Has the fun of photography been taken over...
Has the fun of photography been taken over...
24 Aug 2021 2:09PM Views : 573 Unique : 343Has the fun of photography been taken over by the mobile brigade.
Like a lot of us older picture takers on this site I grew up learning all about speed, F stops and focus range. Along with the many other do's and don'ts that many well meaning people wanted to pass on.
This was followed by years of photographers that only wanted to talk about gear or the techinical side of picture taking. Well meaning as they were, they stopped seeing the picture for itself, and camera clubs became the shrine for these people to meet.
Camera, lenses and software got better and better in the digitial age but these people will always go on about don't use auto this or auto that. Real photographers shoot in manual.
Then along came the smartphone producing great images with built in software to do the hard work.
To the old school photographers this is just a passing phase.
Then the mobile camera started killing of the camera sales of the compact market, which is the main money making parts of a lot of camera companies. (How did they get that so wrong.)
The biggest thing that happened was social media and the fun everyone had with that.
No more stuffy people talking about the rule of thirds, golden spiral or placement in a frame, it was all about the fun no matter how they got the image.
Every rule was done away with and people just really enjoyed taking pictures again.
This takes me back to when I started and why...
Quote:photographers that only wanted to talk about gear or the techinical side of picture taking. Well meaning as they were, they stopped seeing the picture for itself, and camera clubs became the shrine for these people to meet.
Camera nerds, or equipment bores, rather than photographers. A big reason to avoid them if you want to take good photos. It's why the term 'camera club' is appropriate rather than 'photographic club'.
Quote:the smartphone producing great images with built in software to do the hard work
If they have fun then fair enough. But it ain't the phone that makes the image, that's only as good as what's behind the phone.
It's comical hearing someone claim an image they have taken is 'great' just because it 'was taken on an iphone'. Little different to the old school camera club 'expert' who thought his images were good because he used a top of the range camera. Look at their images? No, thee's a fresh coating of emulsion on the wall that I'd rather watch harden.
Quote:No more stuffy people talking about the rule of thirds, golden spiral or placement in a frame
While that's refreshing to see, those aspects are worth knowing as a help, or even if you then go out of your way to avoid them.
Rather like onion and garlic, great ingredients but you wouldn't want them in all recipes.
pablophotographer
Just as in all professions, trades, sports or any other human endeavour, without a serious grounding, preparation, learning the basics and much hard work there is no possibility of of knowing one's tools intimately enough to enable achieving goals successfully. The self-delusion and lack of inner personal honesty may lead to regarding one's self as a maester of whatever. Those who believe that the camera/smartphone can do it all, just prove their gullability, ignorance and self-indulgence.
Then, of course, we get to the most essential element of success in any endeavour, the finding, understanding and nurturing of that rarely mentioned "blasphemous/dirty" concecept of 'God given natural talent', in our case, commonly known as "the eye".
Nikon, Canon, Sony, Samsung, iPhone, etc., ad nauseam, are all extremely smart and make good images, but each according to their own parameters, not the picture-takers and most certainly not the photographer's vision.
I can go on and on about the subject, but to keep it shortish, Let's just say that everybody is entitled to and must have fun, but please let's not delude ourselves or our egos, not everybody who can press the shutter button is a good/great/superb image maker.
