We are all here because we like to take photographs. But somewhere along the trek one has to sit back and ask one's self, "What's The Point?"
Everywhere you look, there are images ... in fact, a LOT of really good images. So the question is, what motivates YOU to keep doing it?
Is it a form of introspection? Is it to leave something behind, like a bit of immortality? Is it an outward form of expression for those less gregarious?
Some of us do it for money, even do it for all of the money we earn. Logically, that's a big motivator ... but not necessarily what emotionally drives us.
As of late, (maybe I'm getting too old : -) ... but I have to have a purpose, a reason, it has to be FOR something or someone. I still take my camera on outings that have no utilitarian purpose, but then afterwards scratch my head as to what to do with yet more images in the sea of images I have already taken.
Picasso had a saying that haunts me ... "A picture kept in the closet, might as well be kept in the head."
Frankly, this is why I shoot weddings. It gives me a purpose. A place to apply the talent and skill I honed doing "decisive moment" images during my travels over the years ... that now just reside on a hard drive or a portfolio ... in a "virtual closet" so to speak.
Don't get me wrong ... I get a "high" when I pull off a shot that has no apparent reason for existence except to ... well, give me that high. But when I pull off something out of the ordinary for me (like an urban landscape), it makes me better realize it was lucky, and there are others (on this forum) that consistently are lucky with these type shots. Theirs has purpose as a part of a body of work ... mine is a "one of" that maybe gets posted once, and put in the "closet" with a bunch of other "lucky one ofs". Like the attached A900 image I shot yesterday while at Detroit's Farmer's Market that was uncharacteristically abandoned due to a severe winter storm ... it printed up really well, but will be forgotten by this time next year.
Your thoughts?
-Marc
Everywhere you look, there are images ... in fact, a LOT of really good images. So the question is, what motivates YOU to keep doing it?
Is it a form of introspection? Is it to leave something behind, like a bit of immortality? Is it an outward form of expression for those less gregarious?
Some of us do it for money, even do it for all of the money we earn. Logically, that's a big motivator ... but not necessarily what emotionally drives us.
As of late, (maybe I'm getting too old : -) ... but I have to have a purpose, a reason, it has to be FOR something or someone. I still take my camera on outings that have no utilitarian purpose, but then afterwards scratch my head as to what to do with yet more images in the sea of images I have already taken.
Picasso had a saying that haunts me ... "A picture kept in the closet, might as well be kept in the head."
Frankly, this is why I shoot weddings. It gives me a purpose. A place to apply the talent and skill I honed doing "decisive moment" images during my travels over the years ... that now just reside on a hard drive or a portfolio ... in a "virtual closet" so to speak.
Don't get me wrong ... I get a "high" when I pull off a shot that has no apparent reason for existence except to ... well, give me that high. But when I pull off something out of the ordinary for me (like an urban landscape), it makes me better realize it was lucky, and there are others (on this forum) that consistently are lucky with these type shots. Theirs has purpose as a part of a body of work ... mine is a "one of" that maybe gets posted once, and put in the "closet" with a bunch of other "lucky one ofs". Like the attached A900 image I shot yesterday while at Detroit's Farmer's Market that was uncharacteristically abandoned due to a severe winter storm ... it printed up really well, but will be forgotten by this time next year.
Your thoughts?
-Marc