Why do you enjoy photography?

Karin1984

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 5, 2012
Maybe a strange question, but I really wonder about the why. :)

I posted in another thread I am planning to buy a new camera, but as it's quite expensive, I started to ask why I wanted a camera that costs as much as a week of vacation. And I didn't really have a good answer. :(
I love looking at great pictures. I can get excited if a shot comes out as I wanted it to. But after that, it goes into a file on my computer and I rarely look back. I don't make prints, I don't scrapbook, I post some on a private Facebook, but that's it. And now I am doubting whether or not I should get a new camera at all.

So, my question to you, why do you enjoy photography? And what do you do with your pictures?
 
I'm now convinced introspection like this is a good thing. I was debating pulling th trigger on a new FF body or start buying into mirrorless. I honestly do wonder if Digic<insertlatest#here> will make a difference to me. But until Canon can better explain to me where they are going with their multiple mounts, I decided my equipment works well enough. Could I make better exposures with newer gear? Freakin' good question. Common wisdom is "it's the lens". Upgrades there are better payoffs than a new body. But I think that is dependent on how old you sensor is. And truly, if you are looking at features you don't have right now.

Face it, if you're not happy with your exposures, have to spend chunks of time in PP, or are, in general, unhappy with your output, it IS possible that some new gear may revitalize you.

Me? I shoot for me and my family only now. Have yanked my stock accounts and no longer shoot events. Thinking of photography as "work" was really degrading my eye. At my age now, it's about the art. I have extremely few "hey look at me/us standing in front of/next to some thing" type of shots on purpose. But my shots (Disney, landscapes, still life) hang all over my walls, a couple of local businesses, and my friend's places (if they ask for it). My challenge is to shoot something no one else has or in a way no one else would think of. That makes my really work my seeing. That challenge is what drives me and makes my shooting fun for me.
 
Well, for me, numerous reasons. First, I enjoy the process itself: it's a science that creates art, which is just darn cool! Secondarily, since I have social issues, it puts something in my hands to fiddle with and gives me something to do that's considered socially acceptable, and bringing an SLR to my eye immediately puts space between myself and other people.

Once I've taken them, I do indeed look back at them. First, I ingest the raw files, and sit down and edit them - marking keepers from non, and choose photographs as part of a series that tend to tell a story. A single event may give me anywhere from 5 to 50 keepers, depending on subjects, time, etc, and I may take anywhere from 25 to 500 to get those keepers. Shooting wildlife or sports in continuous can easily quadruple those numbers, but they're the normal ones. I then edit the keepers, and store them in cloud storage and share them with other people at the events with me for them to do with as they like.

I then use those stored photos to upload to digital photo frames, and they're instantly retrievable from OneDrive on any device I own. When I'm traveling with my mother, she does tend to do photo books, and some just go to social media. And then I do indeed print some, and put together albums for people or hang some on walls - I do have a 13x19 printer at home so it's fairly easy for me to kick out a couple of prints whenever I want, and people do really love receiving albums as gifts because it's so rare nowadays.

As for what I shoot that works for me? Well, I have an F5, F100, and FM when I want to break out some film, which is really fun to do, which then gets scanned and ingested the same as digital. And then a trio of DSLRs: a D500 primary body, a D5100 for light weight, and a Df because that's just a blast to shoot and is slow and fun and wickedly good in low light: with a 58 f/1.4 in front of it it's just a monster. For crop sensor I have an f/1.8 prime set, f/2.8 zooms, and variable aperture zooms of various descriptions depending on how light I want to go on that day (variable aperture zooms are cheap, after all), an f/1.8 prime set for full frame (24, 35, 50, 85), and then some manual focus lenses thrown in as well, and a couple of oddball (macro tele, macro copy stand, etc.). On top of all of that, I have a couple of premium compact cameras for when I want the images but don't want a big ILC. All of this accumulated over many years, so the expense wasn't bad at all since I can keep my lenses for years and years. I find this lets me select the right tool for the job, and I get to enjoy using different cameras with different capabilities.
 
Maybe a strange question, but I really wonder about the why. :)
I posted in another thread I am planning to buy a new camera, but as it's quite expensive, I started to ask why I wanted a camera that costs as much as a week of vacation. And I didn't really have a good answer. :(
I love looking at great pictures. I can get excited if a shot comes out as I wanted it to. But after that, it goes into a file on my computer and I rarely look back. I don't make prints, I don't scrapbook, I post some on a private Facebook, but that's it. And now I am doubting whether or not I should get a new camera at all.

So, my question to you, why do you enjoy photography? And what do you do with your pictures?


I belong to a local photography club (no dues, purely social). We meet for monthly 'photowalks' and luncheons and share photos on Facebook.
As I get older I find I just need a small mirrorless camera and a couple of lens - I don't want to carry around a lot of stuff!
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless
 


I am a professional photographer. I do it because I am a natural and it comes easy. However, I don’t take photos in my spare time. I mention this not to be a jerk but to add a counter perspective.

I was driving to a shoot in Boston from Toronto. I stopped at a scenic viewpoint and took a quick photo with my phone. Another car pulled in and this guy took out an arsenal of photography gear.

He was an enthusiast and this was his time to pull out all his toys to do what he loved.

There was a clear irony since I had a car loaded with professional photo equipment and I couldn’t be bothered.

I suggest that if you are already debating the value of an expensive camera, you don’t enjoy photography enough to justify it. You should only spend that much if you will make money from it, or you lie awake at night imagining all the enjoyment you’ll get from it. As we all intuitively know, an expensive camera won’t automatically mean better pictures.

