[RookieGuy]

What an interesting question. Well, for starters, I'm communicating with both myself and Mrs. Rookie. Finding beauty. Well, sometimes we both need to go back and look at that pretty bird, that sunset, that pea dull river, autumn foliage to remind ourselves there is beauty still around us if we are able to see it. Sometimes it's about showing Mrs. Rookie pretty pictures in the hopes that later when it's time it'll be easier to justify a *lens.

If I were to be completely honest with myself, sometimes is not as much communicating as going off into the woods to shout some sort of primordial scream.

Very often, a hair over 90% of the time it's not about communication at all. It is about me going off into the woods with a camera. The other 10% are pictures of people at family get togethers. In those times I'm definitely communicating a message. That message isn't for polite conversation though.

[twilhelm]

We all have a different bridge to gap, or cross, depending on how you look at it. As I've said, maybe here or somewhere else, I gave up doing it as a full time profession a few years back for personal reasons. But in December I shot a wedding for a friend. He had hired a videographer from out of state to "run" his wedding. It was an interesting and enlightening experience to work with him and share stories of our bridezilla moments.

While I primarily shoot for myself these days, I have a box of photographs and slides dating back 50+ years from my father and grandparents. Once in a while I think to myself, Why did they take these pictures, and who are they? Some of the places and people I shoot will never be the same, in the same place or maybe the same condition. And here I've captured something unique, and hopefully done a good job at it.

I share my photos here and on flickr, and no, they aren't always my best shots. Sometimes I was only able to squeeze off one or two for the single in challenge and I ended up with some nasty CA because I didn't have time to compose properly (today was an example). But I posted it because it was part of the challenge.

When we stop arguing over gear, photographers are some of the greatest people to converse with!

And thank you for this thread! This is why I've been a part of this community all these years.

[monochrome]

I sell NOTHING! (Well, almost nothing...)


Steve

Had to laugh. I’ve actually printed, but I’ve sold NOTHING.

.:

[clackers]

If I were to be completely honest with myself, sometimes is not as much communicating as going off into the woods to shout some sort of primordial scream.

Glad it works for you, RookieGuy, but for others, photography might be a dubious form of therapy!

Like sport, it has highs and lows, triumphs and disappointments, plateaus where a way out isn't in sight and efforts aren't always rewarded, so it doesn't suit a lot of personality types.

In fact, these struggles can uncomfortably mirror difficulties in the rest of someone's life. I sense this in some of the negative posters in this forum ... they're unhappy with where their photography's at, and maybe how they're travelling in the 'real world' too.

But if someone's robust, the difficult things can be super rewarding and very individual. You can send two people off with cameras for an hour in a market and really you'd expect different results, because as Ansel Adams said: “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

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Last edited by clackers; 02-15-2018 at 09:08 PM.

[RookieGuy]

Clackers, I was a chef for a very long time. When I left that, I realized I miss my built in always accessible soundproof scream chamber. Every restaurant has one, the walk-in.

[clackers]

Clackers, I was a chef for a very long time. When I left that, I realized I miss my built in always accessible soundproof scream chamber. Every restaurant has one, the walk-in.

I've read Bourdain's 'Kitchen Confidential" and can see why they were needed, RG.

[honey bo bo]

Awarded from a Magazine on the American side of Lake Superior ! I'm good for 2 years now. To put this in prospective for the less fortunate it's the equivalent of Runner Up for the "Pictoral Writing" Noble Peace Prize Award or the Gas Station "Clean Rest Room of the Month award ". I live in a wonderful World and haven't even started Self Medicating yet!
Welcome come on In !

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Last edited by honey bo bo; 05-29-2018 at 10:09 AM.

[dadipentak]

I just read Snafu711's post where he describes photography as a way of discovering the world. YES!

I might add that the technical side of photography holds no fascination for me. My grasp of such things is pretty limited. What I love about the technology is that, while my technical limitations can be frustrating at times, I can still sometimes produce images, some of which are interesting &/or meaningful &/or beautiful--and without messing with chemicals! :~)

[BigMackCam]

I might add that the technical side of photography holds no fascination for me.

That's one of the nice things about our hobby... there are lots of individual aspects, and we can choose to enjoy one, a few, or all of them as our interests dictate, and in different ways. There's room for all of us in the hobby, regardless of what we enjoy

[jacamar]

I was a birder from about age 11 and that has evolved to include outdoor and wildlife photography, now that the digital era has enabled me to capture images I find satisfying. I have just enough gear to be able to do that and I need it to be portable - I am not a major gear collector. For me the first thing is about engagement with the scene and/or the creature. Post processing is a way of recreating the best of that moment. While I enjoy sharing images with people I know almost nothing about other than that they seem to value what I'm doing, as others have said I shoot mostly for myself. As to who the "self" is, I guess it's just the side of me that likes to pursue some kind of creative activity around something that interests me.
I like to keep it fresh - travel helps, as does exploring different ways of presenting your work. I recently completed a hand-bound "photobook" drawn from images taken over several years around a theme that initially took some thought, but that became clear as I reviewed the kinds of images I habitually come back to. Juxtaposition and sequencing of your images in book form (other than just a chronological narrative) is a new way of looking at them.

[jcdoss]

One year and five months since this, the most responded-to thread I've ever posted, has peetered out. I'm curious to know if anyone has new thoughts, or if anyone's motivations have changed in that 17 months?

[photoptimist]

One year and five months since this, the most responded-to thread I've ever posted, has peetered out. I'm curious to know if anyone has new thoughts, or if anyone's motivations have changed in that 17 months?

My original response back on page 1 echoed BigMackCam's enjoyment of the mentally challenging task of mastery of the equipment and methods needed to get a good image. That is still very much true.

But I now realize that there's a second motivation. Photography actually makes me engage more with the world. The act of looking for photographs forces me to see more and enjoy more. A simple beach or patch of weeds that most would ignore becomes a place of intricate patterns in the wave-lapped sand or delicate sprays of flowers topping some scraggly wild plant.

If I was not looking for photographs, I might not be looking at all.

[photocles]

If I was not looking for photographs, I might not be looking at all.

Oh, so true for many of us!