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.
I think its an easy trap to fall into – gear is tangible, numbers are reliable. Business is a benchmark, if you’re making money then you must be making good pictures, right? Ultimately as creatives our biggest fear is the failure of our imagination, a lack of vision. The reason behind our photos is arguably as important as images themselves.
At the same time its a vicious circle – better gear and technical knowledge only mean our photos should be better, our mental images better realised. The mounting pressure of that knowledge (probably subconscious for most) can drive you crazy, even worse if you’re trying to earn money creatively.
I was fortunate to come to such a realisation rather abruptly – I sold half my gear and shot film exclusively for 3 months, purposefully going out of my way to buy the cheapest stuff available (mostly expired). My sleeping patterns changed as I started listening to my desires more closely, and ended up doing almost all my work between 1am and 5am
Photography made me nocturnal.
As someone who walked away from taking photos over a decade ago to go work in the film industry I now find myself and my credit card trying to catch up with the technology. Lots to buy and lots to learn but the fundaments remain the same, capturing a vision, something no one else can see. I can do it with out all the technology and quite often frame and take pictures and process them in my head but the camera lets me share my vision and that is the best thing about photography, communicating with others. Technology is just a means to an ends, it’s just like a million dollars on an desert island, useless unless you’ve got somewhere to use it.
You’ve hit a raw nerve with this one. I get really sad when I hear people enthuse about their gear, not only what they already have, but their shopping list of what they want. They can be so obsessive about it, and also very down putting if you don’t have the very latest and/or the most expensive. Then you see what they are producing with all this wonderful equipment, and know that they don’t have “the eye”, or the flair to produce even average results. I feel particularly sorry when I hear young people getting caught up in the “must have” treadmill. I always try to impress on them that they should worry less about equipment, and more about technique.
One of the greatest lessons I ever learnt was to start shooting slide film, as it is so unforgiving. When I got the first box of slides back from the processors, and discovered errors in almost every image, it certainly made me think a lot more about what I was doing. Yes it slowed me down a bit, having to think more before every shot, but I learnt a lot which always stayed with me. Sometimes it’s too easy to keep firing away digitally, simply because we can.
It’s good to stop every so often and ask “What am I doing and why?”
Thanks for the reminder about why we do it !
Love the photography philosophy Chase! It’s easy to get caught up and stuck on all the aspects that supplement our passions, rather than focusing the simple love of our trade. Great post 🙂
Please continue. More people should know that money couldnt be the purpose of the life. Time is passing, money also but memory of the good moments stays with you forever. Even if you have no gear you can do photography using your eyes, brain and emotions… Thanks Chase for what you are doing!