Why Do photography ? ... my attempt at a Friday thread

leinsterman

I was sitting on a long haul flight earlier today re-reading the first chapter of Langford's "Basic Photography" (i.e. I was really bored and wanted something to do and the in-flight movie was pants) ... this is where he takes a step back and looks holistically at the medium before diving into the physics of it ...

There were are few salient points made that struck a chord and got me thinking, specifically -

"Consulting the rules of photography before shooting is like consulting the laws of gravity before going for a walk" (A quote from Edward Weston)

and ...

"there is little point in being technically competant and having an eye for composition, if you do not understand why you are taking the photograph."

or perhaps more eloquently put -

"No writer could pick up a pen without knowing whether the task is to write a data sheet or a poem" ...

It got me thinking what the hell am I at ? ... So I've got some thinking to do (which I will report back to this thread from my hotel room when I arrive at my destination later tonight ... my battery is running flat but thank heavens it lasted for most of the 5 hour delay in Newark airport!!!) ... in the mean time ... can anyone give me their perspective on why they pick up a camera ?

Fajitas!

At this stage... It's something I love.

I get paid to take some pictures, I enjoy taking others, I enjoy taking (most of) the pictures I get paid for, I enjoy being paid to take pictures I enjoy taking.

If you get me...?

GristlyEnd

Like Al, I just love it. I don't do the book thing and any I have bought are gathering dust after a minor glance through them. I had a gap of approx 5 years between putting down a film camera and decided to take up photography again. In the last year I've taken more shots (and very happy with) than I did in the 8 years with film.

Maybe I'm losing out on the book thing as I find it hard to come up with thoughts/answers on some of the more intelligent threads here (Edited to say it might have come across that I was saying this was not an intelligent thread. That's not what I was implying )

Paulw

It's only Tue. Just because you're on a jolly doesn't mean we all are. Some of us have to work.

Photography is a hobby. It's a way to see the world through a different perspective - through a lens. It is something I really love, and I am glad if even one person likes a photo I take.

Is that what you're asking??

abelard

As usual I'm going to sound cheesy, but here goes;

I was always into art, even if I wasn't particularly talented. I loved to paint stuff, anything, be it landscape, still life etc.

Now that I'm in college, I live in an apartment, have to share a small room and all, so I have no room to paint. I first took up the camera as a more compact (and less messy!) alternative, and found out how different it was in terms of the amount of technical and compositional thought required. So I suppose I got a bit fascinated by the challenge, and am still trying to learn as much as I can in the field. Again, I'm not particularly talented, but it's filling the painting void nicely!

nilhg

For me its an escape, a place where I have full control, I can do as I like and only if I don't like the results I can bin the lot and start again.
Its also a hobby that suits the day job well in that I can shoot when I have time and process when its p***ing rain.

Simon while I enjoyed your first post I would be careful of "paralysis by analysis"

As my Latin teacher used to say "Carpe Diem"

ThOnda

It's a hobby, something I can do but don't have to do. I can force myself to study, spend time and money but I am not forced by anybody.

It's a relaxation. Although I have to fight my laziness and think a lot, it is just great relaxation. I am simple man, so I can do only one thing at a time. so when I have camera in my hands, I am trying to focuse my mind on taking pictures, making them look good already in viewfinder and hoping that there will be something on the film.

It's a shield/barrier. Having camera in my hands, I don;t have to talk to people and most of the time they don;t talk to me. So I feel free and wonderfuly alone even in the middle of the crowd. And most of the time, people give me way when I point my camera towards them :-)

It's a door opening thing. I'm trying to show people, that I have respect for them and that I have absolutely no intention to use them or their situation to laugh at them. And most people are happy if I am interested in what they do. As we all photographers are when somebody is interested in our picutres.

It's a panty remover. Well, to be honest, do you know any other opportunity when your partner agrees that you can pay young girl to get naked and to please your hobby? :-)

Photography is many things, but it is just something I want to do and I like to do. And I like discussing about, because most of the photographers like and want to know other peoples opinions on their pictures.

soccerc

Secondary to being a sports writer. Started out with a Fuji 2800 as was pissed off with the pics the snappers ent wit me took. They arrived got a few pics and off to next marking.

