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 02/09/2005 01:26:16 PM · #26
Originally posted by nsbca7:
I am driven to take pictures by an invisible muse

.

Absolutely too funny!

I take pictures because I can't paint or draw. Or sing, dance, play basketball... But I can take a decent photo. Not that any I'm proud of have been posted on this site, yet. Photography, and participating on this site, makes me notice images in everyday life that I might otherwise miss.
 02/09/2005 02:47:24 PM · #27
1. I use my photography hobby as an excuse. I want to travel to someplace near or far, so I can get some pictures. Or, I go to an event, and I'm not required to be socializing 100% of the time.

2. It's my creative outlet. I exercise my creative aching (and achieve minor amounts of recognition) and I please people with beauty or insight that they don't think they have the capability to produce themselves.
 02/09/2005 02:50:44 PM · #28
I do it because I wanna capture what I experience in my travels for later enjoyment. Mostly.

June
 02/09/2005 02:56:04 PM · #29
Simple -- I want to!

Anything else is just justification for doing what I want to do instead of what someone else things I should do

I simply want to -- and the black leathered muse with the whip is so cute. ;)

David
 02/09/2005 03:05:01 PM · #30
I take pictures because I want to try to share the experiance of a moment, a place, a view, a scene. Usually it turns out to be an impossible task because what I feel is unique, in the same way as other people's feelings that are created from their experiances and senses are unique.

Sometimes you can get quite close to it and that's when your audience react with wide eyes and open mouths, and that's what makes me want to take pictures again, and again, or at least keep trying.

I just love it when somebody says "That's just wonderful." Then I know I'm close.
 02/09/2005 03:08:35 PM · #31
Cool thread. Don't have time to read it all now or write a thoughtful answer, but I'm bookmarking it to come back. Thanks for asking the question.
 02/09/2005 03:23:22 PM · #32
ok here's my reason and i'm sorrry if it is too deep but it isn't at all there was a photog. named
Cartie-Bresson he wrote this book The Desicive Moment, and he has a picture to go with his point, it is of a small girl jumping over a rain puddle.

not to over simplify but it if for this reason that i take pictures- What i see and capture will never happen that same way again......now don't get me wrong that is NOT what The Decisive Monent it about it has more to do with when is the right time to snap the shutter but in simple that is why i shoot photog. this is also the reason for me shooting film as much as i shoot digital.

there is an art to getting it all right at that 1 moment in time when u want to get it right and have it frozen forever as something that happened.

that along with other things is why i shoot photography i am facinated with the 1/10000 of a second in time i want to get the exact moment as i saw it and share it exactly as i saw it.

(this is not always for studio shots but it applies the most as why i shoot in general)

(btw if you are thinking bs 16yearold guy must be another reason----think on just wrote it this thread and it will come to u as to why i don't have a girlfriend and why me with a camera won't get a girl prob. ever.) (unless u know some photog. obssed gal out there but i don't think there is 1 that could match a guy with a 4x5 camera in his backpack)

_Bran(1/1000 and that exact place in time is yours)do_
 02/09/2005 03:28:20 PM · #33
Originally posted by fotodude:

(btw if you are thinking bs 16yearold guy must be another reason----think on just wrote it this thread and it will come to u as to why i don't have a girlfriend and why me with a camera won't get a girl prob. ever.) (unless u know some photog. obssed gal out there but i don't think there is 1 that could match a guy with a 4x5 camera in his backpack)


You could always woo her with your music and then ask her if she'd like to come up and see your "etchings" some time. ;) Love will come. Stick with your passion and the passionate will (eventually) follow.
 02/09/2005 03:29:36 PM · #34
I am driven to capturing that blue ribbon photo. I have always been in awe of those fantastic images by the master photographers. (The Afgan Girl on the cover of National Geographic is my absolute favorite.) I strive to duplicate their work. I know I am getting there when family, friends, or neighbors look at my captures and say: "Boy! You must have a really good camera to take such a good a picture!"
 02/09/2005 03:29:40 PM · #35
pssst...Brando...I think she likes you!
 02/09/2005 03:33:57 PM · #36
I take pictures because I see them. I take pictures because others have taken pictures before me which instilled in me a sense of marvel and wonder I could not shake. I take pictures because I cannot help it. I take pictures because life is short and everything else is long.

I could just breathe and love and cry in the shadows watching the smoke of my cigarette curl and go up in air, the girls sway by and the men with their big cigars or lenses chase them. I could write you a letter telling you how it is and how it could be, if only you would read what I wrote slowly enough to hear the wind and the waves and the silence which bleeds from the emptiness of the margins. If only historians left blanks in their writings for the things they do not know, I would have less to say and do.

