So after a long absence (back when there wasn't even digital photography) I got back into the hobby. Buying a mid range camera and eventually a few lenses. (I specifically will not reveal brand names or model numbers - more on that below).
I got really heavy into it, then kinda burned out. I'm tentatively trying to get back into it, but with a different mindset.
Here are the things that kind of spoiled the joy (for me)
1. hanging out in photography forums -particularly the gearhead types like dpreview
Way too much my gear is better than yours, or I'm better than you because I am so critical that I buy 5 or 6 copies of the same lens and keep only the best one. or I spend $6k on a 50mm fixed lens because when I shoot wide open and then pixel peep on the corners at 75X magnification I notice that the $5k lens is a tiny bit blurry.
2. post processing with cookie cutter settings that make photos look synthetic and frankly all the same.
3. Cliche shots, there are so many of them and it is just so hard not to find yourself copying other cliche shots, because that's what looks good..I guess?
4. Taking zillions of photos, because you can, because digital doesn't cost you more per shot. So I fall into a trap of not really planning shots, or thinking about shots, or having something creative to say.
5. Looking at zillions of photos, because of the internet you can, and too much of a good thing just exhausts your appetite.
So, I wanna start taking pictures again, and maybe talk about photography, maybe here, without talking about 'gear', or 'buying gear', or 'what gear is better', or 'how do I set up photoshop to make my pictures really 'sell'.
I guess I wanna try more to just focus on the art, or finding a personal vision, or what the point is of taking pics, why do we do it, what for.
Anyone want to discuss?
Excellent questions and thread. Here's my initial take:
- I use an under $250 general purpose digital camera. All the photos I've entered in the photo contest threads (which of course vary in quality) have been taken with those. Due to the progress of digital camera technology, the quality I've been able to get has increased steadily over the years. My most recent camera has one of those 50x optical zooms, which has been a lot of fun (but of course, the photos look like the view through Luke Skywalker's binoculars at anywhere near full zoom).
There's plenty of justification for more expensive gear, but generally, only if you have a particular purpose in mind. If you're just in the woods or on a vacation photographing what interests you, the price of your camera (or even e.g. your available choices of lens) isn't going to make nearly as much difference as your "eye" for what might make a good photograph.
- Cliché shots are hard to get around. Are you going to visit the Taj Mahal, and not take a picture of the Taj Mahal? Or try to find a different angle, a better frame, a close-up, that all the millions of other people who have photographed there have missed? After reviewing roll after roll of pictures (this was back in film days) of mountains that looked so magnificent through the viewfinder but just looked like boring pictures of mountains back home, I eventually learned to concentrate more on photographing the people and activities I was involved with.
- Which brings me to a more peculiar point. My father took a lot of family photographs, which amply demonstrated both the fun and the hassle of doing so. Seeing the prints/slides later was fun, but having to actually stop and pose and wait for photos to be taken was sometimes excruciating. My father is gone, and there's at least eight cubic feet of 35mm slides that nobody wants to spend days and weeks looking through.
Also long ago in the days of film, one of my older sisters lost her photographs of a vacation, and was so despondent over it that it was as if the entire vacation itself had somehow un-happened as a result.
These experiences and others got me wondering about how taking photographs, or even having the intention to take photographs, changes ones conscious experience of events. It's not as simple as photography detracting from or adding to experiences in any general way; it changes their character in more complex ways.
When planning trips and other activities now, I choose whether to take pictures, bring a camera "just in case" but leave it in the car/backpack unless something unexpected or extraordinary happens, or not bring a camera, knowing that this choice will affect how I experience and remember the event. For example, for the coming eclipse, I plan to not try to photograph the eclipse itself (a technical operation that would distract from actually watching the eclipse, and with at best the same results as thousands or millions of other photographers' efforts), but I do want before and after candids of the people I'll be with.
Now that most peoples' main cameras are their smart phones, and are with them at all times, I suspect that's changing people's conscious experience of life in subtle but significant ways.
At the same time, I have a lot of respect and appreciation for people who go out with a camera and try to make art. For a while, I followed various young photographers who were doing "365's" on Flickr (taking and posting a new photograph a day for a year, or at least every few days for 365 photos). It was exciting seeing what they came up with from week to week. My favorite of those was Alex Stoddard. I don't think his entire 365 is still posted, but in the course of it he progressed from a teenage novice with flashes of promise, to an accomplished and creative artist on the verge of a professional career (he's now 23).