Found I had an eye for it and started getting paid for them.

sineadw

Hmmm... when I read your post first I thought you were asking why I take individual photos, like do I have a purpose behind all my shots. If that's what you're after then no, although I am trying to get more purpose behind things rather than just random things. I need to do more project work I think.

That basically is the crux of it for me though. When I look at things now I see how I can frame it, what DoF I'd like it to have, recently - how I'd post process... Its become a bit of an obsession TBH, but a healthy one I think. I wanted something creative but that I'd have control over - my attempts at painting and drawing left me frustrated as I'm not naturally talented in that area. Well I should say I find it hard to be free enough to express myself in that way. As someone said, without wanting to sound all airy-fairy about it, I think I have an artistic leaning but lack the confidence to do it. When I first picked up a camera it was like an epiphany. Something that would let me explore my right brain but allow me the left-brain control I'm used to. I'm too much of a geek not to enjoy that

I was intrigued by Thonda's remark of being 'behind' the camera too. I've said that to you before Simon - I do think its a way to hide a little, to be in control of your surroundings and allow yourself to be distant from them. Hmmm.. I can feel a major blockbuster psychological expose in the making

All I know is when I'm somewhere I have to stop myself thinking about what I'd do if I had the camera with me, and if I have the camera with me I have to consciously stop myself becoming engrossed in it, for a while anyway. On my recent holiday I was forced by my pissed-off partner to leave the camera behind a few days (you know Kerry - its photo opportunity overload!!). Whilst he had a point that I need to step back and think about shots sometimes instead of diving in I enjoy so much taking what's in my brain when I see things and trying to reproduce that on a computer screen or on paper or even just (and best of all) through the viewfinder. That's the best bit for me - working out how to get the shot in the first place..

So there you go. Looking forward to seeing what you got on your travels, domestic and otherwise

Fenster

When I'm getting paid for it, people get what they paid me for; when I'm shooting for myself, I normally chimp it.

thebaz

i do it to get that fealing you get when you have captured something perfect (to you !) , when i load the photos on the pc , and then see the one , that i'm really happy with -- when i used film i proably took about 4 pictures that i really liked over 15 years , but you had to wait an age to get the results.

when i loaded this on the pc , i realised why i do it

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebaz/871940447/

it potrays how we see life , just as music and most other art forms do

leinsterman

Well ... Sinead and Thonda ... as far as I'm concerned you both nailed it ... at least from a why do I own and carry a camera perspective ...

I particularly agree with Thonda's idea of the camera creating separation ... I remember a really good example of this when studying Phtography at college last year ... it was a photo of a poor starving child with a bag of grain taken in Sudan ... minutes later the grain was taken off him by an obviously better fed and stronger adult ... I remember thinking why didn't the photographer intervene ... but rationalising it as photographer in this genre particularly need to be able to separate themselves from the landscape to do their job ... which in this case is drawing the eyes of the world to a single wrong moment ...

I also have to say that through photography I have met some great people (mostly through this forum in fact) ... another reason to take up a camera ... social ..


However, Sinead as you mention at the top of your reply where I struggle is to find meaning or reason in all the individual images I produce ... it is early days for me in this game so I suppose I need to be patient ... I can't expect to find my style and niche as I go ... if I'm brutally honest what thrills me most in life is travel ... and I love to document the experience of it ... especially the cultures and landscapes I have seen ... and I have been very lucky to have seen some amazing thing during the past 20 or so years of travel ... (Even as I type this I an sitting in my hotel room... its another business trip but the camera will be taken out at some point in time) ... the only problem is I'm not on the road often enough ...

My recent trip to Valentia (the place and the man) was inspirational ... I had another one of my (very rare) perfect moments taking in the simple beauty of the place from the top of a mountain on the island ... but I could not figure out how to capture it on film ... this is what I aspire to some day ...

Anyways ... gotta meet someone ... more later on ...