As an additional bit of advice, displaying digital photos is indeed a problem. I was about to recommend a “Memento Smart frame”. They are 35 inches, 4K, and calibrate themselves to ambient light. All that is to say it looks like a printed photo until the display changes to the next in your slideshow. However, they seem to have gone out of business.

The advice still remains. Find a way to get your pictures out of the computer and in sight. After that, maybe invest in an expensive camera if you like seeing your work.
 
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I just upgraded from a d7000 to a d7500 because the old camera was having a few issues.
I would have been just as happy to stay with film and shoot my old nikon fm2 if it was cost effective.
I looked at full frame but the weight of the gear and the price tag would not work for me.

Photography for me is about preserving family and travel photos.
I do prints for wall display and photobooks to organize the memories.

The saying "You never know the value of a photo until it is all you have left" really hit home when my brother's little boy died unexpectedly of an undetected heart defect. Those nine years of photos are priceless.
 
I just upgraded from a d7000 to a d7500 because the old camera was having a few issues.
I would have been just as happy to stay with film and shoot my old nikon fm2 if it was cost effective.
I looked at full frame but the weight of the gear and the price tag would not work for me.
While Nikon's DX gear is extremely good and my preferred system, there's no reason you can't still shoot film and make it cost effective. The least expensive full frame DSLR is the D750, which is $1500. A good film scanner is $300, a Nikon F100 is about $200 in good condition, and a roll of film with develop only is $12 or so. That's 85 rolls of film to get to the break even point!

Sports, action, and wildlife? Nah, don't bother with film, but for just having one around for snapshots, even your FM2 is great even today, and it's nice and compact and go anywhere, since MF lenses are so much smaller than modern AF ones and the back is a thin piece of metal, not a pile of circuits and a screen!
 


I just upgraded from a d7000 to a d7500 because the old camera was having a few issues.
I would have been just as happy to stay with film and shoot my old nikon fm2 if it was cost effective.
I looked at full frame but the weight of the gear and the price tag would not work for me.

Photography for me is about preserving family and travel photos.
I do prints for wall display and photobooks to organize the memories.

The saying "You never know the value of a photo until it is all you have left" really hit home when my brother's little boy died unexpectedly of an undetected heart defect. Those nine years of photos are priceless.

Yes, full frame is bigger and heavier but the camera industry is transitioning to mirrorless so full frame models are now lighter especially with "pancake" style lens - Nikon, Canon and Sony. The Canon RP full frame mirrorless is $1300
 
<SNIP>

The advice still remains. Find a way to get your pictures out of the computer and in sight. After that, maybe invest in an expensive camera if you like seeing your work.

This. One suggestion would be to look into printing on aluminum. You would be AMAZED what that can do, even to an ordinary exposure.
 
I shoot because I want to capture my life. I love seeing pictures from my grandparents' and parents' childhoods (and my own) and hope that one day our kids will love it as much as I do. I also shoot professionally and have the expensive full frame gear that gets left home when we travel. I picked up a Fuji x series a few years ago and that system is what goes with me. For me, yes the gear makes a difference. If I don't enjoy shooting with it and carrying it, it stays home. I love the mirrorless options and even their heavier lenses (thinking 16-55 or 8-16) are still a joy to carry. Most of the time I carry an x-t2 and a few primes or one small zoom. Small, easy to carry and gives me the beautiful photos that I want. And not $$$ either. You can pick up an x-t2 for less than a thousand (way less) and the 18-55 "kit" lens (which is fantastic) for $250-300 on eBay or marketplace. Yes, a thousand dollars is still nothing to sneeze at, but it's much cheaper than a lot of other options and it's small enough to throw into a handbag or backpack (no separate camera bag needed!) And obviously you can go cheaper than that too - that's just what I use. Coming from a Canon system where many of the professional lenses themselves are almost 2k, that's a huge savings (and weight savings too!)

I second getting those files off the computer. We have our apple tv set to slideshow, so we can see our pics all the time. I also print a lot of them and use chatbooks to link from my social media (you could easily set up a private instagram account that only you know about to post your pics and then chatbooks pulls from that and automatically prints them in a book every 60 pictures). If you feel your current camera/phone is good enough, just try focusing on using it and pushing it until you find "wow - I missed that shot because of my equipment limitations." You might find it easier to justify a new camera if you know why you're buying it skills-wise.
 
So, my question to you, why do you enjoy photography? And what do you do with your pictures?

I enjoy both creating "arsty" shots and chronicling memories. (And I second what was said above about having something to do in social situations, too.) I don't have a lot of fancy equipment, as it's just a hobby for me, but I think your most important equipment is your eye anyway!

I used to be really good at keeping up with albums, but I've fallen off some in the last few years. I'm working on getting back into scrapbooking this fall, and I often print photos to display in frames or use for craft/gift projects.
 
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I used to be really good at keeping up with albums, but I've fallen off some in the lat few years. I'm working on getting back into scrapbooking this fall, and I often print photos to display in frames or use for craft/gift projects.

I heartily encourage scrapbooking. Years and years from now, your family and friends will be able to hold something tangible in their hands and relive a LOT of memories (as others have pointed out). Assuming our future robot overlords allow it, try doing that with that one single picture you had of Uncle Jim and Aunt Sally that was taken with a phone you've since upgraded 6,7,8 times and can't remember where (or if) you might have saved it.
 

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