Ready to Snap

I'm a photographer. There, I've said it.

Today as I lay face down on the thing I laughingly call my lawn, having the sun warm my backside I felt very much at ease.

I had my camera in my hand with a macro lens attached and I was bothering the mini flora and fauna.


It made me think, once again, why I do photography...and why other people do.

Me?

For lots of reasons. Back in 1982 it was to emulate my brother. Something artistic I could do that I might be good at (I wasn't).

In 2006 it was in response to picking up "idiot boy" 's camera and my hands remembering back to 1982. Also thinking it might be something the boy and I could do together.

In 2007, immediately after the boy's abrupt departure it was about sharing something with my much-loved brother outlaw when I needed to keep contact...and a way to still all the thoughts spinning around in my head. Also a way to get out in the fresh air by myself without looking like the sad loner I felt myself to be.

Shortly after, it became a portal to a new bunch of friends and acquaintances.

So what is it now?

To be honest, it depends.

Frequently it's about taking technically good, potentially interesting macro photographs.

Sometimes it's about taking pictures that might sell in a stock library.

Sometimes it's just about looking and using the medium to prove that I actually did see something that once I would have ignored.

Today, specifically, it was about feeling better. I've been feeling very, very down for three or four weeks now and it reached something of a nadir a few days ago. Lots of things conspired to make me feel lousy, and a few things helped me towards an improved demenour - photography being one.

So photography is about mental health for me too...

I know that other people have a different take on the medium

CJ tells me for him it's about the looking and seeing and it's about much more than the result. Many of his photographs are dense...with lots of elements to see. Others are about pattern and form - for me, at least.

DM says he's struggling with the whole thing at the moment. For him, it's mostly about architectural photographs and capuring the spirit of the building in a picture. He's an architect and annoyingly good at getting the unseen angle on the picture.

TD has a very strong visual sense of what he's trying to photograph. He gets disheartened when the picture that comes out is not what his mind saw. He aims for pictures that no one else would see. He often suceeds, but he's his own worst critic.

DrP gets serious withdrawal if he doesn't get out and take pictures pretty regularly. I know nothing of his motivation for photography. I know lots about what he turns out. He can make me look at something mundane in a completely different way.

DrC says he's jealous of the way the other guys see stuff. He's a recent convert to prime lenses and he gets extremely excited about the quality of bokeh he sees. I think he has lots of motivations for photography, a bit like me. Recently he's been looking for the perfect place to take the perfect sunset picture of the city.

Much-loved-Brother-Outlaw kicked in well paid work as a computer programmer to spend his time taking photographs with the aim of selling to a stock library. A calculated but brave move. He's doing pretty well with it and, more importantly, he seems happier for it.

Photography isn't all things to all men (or women) but I love that, in theory at least, it's a democratic medium.

Without it I would potentially be less confident, less be-friended...and $38.90 poorer.

That's some pastime.



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