Borderfox

I remember that photo Simon, I think he also had one of a woman giving birth and a man dying in the same shot, so for photojournalism it is easy to see why you would pick up a camera. In terms of other subjects I rationalise that what I see are fleeting moments that exist in the blink of an eye and are gone sometimes never to be seen again, but in that blink I can capture the moment and preserve it (even if it is just for myself) I think everybody has had one of the times where they see and shoot something that bowls them over, thats why I pick up a camera.

sineadw

Ahhhhh... now that's a different story altogether... I had Julie over last night to help me with some stuff and I was talking about Dingle and all the landscape shots I took that I look at, and they will never ever do the place justice. When I was down there though I was in a gallery looking at some truly beautiful images, photographs and paintings, and although they were breathtaking not one of them took in the scope of emotion of how I feel when I look around me there. I'm not entirely sure its humanly possible. Mother Nature FTW I think.

As for a style, I'm at a similar stage to you maybe. I'm still finding mine. I kind of like the experimentation of that though. I've been wanting to push things more in photoshop recently for example, create more obviously manipulated images. I'm not entirely sure each image needs a justification though. Its like parenting - you get along fine and then you read a book about it and realise all the mistakes you're apparently making Is there a point I wonder when the greats thought - that's it! My perfect image. My oeuvre is complete. I think its a constantly evolving thing and maybe something you're never entirely happy with. Otherwise what would be the point? Trying to attain perfection in an image, or your body of work (or at least trying to be really really happy with it) is more important than the finished process? Then again its easier for me to say to someone else not to sweat it - I'm by far my own worst critic :rolleyes:

I have to go make more Rice Krispie cakes. My house is being demolished by hordes of rampaging five year olds today..

elven

Obviously, people are going to have different motivations to do photography, because we are different people, and it's a fairly wide ranging activity (for want of a better word). I think there is a danger of over analysing things and sucking the life out of it - but there's also something to be said for not just mindlessly wandering about with no idea of what you're doing. I'm still trying to find some kind of higher meaning for it but in the meantime, I'm going to shoot by intuition because it's fun...

Some things to think about, though: is it the process or the end result that you care about? A Th0nda says (no, not the panty bit) - when you have the camera in your hands it helps you focus on one thing, with all the stuff that goes on around us, and that can be relaxing. But then there's that striving that we all do, to manage to take the ‘perfect’ picture – but of course we know that our idea of a perfect picture has changed over the last week/month/year and will continue to change, making it a holy grail that you can spend a life seeking even though you know it really doesn’t exist. But in the meantime, you’re actually getting some damn good stuff and if you stop looking for that top echelon for a moment now and again you can enjoy those results for what they are.

Looking at what it is you appreciate about other photographers’ work could give you a suggestion of what you’d like to achieve for yourself. Is it an interest in a particular subject? Is it a partiular way of looking at everything? Or, is it a visual style that comes through fom those technical/artistic decision that we make and nothing to do with what’s actually in front of the camera?

Inevitably, the process has an end result that can be a jpg or a print. But that doesn’t mean you necessarily need to focus all of your attention on that end result. Personally, I’m discovering more and more how important the activity of walking round with a camera, being receptive to light and shapes and colour, being in that ‘zone’ is to me, far more than sitting looking at stuff I’ve already shot. I’m uncomfortable about narrowing down to a particular subject in terms of ‘landscapes’, ‘flowers’, ‘portraits’ or ‘travel’ because I don’t think it matters what you’re looking at, it’s more about what you’re looking for in any subject – but at the same time I can’t deny that I feel most relaxed and receptive when I’m in a garden or forest of some sort so I’ve decided to just accept that and not try to rebel against it. At the same time, if you think too hard about ‘I want to be a travel photographer’ you may be overwhelmed by all the travel images you’ve seen, and not be able to cut that out, focus, and really home in on your own vision of a place and let your intuition do the work.

