What Motivates You?

[Todd.Hanz]

What motivates you to go shoot? I like to look at examples of great works from the masters of "bygone" days like HCB, Capa, and others but also glean from the RFF masters here. When I peruse our gallery, it often fires me up and motivates me to go shoot! There are some great images hidden there, here are some I find that motivate me:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1291/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/1

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1663/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/5

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1633/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/2

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1852/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/3

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2397/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/1

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1619/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/2

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1105/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/1

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1631/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/1

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/765/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/3

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2074/password//sort/1/cat/500/page/2

There are many, many more! So, what motivates you?????

Todd

 

[RML]

Many things, impressions, photos, sounds, etc influence me, but what motivates me... I haven't got a clue. I'm just always on the lookout for that what makes a place or a scene tick. I can't explain it properly (damn masculine brain!) but I know it when I see it. I could call it "the beauty" but that doesn't always cover it.

 

[peter_n]

I don't think I'm "motivated". My hobby was dormant for ten years until about a year ago when I got my first rangefinder. Maybe because my only camera was a Nikon F3hp+MD4... 😉

I just "see" pictures and sometimes I have my camera with me and I snap it, sometimes I don't. Like Remy, I find it difficult to articulate. What is really annoying is I see a scene that's really good and I don't have my camera - aaaaargh!! 😡

 

[Pherdinand]

That time, those 2-3 days, when I'm waiting for the lab to give me my neg back with proofs, that's very exciting. That is what (partly) motivates me; i know when i press the shutter that there was a potential in the scene that I tried to fix on a tiny piece of film, but i don't know yet how succesfully...
It's always a sweet waiting time. (Maybe that's why the digital's "instant feedback" is not for me.)

 

[GeneW]

Most of my photography is done when I go out for walks. I walk primarily around a Lake Ontario harbour and I never know what I'm going to see on any given day. Every day is different. I think it's the anticipation of 'finding' images that motivates me.

Gene

 

[Mike Richards]

Go to Spain and visit the Altamira caves sometime. Then ponder why a caveman some 10,000 years ago recorded images on the cave wall. There's something very primitive, yet profound and human, involved with the urge to capture and record images. Why did he do it? There's at least part of your answer.
http://www.veu.unican.es/arte/Ingles/prehist/paleo/b/Default.htm

 

[back alley]

What motivates you to go shoot?

find that answer, win the prize!
i have no solid idea.

i see what i believe to be an interesting bit of space/life/activity/etc and i like the concept of keeping it in more than my memory.
the need for different lenses is to help capture that mental image accurately, different films to record it as i see things.

i'm as motivated by the process of shooting as i am by the viewing of the photo and subsequent sharing of the image.

blah blah blah...

joe

 

[GeneW]

blah blah blah...

Crikey, Joe, I didn't know you were into Zen ... 😉

Gene

 

[back alley]

being philosophical can be so tiring.

oooooommm.


jr

hey gene, did you read my almost 'foreward' to the book?
whadya think?

joe

 

[GeneW]

I haven't caught up to it yet, Joe. I was doing some server building and got sidetracked into techie stuff.

Gene

 

[back alley]

ok

 

[Rich Silfver]

I read it Joe and I like the 'spirit' it was written in - highlighting that we're attracted to both the camera(s) and the image(s).

Btw - did you see the 60 second-quick-ass-put-together 'teaser' of what the back may end up looking like at: http://www.pbase.com/rsilfverberg/samples__back_cover

Todd's design decision in the end - I was just curious to see how they would 'look together' 🙂

 

[back alley]

just took a look, very cool - i like it!

 

[RML]

Looks good!

If the leather for the M2 arrives soon I could be begging you to let me enter another photo for the back cover.

What would our audience think of a pink leather Leica M2...?

 

[GeneW]

I read it Joe and I like the 'spirit' it was written in - highlighting that we're attracted to both the camera(s) and the image(s).

Btw - did you see the 60 second-quick-ass-put-together 'teaser' of what the back may end up looking like at: http://www.pbase.com/rsilfverberg/samples__back_cover

Todd's design decision in the end - I was just curious to see how they would 'look together' 🙂

Joe, I just read your words and, like Rich, very much like the 'spirit' of it.

Rich, love the teaser. It's getting exciting to see this coming together.

Gene

 

[back alley]

so you guys like the 'spirit' of it.
any comments on the actual words?

i'm not fishing for compliments just comments.
if you prefer privacy a p.m. is more than fine.

gene, especially coming from an experienced and published writer, a little feedback could be good for me.

i promise not to send my uncle giudo after anyone🙂

joe

 

[Peter]

There are transcient images around us that will be lost in time if it is not recorded. It is my duty as a photographer to record it. 😛

 

[Rich Silfver]

Let's not hijack Todd's thread here about motivation 🙂

You can all use the email distribution list (just look up one of the status emails I've sent out), a new thread here at RFF - or use the pbase comments section.

🙂

 

[taffer]

Back to the original thread then ! 🙂

I don't know what motivates me, but one thing I like for sure is that when I'm shooting I'm sort of... out of everything.

As if I could be out of the world for a while, and that's refreshing, then if luck blesses me and end with pictures I like, even better! 😀

 

[vladhed]

As sappy as this sounds, our motivation is the desire to capture moments of beauty, so that we may experience and share those moments of beauty at some future point in time, at will.

Each of us has his or her own idea of what constitutes beauty, something we develop over the years from our own personal experiences; places we visit, strangers we meet, playing with our children/pets, coffee we drink (well, in this forum anyway 😀 ).

We are also influenced by looking at others' work - both other amateurs and famous professionals (the sharing part). This gives us clues about how to capture these moments of beauty we experience into photographs. This is where technique comes in.

This is a secondary motiviation; the desire to hone our technical abilities, master our equipment and process, so that we can capture more moments and get as close as we can at faithfully reproducing these moments. (There's a bit of Plato in there somewhere).

How's that for an engineer, eh?