I could paint you a picture of my empty room. I could hew wood, chisel stone. I could, if I applied myself and if the muse were so kind, immortalize your thigh or erect your slumped existence. I could compose an ode in the grand style to all the lofty ideals we so habitually and thoughtlessly shit on, for a little balance.

I take pictures because I know you. I know how little time you have in your busy, busy life. I know because I am so much like you. I know of your affections, the instants of interest, the little things that attract you to a curb or a window, the glitter and flitter of so much and too little to hold in a heart.

I take pictures of nothings, sweet and bitter. I take pictures of tables, chairs and oranges. I take pictures of people, frogs, telephones. I took pictures in Florida, France, Arkansas, in parks and in alleys. I looked down from a mountain top through fog and a cloud, across the sea toward Nippon, Cathay. When I take pictures, you never know what's next.

I want to take pictures of ordinary subjects. I want to photograph obsolete things as if they were sacred relics. I want to make a portrait of a cow in a bourgois setting. I want to make a self portrait that is true. I want to hear that shutter click at just the right moment again.

Now I want the streets empty, then crowded. I want to take nudes of real people with real faces and stories. I want to make pictures that move you, to show you what you and I missed today, what it is that exites us so. I take pictures because I see no other way to turn your attention to the texture of the sky, the tragedy of waste and neglect, the sweetness of strawberries, the drama of people.

I am desperate, alone, human.
There are so many of us. I feel crowded, rushed, threatened by sales, foreclosures, purchases. I need to take pictures that are not for sale. I need to make pictures that have no market value. I need to give my pictures a seriousness that discourages the trivialisation of everything.

I need to express, not myself, but that which is and of which, I too, am an infintissimally small part. I need to make pictures as real as wood and stone. I want hard and dry pictures, too, certainly nothing wet dripping with sentiment. I want a dignified work, not a 'grave opus'.

I want to cut me a real live apple.









02/09/2005 03:38:41 PM · #37
It's a creative outlet for me (even though I'm not really). It used to be music but I learned that I sucked at that, so I decided to give photography a go. Also the instant gratification that goes along with digital is the best. I'm a gadget person at heart, so a digital camera fits in well there. And then there's the computer aspect. Oh yeah the money I've made, all $3.65 of it. But I don't regret buying a decent camera for one minute. This is going to be a life-long hobby for me - I have no doubt. And you know what? I'm actually starting to not suck at this, so much.
02/09/2005 03:42:14 PM · #38
Originally posted by zeuszen:
I take pictures because I see them...

... of which, I too, am an infintissimally small part. I need to make pictures as real as wood and stone. I want hard and dry pictures, too, certainly nothing wet dripping with sentiment. I want a dignified work, not a 'grave opus'.

I want to cut me a real live apple.


How do you follow that? I take pictures cause I love to hear the people when they see them, sometimes not good but sometimes in amazement. I do believe that God is helping me show His work to people that take if for granted and have never really noticed it before.

I have a friend that told me every morning she would open her east facing windows and just carry on with her morning routine UNTIL she saw some of my sunrise pictures over lake Michigan. She said she now opens them with a cup of coffee and watches to see what God will bring her that day. Her health is fading fast and I'm afraid she won't be here much longer but I'm glad I helped her see that beauty she was missing in her own back yard.

Message edited by author 2005-02-09 15:43:57.
 02/09/2005 03:44:18 PM · #39
Originally posted by thatcloudthere:
pssst...Brando...I think she likes you!


Stop that! You're embarrassing the boy!
This is supposed to be a philosophical discussion, here.
(Besides, I'm flirting with you in another thread.)
;-)
 02/09/2005 03:44:23 PM · #40
note to self: never even consider posting to a philosophical thread after zeus. ;)
 02/09/2005 03:58:27 PM · #41
Originally posted by Alecia:
note to self: never even consider posting to a philosophical thread after zeus. ;)


lol...sheesh!...you can say that again!
 02/09/2005 04:05:06 PM · #42
ZZ said:
"I need to give my pictures a seriousness that discourages the trivialisation of everything. "

This sums up my intentions just as much as jjbeguin's line that I used earlier.