I’m getting a bit rambly and messy but I think what I’m saying is: rather than trying to label yourself as a particular kind of photographer and produce stuff that rivals the best examples of that you’ve seen, think about the process, think about what’s important to you, and try to find a way where you can switch off all that crap in your head and be able to let yourself work intuitively. Oh dear, I was even about to suggest that you forget about the final image and just go back to the basics of seeing (remember Guy Gowan talking about going out on photography trips without his camera?) and I realised that I’ve been reading too much Zen stuff… it sounds so cheesy but I really think we’re too hung up on the details and the style an the gear, and not enough on the basics of what we see and respond to, and if we sort that out then the rest will fall into place.

Well, you did ask… :rolleyes:

ThOnda

What a nice reading with my cup of tea. I don't udnerstand that statement - "not the panty thing", but I do agree even not having ZEN mp3 player.

And there is also something to summarize my photography - I am trying to do my own private and personal document. I'm trying to document things interesting ang important for me in the way I see them. Or I would like to see them.

Borderfox

(remember Guy Gowan talking about going out on photography trips without his camera?) I know what you mean when you say this, I did some mental training to horse ride and the crux of it was to see the result and match everything to that. In other words see the picture or the result you want and work backwards to achieve it.

elven

Borderfox wrote:

(remember Guy Gowan talking about going out on photography trips without his camera?) I know what you mean when you say this, I did some mental training to horse ride and the crux of it was to see the result and match everything to that. In other words see the picture or the result you want and work backwards to achieve it.

Sorry, the comment was just something Simon will remember. I doubt Guy would mind if I explain: he used to have a friend who taught him about photography, and he would call him and say 'do you fancy a day out?', and when he went along, they wouldn't even pick up the cameras - it was all about just looking at the light and the shadows and colours and not rushing round clicking like mad.

I kind of meant to see the picture you want and work towards that but at the same time, it's about deciding if it is the final picture that's important to you, or the process. If you make up your mind that there's a final result you want and you go out with that in mind, you'll end up frustrated more often than if you let that idea go and just enjoy the process of seeing and shooting, and let the final product evolve on its own a bit more.

Th0nda, I was saying that I agreed with a point you made, but not talking about how you can pay girls to get naked in front of you...

Calina

Just on that point I would say that it's very good to spend time just looking without having recourse to the camera to validate how you see things. I actually do that a lot.

I'm a little bit wary of questions that go "why do I do this?" on the grounds that sometimes, I just can't answer them in words. It's a feeling, more than anything else. I also think - sometimes - that if you have to think about why you do it, then possibly you shouldn't be doing it. The first answer to that question - in very simplistic terms - should be "because I enjoy it".

Paulw

I'll go on my own little ramble for a little here.

Over the last two weeks, I've been putting together my website. At first it was a major pain and frustration. What to put in it, what design/layout to use, what I wanted from the site, what images I wanted to display ... and the list went on and on.

But, in the end I had some wonderful help and guidance from the people here. I began to focus. The main aim was to show my photography. So, I wanted a layout that looked decent and didn't distract people. I wanted a simple layout that was easy to look around. (Thanks Katie for helping with the coding/design).

Anyway, I then needed to find images to use. I opened up Lightroom and started to browse. I realised that I have a lot of images (18,000+). Holy crap!! That's a lot of photographs in just over 2 years.

Alright, so most of the images are crap. Most should be deleted. I would say that I could delete at least 10,000 without blinking. But then I really started to look at the images.

As I went through my photos, I began to see a change. I could visibly see, what I consider, improvement. While building my galleries, I found that more and more of the images were taken in 2007, and fewer from 2006 while very very few from 2005.

I also found that I felt happy enough to use more and more photos on my website.

Yes, I threw together the website in about 2 weeks. I used all the quick cheats I could. I used Lightroom to build my galleries, and a great template (from Katie) to build my pages and show small photos on each page.

I use a number of different fora online, and post to different sites. In the last week I have put my site about, and I am very pleased with the feedback. Some has been from virtual strangers.

This simple thing - forcing myself to look through my photos has inspired me. I have seen things in my own photos that have caught my attention. I look at a photo and say - if I just did this, or if I just changed the angle, or if I just exposed the frame more ... then the image would be better. It has planted new ideas in my mind, of things I want to try.

