How important is photography to you?

[mark-b]

It wouldn't be a vacation without my camera coming along. I will even use a disposable for a backup, which filled in nicely for me last year, when I was a long way from home.

I'm as dedicated to photography as others are with sports or music or painting, and I take it seriously. Calling it a hobby is insulting.

 

[Bike Tourist]

For the first ten years of my working life I was a commercial artist. Then, I changed fields. Then, I discovered that photography was easier than drawing and painting. Then, I started to sell my photos to add to my income part time.

Now, I'm retired and free to bicycle all day long if I want to . . . except photography keeps cutting into my bike time and I'm powerless to stop it!

 

[jbielikowski]

Sometimes I feel that I have no life beyond photography.

 

[NathanJD]

Months go by in my life where i feel that there is nothing worth photographing but when it comes to holidays, events, occasions then i HAVE to have my camera.

could you imagine whitnessing something spectacular and not having your camera there to record it for later perusal?

hmmm... that would haunt me.

I watched a documentory recently about Robert Doisneau and at one stage in his life he was in the street and this woman appeared and to him, everything about this woman, this vision, the scene was right - it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen and guess what? he didn't have his camera with him. for along time after this he obsessed - trying to find the woman and it haunted him. he never did see her again. i think this is a story that many photogrpahers can relate to; and indeed is a real fear that many of us experience!

 

[Fred R.]

Last time I contemplated the (possible) end of film, I said to myself I'll just go where I go, look for the moments I do, align myself, and then. . . point, when the moment arrives. Then point again. Then again. I could do that now, but photographing is about bringing home the moment, isn't t?

 

[whitecat]

For me it is an everyday matter. At 62 I have had an affair for over 50 yrs. I do not do digital.

 

[Bob Ross]

This has been a fun thread to read and thanks to all for sharing. When I look back at my working career in a high stress non-creative job environment, I think I can say that photography might be responsible for preserving what little sanity that I imagine I have. Retirement has has eliminated the high stress and it was replaced by the "digital era turmoil" and the balance has shifed. My hobbies include a lot of the creative type beause of the lack of creativity in the rest of my life. My current first hobby is being retired and within that is photography, which as others have mentioned includes the whole subject. On the personal angle, I like the psychology of photography/image making, the cognitive and sensory perceptions that I choose to use and not use.
So, it has been and still is important to me, and fun, too.
Bob

 

[Carterofmars]

Very.

The idea the you can capture a moment that otherwise would be lost in time, never to exist again, is nothing short of amazing.

And the photographer can make this decision; what is to be immortalized on paper (or digital). You have the ability to make that thing last forever.

It's breathtaking.

 

[amateriat]

I'd say photography has been of very high importance to me for the better part of forty years. I can't say I never leave home without a camera, but it's a rare day that I do. On those rare occasions when I've taken a real vacation–be it a simple long weekend or the week-plus variety–at least one camera comes with me, usually more, and there are no arguments about it. (Of course, I've never had a partner who bristled at this.)

Disposable/"single-use?" No way...a simple AF p/s camera, yes (I took some great photos while in France in 1992, armed with nothing more than a Nikon AF35), but nothing below that, and hardly any need to settle for less.

Add, together with biking/history/travel/etc.? But of course: photography, like black, goes with damn near everything.


- Barrett

 

[Turtle]

Its how I make sense of the world and my feelings towards it. I cannot stop and would never expect anyone to ask me to do so.

It is something I do have to manage because it is so important to me, from two perspectives. I have to ensure that the rest of my life continues, but I also have to ensure that the rest of my life allows the photography to continue. Its a perpetual balancing act which I am not sure I will ever feel runs perfectly. Its a constant state of compromise. Right now things are weighted very heavily in the direction of photography, but if certain things don't work out I will have to swing back the other way.

 

[Harry S.]

I could stop easily.

I came into photography maybe 10 years ago as an alternate to my drawing/painting passion. It was always good at the time to be able to create something instantly, without slaving away for hours on a drawing. Then photography became more important to me, I became too lazy to make traditional art, and my skills that I valued so highly in that area regressed and withered.

