Why do You Take photographs

[Cutter]

Hi All having a bit of a Why moment sorry,

PHOTOGRAPHY

Why do we do it,? to please others? to please ourselves? is it that we want to be noticed as individuals that stand out?. Are we doing it to prove a point? is it to be praised for our talents. What are we trying to get out of it? or getting out of it?

I know its a bit of a LIFE question but I would love to know what you think.

[pburness]

I have no idea!, I just enjoy doing it.

I guess the challenge of constantantly trying to improve drives me along, but I could do other things that would provide similar challenges.

Phil

[karenoliver]

Reason I like to make photographs is a long story. Here it is cut short :-)
I have been photographing for 3years. I got assaulted when I was 16 and developed a fear of leaving the house until I was 36. I wouldnt even go in the garden and no medication or therapy worked. Anyway, I used to look at the work of photographers online to see the outside world through their photographs. A psychologist suggested I buy a camera, use it as an aid to going out, take my mind off the fear. I never looked back since, did 3 yrs in college studying photography and have totally fell in love with photography and the world. Its still strange being out and I can't travel far on my own still but the camera is with me everywhere I go. After being in for so long I find beauty and interest in everything and can never see me being without a camera ever. Sorry if that was heavy lol. But that is my answer :-)

Karen

[OldBoy]

Sorry about your bad experience karen.

Always had a love of nature and the natural enviroment, but didn't have the patience to wait for the film to be developed. With digital it solved all this waiting, so I can see the images when I've taken them. When I'm at home I wonder what wonderful moments I'm missing, so can't wait to get out with the camera. Even today when it was snowing and not many people around I was still out taking photos.

[pburness]

Karen,
Really sorry to hear about your incident, that is truely sad. I hope the people responsible were well punished!

In some ways, I'm kind of the opposite - I left home when I was just over 16, spent several years in collage / uni, but then travelled extensively with work (20 years!). Mainly Europe, Middle East, US and Africa. Although interested in Photography (I even ran a photography business for a while, photographing rally cars and selling the photo's to magazines and the sponsors), I never took my camera with me when travelling with work. As a consequence, I have great memories of loads of locations but no photo's to show for it

I still travel a fair bit and now take my camera with me; but rarely get a good opportunity to use it as now I'm in and out of locations generally overnight, and I usually like to travel as light as possible - just cabin luggage.

What I can say, from my experiences, is that although there is a lot of bad in the world - there is also an immense amount of good.

Glad you found the camera for two reasons - it's helped you & it's given us an opportunity to see your pictures

Phil

[Semaj]

Karen sorry for your experience but glad you are starting to get over it with your Camera.

I started taking digital pictures about 8 years ago when I retired and bought a Minolta Dimage7. I went up the hills and wanted to help others to do the same. Pictures uploaded then had to be 56k or less and my website reflected this. Two years later I somehow got un-retired and I am still working and enjoy taking pictures although time is now somewhat limited.

Jim.

[karenoliver]

Thanks but don't be sorry the silver lining for me was finding photography :-).

I can understand not waiting for the film to be developed, Oldboy. I think digital has brought photography to a a lot more people for that reason. I'm always wondering what I am missing as well when I am in. Can't you pack a small compact camera, phil? As for seeing lots of bad things, my brother-in-law is in the army and when he was in Iraq slept in Saddams palace. He is in sierra leon now and last week visited an orphanage there. He sees loads of things yet never takes a camera and it drives me mad lol I can't imagine not photographing opportunities like that. Jim, its great you found a new lease of life when retired. Too many people just sit in front of the tv and vegetate :-)

Karen

[Cutter]

Karen it seems like we are doing the same things in order to move on and enjoy life (Distraction) when I found out that my treatment hadnt worked I had to submerse my self into photograph, to distract myself from the enevitable, Take care you are a brave woman

[pburness]

Originally Posted by karenoliver

Can't you pack a small compact camera, phil?
Karen

Yes, I do now - Canon G10 - love it, would recommend it to anybody!

Phil

[aRitsos]

Photography to me is like my diary, where I have captured my memories, my walks, my thoughts, things that surprise me or make me have an interest.

I started very early to photograph. Since I was 10, I was working and assisting my father as a survey engineer, I was also carrying the tripod of the survey instrument he was using. At the end of each work in site I had 10 minutes free to use the lens, with care, and I asked for a nice camera to photograph. I was watching flowers, small animals, the pick of the mountains, etc. My father taught me geometry. My mother taught me art. I received my OM10 as a Christmas present. Before I had some smaller cameras but I was complaining about the lens, that I don't have the same view as the survey instrument. To buy a new lens that time could take more than 3 years. We were using slides film, the camera was almost always in the pocket of the jacket. I photographed parties, our trips, my walks. At the gymnasium we had made a nice company for travelling, to photograph octopus and summer, and to discuss respectively about photography and our lives.

Now I'm using it a lot in my work and to photograph my family. My daughter Evelina, she is 5+, she also likes to photograph with me and then she is trying to paint the view. As a geotechnical engineer I have to photograph nature and the interaction between ground and human structures, either for roads or for buildings. Photography helped me to pay attention in details, to search for the better angle in order to describe an event either with a numerical diagram or just with a photograph. That way you have just to explain the critical parameters and to give an answer to the question, " What do we see here ?"

That's it. Me.

My best regards to all of you. αR