A snapshop
The year is swiftly coming to an end. It's been one of the stranger years which has felt like a preparation for something better.
In 2013 I came to terms with the loss of my dad, I began to fight back against the forces that make living in this house unpleasant at times, and I began to prioritise my life a lot more.
My love of photography (taking and looking at pictures) has started to coalesce more. I've been buying more books of photographers work, watching documentaries and spending more time working out what I want I can do, what I want to do and what I'll probably never do. The real breakthrough is that I now understand what I was trying to do in all the thousands of photographs I've been taking since I got my first camera. Aside from pictures as mementoes, there were scores of pictures that people were stumped by. They would ask why I had taken them and question their worth. I would have no answers but I always knew there was a point. Now I can see the point and there's a trail that is obvious to me from those early shots to the ones that make me happy now.
I have stuck at photography long enough to know when I can see a picture and why I am mildly obsessive about carrying a camera with me wherever I go. For anyone who cares, these are a few of my realisations.
I love street photography
I'm too shy to be a street photographer
I love the abstract elements available through photography
A photograph should express something, not just reproduce something
I prefer natural light
I prefer to frame the picture in the camera
If someone doesn't understand why I took a picture of something I no longer care
People are endlessly interesting subjects
It is important to learn the rules of photography
It is important to know when to forget the rules
And, of course, you never stop learning.
In 2013 I came to terms with the loss of my dad, I began to fight back against the forces that make living in this house unpleasant at times, and I began to prioritise my life a lot more.
My love of photography (taking and looking at pictures) has started to coalesce more. I've been buying more books of photographers work, watching documentaries and spending more time working out what I want I can do, what I want to do and what I'll probably never do. The real breakthrough is that I now understand what I was trying to do in all the thousands of photographs I've been taking since I got my first camera. Aside from pictures as mementoes, there were scores of pictures that people were stumped by. They would ask why I had taken them and question their worth. I would have no answers but I always knew there was a point. Now I can see the point and there's a trail that is obvious to me from those early shots to the ones that make me happy now.
I have stuck at photography long enough to know when I can see a picture and why I am mildly obsessive about carrying a camera with me wherever I go. For anyone who cares, these are a few of my realisations.
I love street photography
I'm too shy to be a street photographer
I love the abstract elements available through photography
A photograph should express something, not just reproduce something
I prefer natural light
I prefer to frame the picture in the camera
If someone doesn't understand why I took a picture of something I no longer care
People are endlessly interesting subjects
It is important to learn the rules of photography
It is important to know when to forget the rules
And, of course, you never stop learning.
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