Why do you take pictures?
Don Farra
cannot help to wonder why photography is so popular. Why do
people take up the camera and take pictures? After all this
is not a cheap hobby by any means.
To answer the question for myself, the answer is complex (at
least to my simple mind). In the beginning I found it
exciting to take pictures, it was magical and roamed around
with my Polaroid camera taking pictures of everything in
sight (until my allowance ran out). But this was not a bad
thing since I then started to mow lawns and baby sit for
more money. When the money ran out I made a shoe box camera
obsura using a close up lens and roamed the neighborhood
looking into the shoe box at a world that was upside down
and backwards.
Later on in life I went out and photographed flowers and
bugs, moving up to landscapes and portraits, and finally
weddings. I bought every book that I could find on the
subject and subscribed to all the magazines. Taking classes
in High School, college, adult night school classes,
seminars, workshops, and conferences to continue my
education and increase my exposure to new ideas. In the
last few years, I moved up to medium format and played with
4x5 cameras, always experimenting and trying to do things
differently either with the camera or in the darkroom. In
all the years it has out lived all the other interests and
crazy hobbies, I guess it is my first love.
The sense of magic is still with me, every time I see the
results of my efforts I am amazed to the point of wondering
and asking myself, "did I do this?".
Even now I see the camera as a time machine, producing
images of the past for others to see in the future. But
more than that, to see the images through my eyes, to see
what I saw, to feel the emotion by witnessing the
expressions captured of film and print. Yet after all of
this I feel it is only the tip of the iceberg, that there is
so much more to learn and to experience, the camera has
become my passport to other worlds and has introduced me to
a group of wonderful and caring people who have a like
interest in photography.
So why do you take pictures?
Don
================================
dor...@ibm.net
Paolo
Terry Dawson
them and trap them in my little box so I can show others and they will have
to admit what a perceptive old fart I am. Actually, I do some shots just to
impress myself too. My gallery at the site below might help explain.
I used to shoot for money years ago. Now I shoot for nothing and call what
I hit the target. ;-)
--
[>@\/\/$<>|\|
Discover One Zen Zeros
http://www.infinet.com/~tdawson/index.html
Don Farra wrote in message <369D0E96...@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov>...
len...@my-dejanews.com
In article <369D0E96...@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov>,
dfa...@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov wrote:
> As I read and answer some of the posts in this group, I
> cannot help to wonder why photography is so popular. Why do
> people take up the camera and take pictures? After all this
> is not a cheap hobby by any means.
> So why do you take pictures?
>
> Don
>
> ================================
>
>
************* Len Cook, Photographer ***************
** 20 years of photojournalism -- DANG that was fun! ***
But there's more to life than News, Weather, and Sports, eh?
http://www.glamourline.com
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
GLMeador
<<
As I read and answer some of the posts in this group, I
cannot help to wonder why photography is so popular. Why do
people take up the camera and take pictures? After all this
is not a cheap hobby by any means.
>>
A life is a collection of memories. Take souvenirs!
Cheers!
Gary L. Meador
Odessa, TX
Rebecca Lao
> to it?
Beca
Emyr Rhys Williams
<URL:mailto:len...@my-dejanews.com> wrote:
> Because my pencil overheats when I draw at 4.5 frames per second.
>
> In article <369D0E96...@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov>,
> > As I read and answer some of the posts in this group, I
> > cannot help to wonder why photography is so popular. Why do
> > people take up the camera and take pictures? After all this
> > is not a cheap hobby by any means.
>
It beats working for a living.
--
Emyr Williams, em...@aberporth.demon.co.uk,
Pedro A. Vera-Perez
PgnJava
The camera is my way of capturing a moment, forever suspended in time... a
moment that may only happen once, ever. I like the idea of saving moments like
that, and to share those moments with as many people as I can. Once it's gone,
it's gone forever.
Kurt Harvilak
<a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/covent/578">My Page Of
Photography</a>
Don Farra
never found". Does anyone remember who made that quote? Was it Ben Franklin? In
any case you can have a photographic memory but it is very hard to make a hard
copy for others to see. In my case I have a photographic memory, but I have no
film.
Thanks for sharing your insight,
Don
====================
David Forsyth
>
> As I read and answer some of the posts in this group, I
> cannot help to wonder why photography is so popular. Why do
> people take up the camera and take pictures? After all this
> is not a cheap hobby by any means.
too right it's expensive, esp here in South Africa....
> To answer the question for myself, the answer is complex (at
> least to my simple mind). In the beginning I found it
well, I'd say it's simple for me.
My Dad took slides for years with an Olympus rangefinder, he'd take
about one 24 exp film a year, an dwe had this great collection of slides
that cronicled (slowly) our holidays and growth years. Dad is also an
amateur radio operator and so I've grown up with gadgets etc. Cameras
are some of the nicest gadgets.....
Then I met a young lady (I was 13 or so) and her father had a darkroom
and did weddings 'n things for pocket moeny. aha, I said, and wangled
my way into his darkroom. I took b&w with an old bellows camera on roll
film and processed them myself.
Time passed, the young lady faded from importance as I was conscripted
into the army for 2 years, then went to varsity for 4 years. During
that time I had a 110 pocket camera, and various peices of plastic 35mm
junk that verged on disposable, both in build quality and operation.