Now that I cant draw or paint to the level of any personal value, I regret ever picking up a camera. Also, in the last couple of years photography has become boring itself, probably because I never achieved a skill level that pleased my perfectionist streak. I'm not good enough and unfortunately nine times out of ten the act of using a camera is a waste of time.

So I only take pictures occasionally now cause I have all this gear and nothing better to do. I think I could go on some extravagant holiday and not take a camera just as a statement to my old photo buddies that a holiday can still exist without images to prove it.

I still love to look at good photos, so that side of it is still important to me. At this stage id prefer to curate photography rather than "do" photography.

Sorry to be the one negative person in this thread.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Harry,

Don't apologize! It's very interesting to hear other points of view, though I have to say I'm closer to Turtle. The big difference to me is that writing is an equally essential part of what I do/what I am.

I have my reservations, though, about becoming a curator without continuing as a photographer. For me, it comes parlous close to 'Those who can, do...'

Cheers,

R.

 

[Vics]

I wouldn't think of traveling without a camera, but I have often traveled with only one. Leaves more room for film!
Vic

 

[Harry S.]

I have my reservations, though, about becoming a curator without continuing as a photographer. For me, it comes parlous close to 'Those who can, do...'

Yes, I will attest to that in myself personally. Im not happy with my own work so Id prefer to concentrate on others'. Whether a person can be a credible critic without a solid body of work to support them is another question altogether.

 

[wlewisiii]

Roger,

You always seem to find an interesting question to ask... :angel:

I dislike even going to the grocery store without a camera. I couldn't imagine not having a camera along when on vacation. OTOH, I am not a professional and do not have to bring back images to put food on the table anymore than my annual deer hunt has to.

My toys are very much a part of who I am though 😎 and any vacation I'll have my IIIf along and more than half the enjoyment of the vacation would be the photography.

William

 

[Turtle]

Harry, this might sound obvious, but what have you done to get over your perceived shortcomings? What could you to to get results that are fulfilling? If you were a better photographer would you feel happier?

Its very sad to hear of someone who has given up, or so it seems, when in actual fact the passion you have for looking at the medium is the greatest pre-requisite for being good at it. lots of people think about processes but lack passion. That won't get you far. Learning the technique side is so much easier when it is a means to living out that passion. I see no obvious reason why you could not improve dramatically and produce results that you would really enjoy, assuming you have the will to do so. Everyone goes through fallow periods of reflection. Maybe a rest is what you need followed by a plan for get more out of something that seems to be haunting you from afar.

 

[holdtheframe]

Photography has always been important to me. I have realized that it's the way I experience the world. Sometimes I do wonder if I would be "participating" in what's happening around me more if I would put down the camera but my inclination has always been to pick up the camera and find the moments inside that flow through the viewfinder.

I can't pinpoint when or why this instinct developed in me but I got to say it's grown more after purchasing a M6 last year. When me and my wife were planning a trip to visit her family in Korea, more than anything, I was excited to be taking my Leica abroad and capturing more images of another culture (don't tell my wife or her family I said that).

 

[mangie]

Photography is very important to me, but as has been said above, we sometimes need to put the camera down in order to really experience what is going on around us - I eventually did this when photographing whales in Antarctica.
What I was seeing was "awesome" and the ability to record that experience wouldn't have been possible without my camera, but I also needed to "see" with my "eyes".
I "kick myself" when I go out without the camera because there is then always the "shot" one would liked to have taken!

mangie

 

[Fawley]

[quoteOnce I got to the point where I didn't care what other people thought of my photography, I got infinitely more excited about my work. [/quote]

An interesting comment I can identify with. I've drifted in and out of photography since high school ( although even in the out periods I would never have considered going on holiday without a quality camera in tow). I gave it up for a while after a period of "serious photography" because I concluded that if I didn't go into it as a career, I was wasting my time. Now I see how wrong I was. Even if all my pictures just wind up in a box I will still go on taking more.

Its been something of an obsession now for the past three years and I feel like it will stay that way. It started out as something that I could do in the small slots of time that I had available. Now I've gotten to the point where if I don't go out to do some shooting or darkroom work at least once every week or two, I feel like I'll start to develop a nervous twitch or something. I wish I had more time for it, but right now I just don't.