Poetic Spectre Imaging: September 2011

A reply in one of my mommy forums got me to thinking about photography and it's accessibility these days. I think that due to the digital advancement in gear people have been led to believe that they should be able to take a professional quality photo simply by owning a nice digital camera, and then maybe even make that photo pop in Photoshop. "The shots on the ads all look so nice, why don't mine?" Because, you're not a photographer, you've just bought in to one of the greatest false addvertising campaigns of our generation. Bear with me for a minute.

Can you pick up a 35mm film camera, adjust your film speed correctly (pushing and pulling aside), set your white balance, your aperture, know the DOF you're working with, gauge the light source and it's direction in relation to your subject and calculate your shutter speed to compensate? Could you take that film into a dark room, develop the negatives, make some prints, even dodge and/or burn to fix a slight exposure difference in one area? Did half of those words make you go "huh"? Then fear not! If you don't understand the basic science and math behind taking a photograph no amount of fancy equipment is going to turn you into a photographer.

Does this mean that you can't take a decent snap shot? No, not at all. There are a ton of books out there aimed at people who just want to take a good picture of their kids first day of school, or their dog on the beach, or the flowers in their gardens. The key is learning to use the equipment you own. Learn it backwards and forwards. Even with your camera on auto settings you still need to understand the basics so you can compensate for lighting, compose and frame the shot, even to set some of those "auto" settings you need a little knowledge.

The other thing people forget is that photography is an art form. Art supplies are easy enough to get a hold of; just because you don't have to mix your own paint or stretch your own canvases do you pick up a paint brush and expect to paint like Picasso? Instruments can be found in a broad range of prices and for different skill levels; do you go put down some cash on Gibson L-1 guitar and expect to play like Robert Johnson? Perform Shakespeare like Sir Lawrence Olivier? Sing Opera like Luciano Pavarotti?

And like with any art form there are varying degrees of ability. You can have talent but no knowledge. You can have knowledge but no talent. You can have both or neither, and both in differing quantities. We all know people that can take technically clean photographs, but who lack vision. We've all got friends that can take really artistically framed shots, but who lack the know-how to guarantee appropriate exposure, and therefore the ability to reproduce results.

With that in mind, please respect those you meet that are professionals; those that can produce the desired results with quality and vision. Don't buy into the multitude of GWC's (guy/girl with camera) who are flooding the market with less than par work, lowering prices and raising expectations. Yes, your friend may be willing to shoot your wedding for free, but will you be able to print the results? Will you even get them? Your sister may beg to do your pregnancy shots, and want to wait until the last min... but once that baby is born you can't go back and re-shoot if you dislike the results. Or if the memory card gets lost. Or her computer crashes and she didn't back up the files. Trust the professionals with your most precious memories, don't leave them to chance.

It took me a long time to count myself as a professional, hundreds of darkroom hours leaving me smelling like chemicals, years of shooting before I felt confident I could remain technically consistent in my work, being displayed and printed before I felt I had a valid claim on the title of "photographer." And then years after that before I felt comfortable charging for my work.

But I digress:

Never stop trying to perfect what YOU have; camera, skill, knowledge, but also don't be so hard on yourself simply because our fast-food, drive-through banking, instant coffee and gratification nation has led you to believe you should be good at this. It is still an art form that requires talent, it still requires training and/or knowledge to be technically good, and it still requires time to hone your skills. As the saying goes, you must learn to walk before you can run.