Why do you practice Photography ?

[Jarvis]

Just reading through a couple of backdated threads and wondering why all you RF members photograph, is it fun, technique, having the technology ? tell us why, I bet some threads will be quite interesting ...

 

[wlewisiii]

I've always been a looker; an observer. In my time in the US Army, my favorite job was as a Scout - looking around and trying to find them before they found us. Photography is an outgrowth of this. I enjoy trying to see if I can recreate what it is that I see as I look around the world. It is an abstraction of reality, much like poetry, but when done right it can capture a moment of light that can express something.

I like it because it's an art, like breathing, that can be performed anywhere: anytime. I can keep a camera with me all the time and noone really thinks anything of it.

William

 

[cp_ste.croix]

i like to create things and practice seeing in a different way. i like the power photographs can have. i aspire to greatness. i love art, especially poetry, writing, and photography; it is a reason to get up each morning. i like to communicate in abstractions.

 

[Jarvis]

... i aspire to greatness ... I love that expression what a great line that is ... I aspire to greatness, even feels good typing it in on a keyboard .... Good on ya CP !!!!

Communicate in abstrations ... theres another one ...

 

[cp_ste.croix]

not that i achieve greatness ever, but aspiration is the key...

 

[Jarvis]

I love it ... "I aspire to greatness" might well of been Oscar Wilde re-quote, sit back and think of it, "I aspire to greatness" very powerfull expression, very powerfull .

Wish I could of come up with that ... I use a Leica M3 because I aspire to greatness ... hemmmm yes ...

I drive a '62 Mercedes Benz because I aspire to greatness....

absolutely fuc**** great .... I can say that becaue I aspire to greatness ....

You know Canadians have allways had the edge ... Neil young, Alanis M. joni mitchell and many many more, I guess they all aspire to greatness, hehehehe

 

[wierdcollector]

I'm Canadian and sure I aspire to greatness. My Ebay bill alone is greater every month, lol. I practice photography because compared to the rest of you guys and gals here it's apparent I need all the practice I can get.

 

[cp_ste.croix]

🙂 you mde me smile, and that is great. thank you.

 

[Jarvis]

Going to practice on my wife/partner tomorrow morning " I will not cook the eggs today, because "I aspire to greatness""

Wonder what she will say to that (intelligent girl you know) ... really ...

 

[cp_ste.croix]

I practice photography because compared to the rest of you guys and gals here it's apparent I need all the practice I can get.

you know that was my first mental response too...must be something in the water eh?

chris

 

[Jarvis]

"One can do anything" ..... "but only whilst aspiring to greatness" everything is, and will be excused when aspiring to greatness ....

The mutual thought of Alexander the Great, Julius Ceasar, Ghnegis Kahn, Napoleon, Adolf(sorry), George W. Bush (trying to figure out what exactly "inspiring"* means) hehehehe and of course cp_ste-croix ....

*not insinuating G.W.Bush might be dislectic ... or a downright idiot, he just should of become a shiftleader at General Electric instead of ther biggest cheese of all....

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I don't know if "practicing photography" is really what I do. I love taking pictures. I love image composition. I love visualizing what the picture would be like, and working at getting the results. I am attracted to forms and shapes, colors, light and shadows, and how time somehow is perceived to be frozen on a flat piece of paper or a flat screen. How an arrangement of light and darkness across a field can convey or summon an emotion, or summon it away, is one of its greatest strengths and weaknesses.

It is light sculpting, it is quick light painting. It is art, it is outlet. It can be protest, it may be affirmation. It may be nothing, or it may be more than one thing at once. It is sharing your point of view to the rest of the world, and expressing something concrete or open-ended, hoping to be in a debate that may last beyond your time on Earth.

So, in short, because I love photography.

 

[Honu-Hugger]

I take pictures for the same masochistic reasons that I used to play golf -- there's something appealing to me in pursuing an interest that I'm lousy at...

 

[back alley]

i don't practice.

i do.

joe

 

[ray_g]

Unlike HCB, I tried painting before photography.
My paintings suc*ed.

 

[DougK]

Well, I can't draw very well, can't paint, can't sculpt, but I see images in my head that need to come out somehow... so I go look for them with a camera.

 

[FrankS]

This is again, another one of the most valuable questions to be asked here at RFF (IMHO🙂) I love photoraphy so that is why I practice it. I love it for many reasons. I can't paint or write well. I need an artistic outlet of some kind. I love the mechanical precision of classic cameras. I love light. And I am naturally in my nature, an observer. Photography allows me to easily record my observances. I had a great temporary job while at university as a doorman at a bar. I am an observer. I still live my life, but I feel that I am generally more aware of the "stuff" around me than the average person is. (as all photographers are).

 

[Goodyear]

I have some different answers to this question...

I love images, photographs in particular. I love it when I look at a photograph and I have to just stop and look, maybe with my mouth hanging open like a fool. I love it when an image speaks to me and moves me, or even just impresses me with its simplicity, power and effectiveness. I aspire to making images that I react to in that way (practice still needed 🙂 ).

I like to try to record what I perceive, in addition to what I 'see'.

I very much enjoy the process of taking a photograph - the tactile pleasure of using a nice solid, often manual 😀 , piece of equipment. Sometimes I wonder if it'd be cheaper to not put film in the camera at all 😀

I know well the sting of scanning an image with which I had a strong idea of what I wanted to acheive, and finding I'm nowhere near it. That can make me want to stick the lot on eBay, or make me want to go out and keep shooting in the hope that one day the image I wanted will be the one on the screen.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Trying to capture beauty. Habit (nearly 40 years). Trying to earn a living. The enormous rewards (emotional, not financial) when I get it right.

Cheers,

Roger (www.rogeramdfrances.com)

 

[Dave H]

so when I'm 99 years old I can use my prints to help me remember people, places and things, that I'd otherwise have forgotten about.