Why take pictures?

[pierces]

Why even bother to take pictures?

 

The subject came up recently and made me really think about it. Below is a copy of my post on the subject.

 

Recently I started reorganizing my photos into groupings that are easier to search. I had intended to spend time over the year digitizing all our old "analog" images and even the family photos from Kim's parents. While discussing the project, a troubling concept was presented to me. 

 

Who cares? 

 

When I'm gone, all these thousands of photos will probably just end up on a drive stuck in a box and will never be seen by anyone until the box is eventually tossed to make room for someone else's box that will also remain unseen until it eventually suffers the same fate. Our world has become so immediate that anything that is over a few days old is ancient history. It isn't even really history because history is supposed to be referenced so we can learn from it and we don't really do that anymore. New information is so plentiful that old information sinks out of sight into the sediment and fossilizes almost immediately. Ask yourself how often you go back and look at photos posted by a family member. Once a month? Once a year? Ever? Last year I started deleting anything more than a few weeks old on Facebook because the likelihood of anyone scrolling down through all the never-to-be used recipes, "share this" requests and occasionally relevant memes to view them again is so close to zero that maintaining a photo history there was meaningless. The outcry was....nonexistent. Nobody even noticed. 

 

So, who really cares about all the photos I have captured? I pondered this for quite a while and came up with an answer to the question that justified all the effort I put into them. Me. I care. The photos matter to me and all this introspection spurred by the "who cares?" question led to the affirmation that I take the photos, manage the photos, and post the photos because I like to. Photography makes me happy and I really, truly enjoy it. I like having a visual history of our family and I actually do go back and look at them on a fairly regular basis. I enjoy seeing the grandkids grow up again, seeing pets we loved and lost and reliving the tens of thousands of miles Kim and I have travelled together. I have to add that to my surprise, some of them are pretty awesome. 🙂

 

I also decided to continue to post photos and that I really don't care if anyone goes back and looks at them again. If people see them and enjoy them once, that's one more time than if I had never taken them and maybe, just maybe it will make their day momentarily brighter. I will still purge Facebook of most content after a short while for the aforementioned reasons but will increase my efforts to assemble an organized pictorial family and travel history elsewhere.

 

On that note, this coming year will likely see the closure of my account and online galleries at Zenfolio. I have intended for years to replace it with a series of galleries native to the storage on pptphoto.com and maybe this will be the year it happens. The idea is to have all the photos and content published online mirrored on a local drive so if someone wants to carry on with our family history, they can relocate it an do it on their own publishing space. 

 

If by some chance you read this far without seeing something shiny and scrolling away, the bottom line is that I take pictures and post them because I like to. If others see them or not is irrelevant to the process but if you see them and enjoy them, however briefly, that's icing on the cake. In case you're wondering, I do have many pictures of cake.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Dave

 

[Crew News]

It took me nearly two years with a slide/negative scanner and Silverfast software screening thousands of slides taken in the many countires that I have lived/visited and retaining only those that might be of interest to others. I lived the experiences and don't need photos to remind me.  

 

Purging images tickles my memories, eliminates slide/negative clutter, improves my image evaluation skills, and improves my future photographs.  Love the camera trash button and my PC delete key.

 

Now if I could just bring myself to dump my German beer glass collection, souvenirs from all over the world, all of the never-used IKEA dishware, and that blue liesure suit hanging in its carrier in the back closet.

[ski ww]

Thanks Dave, I couldn't of said it better myself.

Allan 

[mskaufman]

Dave, I agree also.  I often take 300 pictures a day in a port.  I have no problem posting them but in the end they are my best souvenir.

 

[Re-tired]

Interesting topic.  I have always taken pictures, partly because my dad was in the camera business.  For a time photography was part of my work, but not the primary function.  A few decades ago I became serious about photography as a method of escape from my work reality.  Photography became total escape for me, spending weeks in beautiful places soaking it in and making a few exposures.  Although I do shoot with a digital camera my passion is still large format black and white film.  I'm amazed at the ease with which I can create a wonderful print from digital images or scanned film.  But it does not provide the personal satisfaction that I get from spending time in the darkroom making a print by hand.  Since I never had to do this in order to make the house payment it does not feel like work to me.  If I had spent my working years in the dark with stinky chemicals I would never step foot in a darkroom again.

 

I, too, don't commit photography to satisfy others.  I do it for my own personal enjoyment/satisfaction.  If someone else gets some pleasure, or more importantly, a smile from my work, then I'm even happier.  I don't do social media so most of my photography is aimed at something I can print and hang on the wall.  

