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Why do you take photos?

JTC

JTC

PFM Villager...
I know why I do, but I'm guessing we all have different reasons to focus mindfully on taking photographs beyond selfies or casual snaps. For me, I enjoy lots about it: getting out, the creativity of finding or making an image, the sense of the world disappearing as I disappear into the process, and the excitement of seeing the (all too rare) special images. It goes back to film days, especially after I got my first SLR about 30-odd years ago. But even before, there was something quite exciting about 'stealing' a moment in time.

Go.
 
  1. To capture a moment to prompt memories in the future and
  2. As a creative outlet where the process is more deliberate and considered
The two are seperate and distinct activities - the first with a phone and thhe second with a range of analogue cameras and wet processing. Both satisfy a need to create.
 
Photos… long story.
A friend of my parents’ once gave me photo mags and a little Agfa camera. I was about 11.
I was smitten.
The gorgeous cameras and pictures in the mags (my mum just had an Instamatic) made me want to have a camera. Then take pictures!
I spent hours trying to find the perfect composition, and that led to today, 48 odd years later. I love shooting people but also nature in all its beauty, and human architecture.
My first real camera was a Zenit, still in my teens, then a Minolta 7000.
Not so smitten these days mind you, but a quick eye for perfect framing.
I still have my FM2, another digital Nikon D something but I find myself using the iPhone almost exclusively today (the cameras are just too heavy with their purposeful metal and glass lenses!).
Oh and I have a small collection of cameras too.
And I bought cameras to my kids when they were about 10. One of them is a video editor and another one is a graphic and ceramic artist.
What have I done? ;)
 
It's my other sketchbook, my notebook, and it teaches me to see; which is an essential skill given what I do for a living;
and
since my interest being cultivated from childhood by my grandfather (who's 1955 camera setup I still have an use now and then - should've kept the enlarger... )

- nearly 40yrs later, the whole... escapade has long-become (1) unthinkingly-essential to me; and (ii) one of the ways I communicate things I like, I record, to the outside world - at every level. Sometimes a complement to a sketch, Sometimes a landscape, and (for instance) today - very informal, of zero value to anyone else - the inward joy of now ancient shared toys & their stories, with my brother & sister via whatsapp.

And I still love the process, never tire of the short journey /dopamine reaction from see-conceive-capture, whether wet film, 'proper' cameras, or the phone in my pocket.
 
These days purely to document/explain something and enhance web content. I still try for good composition, lighting, but really it is about presenting information. That said I’ve always found the visual component of documentation an art form in its own right, pictures separate good documentation from bad.
 
I take pictures mainly to have a record of the shenanigans at home.

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Joe
 
NSJFan said:
  1. To capture a moment to prompt memories in the future and
  2. As a creative outlet where the process is more deliberate and considered
The two are seperate and distinct activities - the first with a phone and thhe second with a range of analogue cameras and wet processing. Both satisfy a need to create.
Click to expand...

Regarding future memories, I would add that all my "memory" photographs from 10, 30, 50 years ago, not to mention those of my ancestors going back to the late 19th century, are on film and printed on paper in a darkroom. All the digital stuff seems to inevitably disappear. So apart from "snaps" to use on Whatsapp, all my photographs are still done on film. And I very much enjoy spending time in the darkroom, using my hand and my eyes rather than a computer.
 
I take an image/photo when I see someone/something that is pleasing to the eye.

Also I use photos as a memorandum.
Sometimes it is the price label of an item so that I can remember it.
The challenge then is to remember that I have taken the image in the first instance.
I often find images on my phone of various items that I have no recollection of the reason.
 
JTC said:
I know why I do, but I'm guessing we all have different reasons to focus mindfully on taking photographs beyond selfies or casual snaps. For me, I enjoy lots about it: getting out, the creativity of finding or making an image, the sense of the world disappearing as I disappear into the process, and the excitement of seeing the (all too rare) special images. It goes back to film days, especially after I got my first SLR about 30-odd years ago. But even before, there was something quite exciting about 'stealing' a moment in time.

Go.
Click to expand...

Just as for you, I find it incredibly immersive, and it gives a real sense of purpose to a walk, ramble or hike, and a reason to go somewhere beyond the location itself. I try to find narratives in landscapes, particularly those that have been ravaged by industry or war, something which I find far more compelling than simply photographing beautiful places. Probably more difficult too - abandoned wartime airfields, my topic du jour in the pfm photo a week sub-forum, tend to be irredeemably flat for some reason!

I've also found a very effective way of making this odd hobby very cash-intensive - I too still use film!
 
Coz ah like to, and every time Ah post on a forum, it moves the “quirky , clever cats “ and “ incredibly intelligent dogs”, further down or off the page.:mad:
 
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