What does? Taking a lot of photos makes you a good photographer.
I'm speaking in the personal journalistic sense here.
Beautiful photos doesn't make your life amazing. The memories and stories behind the photos do.
Looking at our photos we have great photos and a great life. But if someone is looking at our photos and thinks their life is not as good because their photos are not "professional" has the wrong attitude about their photos and about their life.
All my terminology is really ambiguous. Let me define my terms for this post.
Good photographer: Someone who actually takes lots of photos.
Bad photographer: Doesn't take photos, and ends up without a photographic record of their life.
Great photos: photos that record a memory
Bad photos: almost anything from a cell phone camera, I hate cell phone cameras, use them as a last resort. But if that's all you have bad photos are better than no photos. Bad photos are photos without a story or a memory in them. You've probably looked through a collection of old photos and wondered why you took a photo of some object. I have. Unless it was your first car, then there is a story.
The moral of this post. Take lots of photos.
4 comments:
Point taken. Thanks. You're right that the memory is beautiful even if the photo isn't great. I'm going to be glad to have the slightly blurry, horribly composed shots of those blink-and-you-miss-them moments in my kids' lives. There are so many times I snap a photo of something my toddler or baby is doing, and I have to be superquick or I'll miss it, so I don't take the time to adjust settings or compose the shot obviously. But then I'm disappointed because the photo is not technically great, and even consider not posting them to my blog because the photo, while cute or funny, is not GOOD. I need to stop comparing my candids to the pro photos I see on Flickr or I Heart Faces. I'm sure they all have some garbage photos of great moments hiding in their closets too!
"Bad photos: almost anything from a cell phone camera, I hate cell phone cameras, use them as a last resort."
can't agree with this. Sure the quality is not there but they are what they are. My iPhone is not meant to compete with my Canon 5D2 but it's sure lots more fun! Lots of great apps for creating great images and i can guarantee I'll take just as many rubbish photos with the Canon as i will with the iPhone.
To quote Chase Jarvis... "The best camera is the one you have with you" ...well, it went something like that.
and if you want to see some iPhone shots have a look here...
chase jarvis shoots better pics w his iPhone than i could w a hasselblad
http://www.chasejarvis.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=5&a=0&at=0
or here
http://www.chasejarvis.com/#s=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&p=5&a=0&at=0
Derek,
I appreciate your point. I really like that quote about the "best camera is the one you have with you..." The Chase Jarvis site is spectacular. He truly is an artist, and exemplifies the spirit of the art form. What you have said is what this blog is really about.
Your flickr account has some great iPhone photos. I am impressed with the iPhone camera generally, but unimpressed my Samsung camera phone, and avoid using it if possible. Perhaps the real depth of my statement lies in its poor usability, and less in camera phones in general.
Thanks for your comment
this is amazing
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