was going to e-mail you a thanks but can't seem to find your address anywhere at the moment.