Over the last four years, much of my free time has been spent behind the lens of my camera taking pictures. In that time, my camera has inspired me to go on long hikes, visit abandoned places, and randomly meet strangers who would (hopefully) be cool enough to let me take their photograph. I have shot senior portraits, models, bands, and family events. Over the years, I’ve realized people come up to a person with a camera with the same questions and expectations and you realize skills you learn as a photographer are only there because you’re a photographer. So here’s a list of common things people usually bring up when we’re discussing photography. Enjoy!
1. “Pictures only look good because you have a professional camera”
There’s more to photography than owning an expensive camera. Being a photographer is just another way of saying you’re an individual who knows how to work with light, angles, and distance. Sure, having a camera with controls that are more adaptive to those aspects helps, but that doesn’t mean it is utterly impossible to take good pictures with a cell phone, or a box with a pinhole poked through it for that matter. The power of a good photograph comes from the photographer, nothing more nothing less.
2. “What do you mean manual settings?”
I’ll admit, when I first got my SLR camera, I was sure I was going to capture the worlds attention by automatic settings and automatic settings alone. I had an idea of what the manual setting were but I was too intimidated to try them for myself. It took a class and a stickler professor to force me to stick to the manual settings for several of our class projects. Having over and under exposed pictures was annoying at first but like anything you improve with practice. Now it’s all I do. You have way more control going manual than you do with automatic, plus it makes for a way more exciting experience…and your pictures come out way better.
3. “We need a photographer…Hey you have a camera!”
Being a photographer can be a mixed blessing. On one hand, you get to drown yourself in the flattery that is having people who are excited to have you take their picture. One the other…you have people who are excited to have you take their picture. Photography is fun and is definitely a great way to spend you free time. However, you become everyone’s go to man. I still don’t know how I feel about it.
4. “Taking pictures is easy.”
Not exactly. Sure, any person can learn to point an object at something a press a button. There’s so much more to photography than that. Photography is about seeing in ways that you’re not normally used to seeing things. It’s a mental game you’re constantly playing where you’re saying “I know this thing has potential, now how do I frame it to release that potential?” It’s like learning poetry, music, and painting at the same time. You’d be amazed at how exhausted you’ll get after a full day of shooting. Be warned, it’ll kick your ass.
5. “I don’t really know of any photographers…”
When you look back in history and you think of an event does a particular picture come to mind? When I hear the word baby boomer I always think of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square, when people talk about the Great Depression I think of Dorthea Lang’s “Migrant Mother,” and when I hear the word ‘suicide’ I somehow manage to think of Kevin Carter’s Pulitzer prize-winning work in the Sudan. My point is, without photographers our ideas of events and news would be distorted. Photographers go to great lengths to bring you the truth, don’t ever forget that!
6. “Film photography is for the hipsters.”
Like switching to manual settings, I was introduced to film photography and development in a classroom and I was utterly intimidated by it. It seemed like such a world away from digital photography and I thought the process was going to challenge my pursuit of being a photographer. Having done the process, I can say it is one of the most rewarding things you, as a photographer, can do for yourself. In a way, you physically make you’re images. Everything from developing your film to exposing your pictures. It’s a magical experience.
7. “Oh look, that dude is taking pictures. Let’s honk.”
If I has a penny for every time someone honked at me while I was photographing something off the road I have about six dollars (remember, I barely started taking pictures four years ago). Sometimes it’s charming, other times it can scare the bricks right out of you—I’m about semi-truck drivers. Nothing ruins a good shot like a good scare.
8. “What do you mean you charge?”
Like I said earlier, photography is an exhaustive process. Not only do you have to spend time taking the pictures but you also have to finalise them in the post-production process as well. Photography is a long process!
9. “See this picture, make this [insert object] look like this [points at picture]”
Last semester for an internship, my supervisor told me to photograph the building we were working in. This would be fine, except he wanted it to look like something out of a Trump Tower when in reality it was a cinderblock box. If you’re working with a photographer, or any professional, keep your dreams realistic, we’re not miracle workers.
10. “…”
A picture is said to tell a thousand words. You’ve learned a great deal from photographs you’ve witnessed in your lifetime without even realizing it. Next time you see an image of war, a wild animal, or a new invention try to remember to ask yourself what it’s trying to communicate to you. Sometimes, an image will stop you dead in your tracks and leave you virtually speechless. Those are amazing breakthroughs.