Then I got my first job and bought a Ricoh LC-20, a nice little p&2 with
motor wind and thats about all. It now lives in the car.
going back a bit for some background, I grew up with steam locomotives
hauling trains around town. After 1990 my interest in trains was
rekindled and I began to take fotographing them seriously, and therefore
desired an SLR.
So I swapped my old 386/16 PC for an (equally) old Yashica FX-7 and 2
zoom lenses. I bought an auto flash too.....
And now? Now I'm taking fotos of the kids (3 off), the kites, the
trains, etc. See the URL in my sig for examples (not a portfolio, just
some of what I've done).
Kites? you say.... yep, I saw a web page that dealt with Kite Aerial
Photography and was immediately hooked..... however, I now fly kites
for fun and have not yet taken any aerial fotos, being too busy enjoying
myself flying kites (-:
(besides, chasing trains around the country is pretty expensive, even
before you take pictures....)
[]
> Even now I see the camera as a time machine, producing
> images of the past for others to see in the future. But
> more than that, to see the images through my eyes, to see
> what I saw, to feel the emotion by witnessing the
> expressions captured of film and print. Yet after all of
> this I feel it is only the tip of the iceberg, that there is
> so much more to learn and to experience, the camera has
> become my passport to other worlds and has introduced me to
> a group of wonderful and caring people who have a like
> interest in photography.
Yes
PS: the young lady is now my wife and I'm working on getting the Mamiya
Pro 200 TLR out of father-in-law. He sold everything else.....it's now
cheaper to have stuff printed at 1 hour labs.......
steam and wind
--
David Forsyth DaForce A-T Iwr.Ru.Ac.Za
Keeper of the listserver for South African Railways fans _|_ His
Part time gricer, kiter, photographer, father etc etc | Way
http://www.ru.ac.za/departments/iwr/staff/daf/welcome.html | Up
Brandon Campbell
> cannot help to wonder why photography is so popular. Why do
> people take up the camera and take pictures? After all this
I've always been attracted to any kind of device with lots of different
buttons, levers, knobs, etc. on it. And when I got a Polaroid camera for
Christmas when I was 10 years old, I absolutely loved it. I took pictures
of anything and everything, just to see how it would look.
By the time I was 12, my tastes grew to 35mm because of the lower price of
film. I only had a cheap point-and-shoot (a $25 Kodak whose lens was
focused from "4 feet to infinity"). By today's standards, not much better
than a disposable camera, but it did the job, and one of my most memorable
shots to this day was taken with that film (on Seattle Filmworks film, at
that! and contrary to popular belief, the original slide has not faded or
anything...). Around this time, my sister had a lot of friends from
school who would come sleep over at our house. So I had plenty of
"captive models" to work with... I'm always wishing I had the camera I
have now, back then... By this time I knew I wanted an SLR which could be
adjusted manually and use different lenses, but my family could not
justify the expense until I started college. But in the meantime I
quickly learned to get the most out of what I had, sometimes even trying
to improvise things like a telephoto lens (by shooting through
binoculars), etc. I wasn't yet able to take the close-up portraits and
macro shots I had always admired the most, but I did still take plenty of
memorable shots of all the important people, places, things, and events in
my life.
And to this day, that is still the main reason I take pictures - to
capture beautiful, amusing, or otherwise memorable moments in time to help
me "go back" to them (in my head) whenever I want.
--
Brandon Wayne Campbell
bwc...@airmail.net
http://people.unt.edu/~brandonc/
Patrick White
time. I take more creative ones to satisfy a creative urge with no technical
artistic capabilities for outlet (i.e. I can't draw, paint, sketch, sculpt,
etc. worth a darn).
I also recently found out that those snapshot pictures can be useful
refreshing memories temporarily lost to amnesia.
later,
patbob
In <36A35C35...@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov> Don Farra <dfa...@radar-sci.jpl.nasa.gov> writes:
>That sounds like something I read once, a quote that went like this: Lost time is
>never found". Does anyone remember who made that quote? Was it Ben Franklin? In
>any case you can have a photographic memory but it is very hard to make a hard
>copy for others to see. In my case I have a photographic memory, but I have no
>film.
>Don
>====================
>PgnJava wrote:
>> >Why do you take pictures?
>> The camera is my way of capturing a moment, forever suspended in time... a
>> moment that may only happen once, ever. I like the idea of saving moments like
>> that, and to share those moments with as many people as I can. Once it's gone,
>> it's gone forever.
>> Kurt Harvilak
>> <a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/covent/578">My Page Of
>> Photography</a>
--
Pat White (work: patbob...@sequent.com, (503) 578-3463)
Internet==Net of 1000 lies. (adapted from Verner Vinge's
_A Fire Upon The Deep_)
Zachi Klopman
objective way to record a moment, but to record a moment, or object, the
way _I_ see it.
and you can look at some of these images via http://i.am/zachi .
Zachi Klopman
AndiPantz
do here! ;)
But that's not the only reason. I took a B&W photo class in college, but could
never afford to do anything more with it. So now I have a job (and like I
mentioned above, there's nothing to do here), so I decided to take advantage of
the place and time and make it a good hobby. I'm a biologist, but probably a
photographer at heart! =)