 

When our parents passed we inherited boxes and boxes of pictures of unidentified people.  I feel bad disposing of them so I will most likely leave them in my sisters garage and not say anything.  

 

Photography has been my escape from reality and entry into a new world of friends, mentors, and other creative people.  It's been raining for a few days and I have spent some quality time in the dark listening to music and making prints.

[bonsai3s]

Dave, great topic...so strange because we are in the process of "cleaning" out our house...separating items to throw away, donate, or keep.

 

We found all our old photo albums...each one containing hundreds of pictures of family, travel, and other miscellaneous stuff.  We asked ourselves: "Why are we keeping all these pictures?"...they are heavy, take too much space, and no one looks at them or may never see them.  I was joking and said: "You can show my pictures during my funeral".  Ultimately, we decided we'll scan all (the important ones) and throw away all the photo albums and printed pictures.

 

Then we asked ourselves the same question: "Why do we even bother taking pictures?"...every time we come home from vacation, no one even ask to see our pictures...........my DW said: "So I can post it on Facebook".

 

For me, I genuinely loved photography.  When I was much younger and Eurailed through Europe...it was more important for me to carry 50 rolls of film along with my Nikon FM than clothes or shoes.  Photography was everything.  Unfortunately, because of vision problems, I can no longer correctly "frame" a good shot.

I have nothing profound to say.....just simply wanted to say that I may be that strange old man who comes up to you and politely say "Nice camera, what is it?"

[Victress2007]

And yet the average person probably looks at more images taken by friends now than in years past.  

Those pictures help us stay to connected to friends and family scattered across the globe.  I take pictures because I like to.  Taking pictures helps me focus on what I am seeing and to see both the big picture and the closeup details. 

Then I share them, on social media, in gifts (I gave family some of their favorites photos as coasters this year), using them as screen savers both at work and at home, and printing them out and putting the up on the walls of our home.  

So it doesn't matter if I give someone something to look at for 15 seconds or 15 years, there is a big, wide world out there and I want to see it and share it!

 

Vic

[zackiedawg]

It's always nice when others view and enjoy your photos, when family and friends can share photos to keep in touch with what each is doing, and when your photos get positive feedback, or any form of public display.  But in the end, photography for me is entirely driven by selfish satisfactions - I love taking photos.  I would do so if my photos were published in international periodicals across the globe and viewed millions of times a year online, won awards, and received showers of adulation...and I'd still do so if no one else ever saw a single photo I took.  It relaxes me, it makes me interested to get outside and enjoy nature and the world around me, it exercises my creativity and keeps my mind active, it gives me a deeper eye of appreciation in the beauty all around, from the simplest to the most complex subjects, and it documents what I've seen, where I've gone, and what it was like when I was there - I can relive moments all over again when going back through photos, remembering just where I was standing when I took a shot, recalling the light, the smells, the temperature, and even the view in other directions where the camera was not pointed...through photography, I've gained an almost photographic and geographic memory - I find I can go back to a photograph taken 15 years ago and still pull up a Google Map and point out just where I was standing, anywhere in the world, to within 5 feet...even if I was only there once.

So while I hope my photographs are viewed by others, that I have friends and family to share them with, and that others enjoy my photographs, I'd still be a photographer if they didn't - because in the end I'm still doing it for my own enrichment.

[Oak Hill Cruisers]

Watch out for 'Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect'.

 

Two studies examined whether photographing objects impacts what is remembered about them. Participants were led on a guided tour of an art museum and were directed to observe some objects and to photograph others. Results showed a photo-taking-impairment effect: If participants took a photo of each object as a whole, they remembered fewer objects and remembered fewer details about the objects and the objects’ locations in the museum than if they instead only observed the objects and did not photograph them. However, when participants zoomed in to photograph a specific part of the object, their subsequent recognition and detail memory was not impaired, and, in fact, memory for features that were not zoomed in on was just as strong as memory for features that were zoomed in on. This finding highlights key differences between people’s memory and the camera’s “memory” and suggests that the additional attentional and cognitive processes engaged by this focused activity can eliminate the photo-taking-impairment effect.

[Victress2007]

But were those people in the study photographers or random people with cameras.  I would submit that there is a big difference.

 

Vic

[pierces]

3 hours ago, Victress2007 said:

But were those people in the study photographers or random people with cameras.  I would submit that there is a big difference.

