Seems like the more I listen, the more I hear people talking about the gear, the business of photography, the widgets. Let us not forget the simple love of photography.
I understand why there’s so much rhetoric in our industry about the business of photography and the gear and the gadgets. There is the common stereotype that most creative people aren’t good business people. There is fear. Gear is easier to talk about than vision. Exposures are exact, the camera dials have numbers. There is a ‘right’ answer to many of these questions.
But where is your love of pictures? Where are your actions that back this up?
Can you pick up a book of photographs and get lost in it?
Can you walk around with your iPhone or Android or your point and shoot or whatever and take 100 pictures knowing that they’ll never be for a client or a portfolio?
Do you love hunting for pictures?
Will you stay up late or get up early for pictures?
Do you sometimes ‘see’ life as a photograph?
It’s different for all of us, but when you can take a break from all the chatter, remind yourself–as often as you can–why you love photography.
Can you pick up a book of photographs and get lost in it? I do this ALL the time when I am visiting a friends house. 🙂 It has driven me to give my self a goal to produce a book that someone else can get lost in.
Can you walk around with your iPhone or Android or your point and shoot or whatever and take 100 pictures knowing that they’ll never be for a client or a portfolio? Man I LOVE my iPhoneography. So many people hate on the iPhone and people who use the iPhone as a photographic device but I think that is just silly. There are so many ways to be creative; why limit yourself?
Do you love hunting for pictures? I’ve spent way too much time browsing Flickr or randoming on StumbleUpon.
Will you stay up late or get up early for pictures? I stay up late and hunt photos. I also go out late to take photos. I would like to get up early to shoot a sunrise but every time I try I go right back to sleep 🙁
Do you sometimes ‘see’ life as a photograph? I see everything as a photograph.
I love this post. The questions get right at the heart of why I am a photographer. I see pictures everywhere I go, everywhere I look.
some days I feel it… other days i find it just as easy to get lost in a book.
Seeing this post hit home for me! As a photographer i find myself walking downtown Gainesville with some tmax400 just snapping what reminds me of what im feeling at the end of the day. There was this old hospital being demolished and it made me recall the night before feeling like my world was falling piece by piece. For me photographing is something i always did even before I knew what money was! The best pictures in my body of work were from when i was eight years old and used to just snap these shots of my little fun filled world without even thinking about anything.