Thinking Outside the Camera

       It's summer, and I recall with pleasure the wonderful photography class I had two summers ago.  Early in the course, I noted two ironies of photography, each with linguistic implications:

1.  Still photographers need to be very much in motion:  they have to keep shifting their position in order to find the best shot; also they need to physically pose their subjects into more natural and relaxed postures, not let them remain stiff and "salami"-armed.

2.  Photographers need to think outside the box so that what goes in the box will be worthwhile.  Some word play here of course, partly because “camera” literally means “room,” “chamber,” and a room is a “box.”  (Interestingly, the old “box camera” is a redundancy.)