 

Vic

 

Exactly. A walk and snap tourist that photographs everything in sight is a lot different than taking a photograph of something that interested you. Photography has taught me to really see what is around me and when I photograph something it is because the subject has already made an impression on me.

 

 "How can you enjoy a vacation through a viewfinder?" Short answer...I don't. I enjoy vacation. I vacation to places that offer me the opportunity to photograph things that interest me because I truly enjoy photography. I see wonderful things, look through my viewfinder and take the picture. The primary action is seeing. It's a beautiful world if you take the trouble to see it. Photographing it is icing on the cake.

 

Dave

[billandsue]

I became interested in photography watching my father, who took thousands of Kodachrome slides during his lifetime.  He was the historian of our family, recording family get-togethers and events such as marriages and graduations with his images.  Occasionally, he would venture out of his comfort zone and take photos of flowers, and when we went on family vacations, he would take photos of the sights along the way, including the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Washington, D.C., etc.  But slides offered little opportunity for creativity -- the slides basically recorded what he saw.  When I started taking my own photos, I experimented with prints in my darkroom, which gave me some creative options.  With the evolution of digital photography, I find my greatest enjoyment is in post-processing, when I am able to enhance my images with a variety of impressions and expressions.  I am able to take the image I captured with my camera and turn it into whatever I want, from a sepia-tone textured image to an impressionist-style painting.  I share my images for others to see on Flickr, but my greatest enjoyment is in manipulating the images with digital imaging software, letting my imagination run free . . . I am also having my father's slides converted to digital images, so I can be creative with them.  I only wish he was still here to share my enjoyment in re-imagining his slides . . .

Edited February 11, 2019 by billandsue
grammar correction

[masterdrago]

This is a great thread. It brings to memory why I began carrying a camera, A Minolta SRT101 in high school, then a Leica M3, then Nikon gear. I'm like most here, I enjoy taking pictures, and yes sharing them. On our upcoming cruise, I'll be taking much too many pieces of gear. I would hate to say, danged, if I only had that 600mm lens here instead of it sitting at home. I've finally gotten my wife a good cell phone so that she can take all of our in transit photos that she can instantly post to her FB page. I even figured out how to install a 64gig card in it and how to put all her snaps on it while on the trip. I have found over the last several years (retired now) that I enjoy editing pix I take. I never did b4. And like some here, I spent years making b&w in the darkroom. I'm even considering entering the astrophotography arena. I'm finding myself even shooting more RAW now which seems to give me the ability to bring out more color hidden in the dark parts of images although I rarely do more than crop and resize for a web post. I've recently decided to digitize my entire collection of slides - over 38 years worth! It will bring back many years of good memories and allow me to relive some great trips and experiences. I'm truly enjoying photography again.

Edited February 11, 2019 by masterdrago

[tommui987]

46 minutes ago, masterdrago said:

 I've recently decided to digitize my entire collection of slides - over 38 years worth!

 

I also did that about 20+/- years ago and it was (and still is) a pain after being stored in a wet area of our city. Great place for fugus, mold etc but great opportunity to make corrections - not to mention getting rid of all inperfections!

[Brantjudith]

Taking pictures or not should not be about other people. Personally I take pictures to help me relive some beautiful memories made at later times. Pictures serve as mementos. However, some would rather not take pictures. Eventually it's about doing what works for you.

[Victress2007]

On 2/10/2019 at 4:57 PM, pierces said:

 

Exactly. A walk and snap tourist that photographs everything in sight is a lot different than taking a photograph of something that interested you. Photography has taught me to really see what is around me and when I photograph something it is because the subject has already made an impression on me.

 

 "How can you enjoy a vacation through a viewfinder?" Short answer...I don't. I enjoy vacation. I vacation to places that offer me the opportunity to photograph things that interest me because I truly enjoy photography. I see wonderful things, look through my viewfinder and take the picture. The primary action is seeing. It's a beautiful world if you take the trouble to see it. Photographing it is icing on the cake.

 

Dave

 I took a photo tour in Edinburgh with James Christie, as we were standing at the Robert Burns monument he asked what was at the top of the monument.  He said in all the years he had been doing the tour only one person could tell him exactly what was up there, because she had googled it walking up.  I at least had a guess of 3 winged lions.  It wasn't exactly right, but he said I was 3rd closest of all time, so I got bonus points.  (I think we lost them when we left early to go to the castle).

 

His point was look first, take pictures second.  

 

Vic

Edited February 15, 2019 by Victress2007