So, because of all of this - I want to grab my camera and get out and photograph more.

Anyway, sorry for my ramble, but this thread just made my mind flow.

thebaz

elven wrote:

it sounds so cheesy but I really think we’re too hung up on the details and the style an the gear, and not enough on the basics of what we see and respond to, and if we sort that out then the rest will fall into place.

Well, you did ask… :rolleyes:

speed readed different posts here, but agree 100% with the above bit

leinsterman

ThOnda wrote:

And there is also something to summarize my photography - I am trying to do my own private and personal document. I'm trying to document things interesting ang important for me in the way I see them. Or I would like to see them.

I think that is very well put Thonda .... nice sentiment!


It is also interesting Sinead that you were talking about seeing some lovely images in a Gallery in Dingle ... as you know I was on the next peninsula Southward at Valentia ... truely an inspiring place ... that has refuelled my enthusiasm for taking pictures ... but I notice that there are images for sale in a lot of the local shops ... I know maybe this is probably a bad way of looking at things ... but perhaps it is a mark of how much I have come along when I could not help thinking how poor most of this for sale work was ... I felt any one of us could do a lot better ... there is a lot of avarage stuff out there which is for sale ... It makes me wonder if there is a market for it ...

I'm not saying that I want to be a travel or a landscape photogrpher ... this is not really the case as I also enjoy sports and certain types of (non posed) portraiture / people shots ... and I love nature / animals ... I go back to the original sentiment from Langford ... I do find that much of the time when I go out with the camera that I snap away mindlessly, not in any "zone" and not thinking carefully about what I am doing ... this needs to change if I am to improve and get more satisfaction from taking pictures ... perhaps less is more when out shooting ... and following on Guy's idea ... look for images with thought and don't force them ... they will come ...

Maybe at the next meet up I'll plonk myself in one good spot and wait for the image to come to me rather than wandering around aimlessly looking for it ...

Paulw

leinsterman wrote:

Maybe at the next meet up I'll plonk myself in one good spot and wait for the image to come to me rather than wandering around aimlessly looking for it ...

I think we're actually due an organised meet up. Maybe it's the weather or something, but I'm feeling a little frustrated and in need of a photographic day release.

Calina

on that note, a few weeks ago I did a little drive around Louth, through Mellifont, Monasterboice and Clogherhead and did wonder if anyone would be interested in that.

The other possibility is that someone I work with sold some aspects of Northern Ireland to me.

There are also some lakes around the midlands that i wouldn't mind a wander around.

Anyway, don't you all have People's Photography to look forward to?

Damned Thing

Why?

First time I picked up a camera was in art college 25 or so years ago - I'd gone there wanting to be an illustrator. Creating images was always something I wanted to do, photography was just another medium for doing it in. I went on to be a freelance photographer and got by at it for 5 or 6 years then got out of it entirely and rarely picked up a camera after that. I was too busy being an art director, designer, writer, web developer, creative director (some of the jobs I've had over the years, never made it as an illustrator though...yet). I've only picked up a camera again in the last year and a half, though I've been using Photoshop almost daily since version 2.5.

I feel the same way about design as I do about photography: for me it's always been about creating an image, showing people something they haven't seen before or something they have seen but in a different way.

Everyone sees things differently, experiences things in their own unique way and they pretty much exist in their own wee world they've created for themselves. Looking at what they produce is a chance to see into their world, it can be inspiring or frightening or dull as dishwater depending on the person. It's a way of communicating with others, connecting with them.

Why? Ultimately, because it's damned good fun to see what you're capable of doing and to experience what others have done.

Spyral

Calina wrote:

on that note, a few weeks ago I did a little drive around Louth, through Mellifont, Monasterboice and Clogherhead and did wonder if anyone would be interested in that.

Louth can be nice in places alright :P

I do photography as a year ago I was of the mentality, if we (me or my family) die in an accident there are no up to date pictures.

so i gots meself an s5600

then in uni we had to do technically correct photography (and its role in the legal system etc) which was my first SLR experience

then i wanted to mix my f70 and digital = d40