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’m becoming painfully more and more aware that there is a nasty Jekyll & Hyde thing going on within my photographer persona…The stoic Jekyll whisper swirls around me like a misty morning fog telling me that no currents exist big enough for me to escape the gravity of the crap at which I currently reside…
Hyde concedes that I should not give up the day job, but like a morning ray of light cutting through the gray fog mist, cannot imagine what life would be like if I were to give up and not pursue to bloody nubs this intense desire to quench the thirst of delivering photographic happiness to all that come before my lensic eyeball and the Hell-Raiser pain/joy of a compulsive pursuit of photographic learning and perfection. Oh, God, I’m tired…
[…looking behind me, my life flashes before me as I glimpse the Waaaambulance barreling down on my backside…]
I’ve been in Nicaragua for the past two weeks on a mission trip documenting life in the city dump “la Chureca”. While my cameras are always around my neck, there are times when I find my self shooting with my film cameras for days on end. Last weekend I shot with an f100 and film because I wanted to get excited when I got the film back I wanted to remember a feeling when I look at the proofs. I could have had my dslrs but a simple f100 and my camera phone kept me plenty busy. A tool is just that, but vision and basics excite my mind.
Ps when is the best cam coming to Android
Thanks for posting what was on my mind.
I LOVE Photography! Just as its a habit to have my practiced bravado cigarette before bed, its a habit for me to take photos of ANYTHING or ANYONE who’ll be a kick ass set of pixels on my monitor and then saved in the depths of my D:\. I love searching through my hard drive at forgotten photos. I love photography for the simple reason of it being photography. My 7D is just over a month old and 2000+ shutter counts, and not one photo is for work purposes. I love capturing something awesome. like a wave about to crash, knowing that same particular wave will never exist again 🙂 haha maybe I’m getting too deep. It’s late, I need coffee…
So true! It should be an instinctive action! Great entry, Chase! Hi to everyone!
I do all those things you mention. If one does not love photography for what it is and what it brings but rather the periphery why even bother? It would hold nothing for me.