02/09/2005 04:26:16 PM · #43
It's a creative outlet and I can't paint. I got into photography as a teenager and loved showing people what I saw through my camera that they didn't see. Later i started shooting portraits and weddings and photography became work and I didn't enjoy it anymore. I was reduced to my digital point and shoot. I can't stay away any longer and I plan to buy a Nikon D70 when I get my bonus next month.
 02/09/2005 05:13:44 PM · #44
I have been sick now for 5 years and the doctors can’t seem to put a grip on exactly is wrong other than having bad back and possible nerve damage(s). Two herniated disk at C4/5 and C5/6 and spinal epidural lipomatosis. As most know with chronic pain over a period of time depression and sometime panic disorders will set in, and they did, even if you are encircled by people that love and sustain you. So one day my doctor asked me what I like to do and I said take pictures. He suggested I take up photography as a pastime because photography could sooth the mind and soul. That was June of last year and I was out of work and had been since December of 2003. Money was very unyielding with only my wife working but she and my children somehow came up with enough money, where there was none, to purchase me a Panasonic FZ1 and I signed up as a registered user to this site. It has helped me in so many ways and I have made several friends here. I finally became a member in November 2004 and do not regret it at all. At first I was obsessed with scores, how people vote, and even complaining about the two. But now I accept the score I receive and I vote the way I see the photograph. I just wish some users would forget about why there picture didn’t do good or vote down pictures because they don’t like dogs, cats, kid pictures, flags, etc. and just enjoy what they are doing. To be a member of this site cost $25.00, your camera may cost $100’s or $1000’s of dollars, but having a place to share your creativity and art at the same time making friends, well that’s priceless; at least for me.
Scott W.
02/09/2005 05:22:54 PM · #45
Originally posted by zeuszen:
[snip]...


Bravo, how beautifully, movingly expressed. Poetic and yet not a hint of insincerity or pretension.
 02/09/2005 05:24:38 PM · #46
I can't wait until I have the time to carefully read this thread, I have a feeling it will kickstart feelings of "oh yeah- me too!!" But here are a couple quick and obvious reasons for me:

1. I have an awful memory. So I let the camera remember for me. The camera remembers times both incredible and mundane, often much better than they actually were (depending on my processing :)

2. A beautiful flower or landscape view or child playing in a fountain is only there for an instant- the flower wilts, the light changes, or the child wanders off. Capturing the moment- especially the incredibly beautiful, unbelievable, or exuberant one- is like grabbing- even stealing- a gift, and keeping it forever.
 02/09/2005 05:39:10 PM · #47
Originally posted by sabphoto:
Originally posted by zeuszen:
I take pictures because I see them...

... of which, I too, am an infintissimally small part. I need to make pictures as real as wood and stone. I want hard and dry pictures, too, certainly nothing wet dripping with sentiment. I want a dignified work, not a 'grave opus'.

I want to cut me a real live apple.


How do you follow that? I take pictures cause I love to hear the people when they see them, sometimes not good but sometimes in amazement. I do believe that God is helping me show His work to people that take if for granted and have never really noticed it before.

I have a friend that told me every morning she would open her east facing windows and just carry on with her morning routine UNTIL she saw some of my sunrise pictures over lake Michigan. She said she now opens them with a cup of coffee and watches to see what God will bring her that day. Her health is fading fast and I'm afraid she won't be here much longer but I'm glad I helped her see that beauty she was missing in her own back yard.


I 'follow that' the best way I can. I stumble, fall, get up and suffer a little ridicule, scrutiny or whatever is due and try to remember why.

On a lighter note, you should cut windows where your pictures block her view. ;-)

Message edited by author 2005-02-09 17:39:31.
 02/09/2005 05:45:18 PM · #48
Hmm im just very much a beginner at photography, what is the reason i do it? Because i do, cause i like it.. I needed an escape, something i could put emotion in, whether its anger, love, whatever.. My girlfriend likes it, and likes me alot more now that i found something i really like to do..
Thats why i do it.
 02/09/2005 05:46:32 PM · #49
Originally posted by Kha0S:
Sometimes, I'm lucky enough to catch people with expressions, or while doing strange or silly things... that just seem to capture who they really are, or how they feel, etc... and those images are the ones that I always come back to.


As expected, I had a "me too!!" moment when I read this ;) Awful as it sounds, I never really paid much attention to people before- I mean, I've always loved people watching, but in a more obvious "wow that guy has purple hair" kind of way. With a camera, people watching becomes people capturing. Grabbing the essence of the person. I feel very lucky when I feel like I've accomplished it. They may look at the photo themselves and be embarassed or not like it, but for me personally, I'd much rather look at a capture of genuine feeling and personality than a goofy "smile while your hair and makeup is absolutely perfect" type of shot.
 02/09/2005 05:52:48 PM · #50
That is an incredibly beautiful thought. While I was taking photography classes and was trying so hard to learn all of the basic rules, I just considered light to be one aspect of photography. More recently I've come to realize that light is pretty much the single most important aspect of photography. For as long as I own a camera I will struggle to master light, just as a musician struggles to master his own instrument.

Originally posted by bear_music:
I take photographs because I can't hear. Light is the music of my heart.

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