Grand Canyon

I used to be active in a meetup group that did group photo activities.  What struck me from our reviews is how different each of the photos was of the same object or setting.    There may be a finite set of places and thing to shoot; however there is no limit on the view points that individuals bring to the situation. Is uniqueness really the yardstick that we measure by?  If it were why do people flock to the Grand Canyon and take the same picture a million other people have?

This photo is mine, though it looks like the windows screen saver photo from the same location.  I am delighted to have this photo

There are the obvious things that we have some choice over; camera position high/low, left/right, time of day, lighting.  Then there are the less obvious things such as juxtaposition and framing.     All of these take practice and are not part of the whip out the camera and snap away at a spectacular scene hoping for a great photo. Practice makes things permanent, not better.  So if you practice whipping out the camera letting it snap away at 10 frames a second for a few seconds, that is what you make permanent.  If on the other hand, you have an environment that encourages you to think, or to experiment  that is what gets made permanent.

But all of the above begs the question… Why do we take pictures at all? There are a number of motivations, and often people may not even be aware of what their motivations are.  However, it is a good exercise to think about what is the personal payoff for taking pictures.   Below are a few ideas to get you thinking about it, but it is hardly an exhaustive list. Which of these resonate with you?  And, over time your reasons may evolve….

• As a record of what I have seen, where I have been, or what I have done
• It is a pretty thing /place and I want a memory of it and the experience I had while shooting it.
• I like the process of taking a picture, (like some people like golf), it gets me out of the day to day world.
• I like creating pretty pictures
• I like looking at pretty pictures
• I like other people to go oh and ah  over my photos
• I want to take unique   photos
• I want to make money with my photos
• I like seeing photos in print

At some level it is important to understand what our motivations are.  Do I sign up for a beginners workshop on how to use the camera? Or do I signup up for a fall colors workshop, or a sports photography workshop?  Or it could be that I don’t know yet and I’m investigating  through new experiences.

[latestbyauthor author=”Patrick” show=”3″]