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 see you mentioned android there…. so when is it coming out 🙂
I love photography but is it the right career for me? How do I know?
Thanks for this. I’m so tired of people missing the forest for the trees (cameras for the photos they produce). I don’t care if you shoot a cardboard box with a hole in it, it’s the results – the photos – that come out of the experience that have soul, value, the ability to envoke change… Anyway, well put.
My family owned a photofinishing business in the days before digital. I have seen people with the most expensive gear capture the worst photographic images. Conversely, I have seen people with the most simple gear make great photographic art. Anyone can press the button. It takes someone with an eye and vision to capture images that resonate with the viewer.
Camera gear can make the process easier if you know how and why you are using it.
Don’t ever forget…. Photography is magic. Freezing three dimensional space and time on a two dimensional plane, is….. magic.
K