I have been giving my photography and approach to the subject some serious thought of late. There is (in my eyes) a slight technical problem – I know a poor worker will blame his tools, and I’m not blaming the tool, I’m blaming my ability to use them correctly.
The issue I have with my photography is that I feel that my photographs lack a reason, why did I take this pphotograph? I have taken literally thousands of photos, my iphoto tells me there are just over 38,000 pictures, and 1900 videos. Some them clearly have a purpose, but by far the bulk are “grab shots”, now just occasionally, I take a picture and I think I quite like that (the header picture is one of those). I only took it a few weeks ago, as we were heading in to London for an exhibition, I guess I would call it “The Tunnel”, and I took it because it shows perspective, we know th lines are parallel, but the length of the walkway gives a stong view of those parallel lines merging. I have no issues with the people in the picture, they give scale.
Conversely;
I took this picture on one of my morning walks (actually 2021) – it’s fair to say, I think that there’s nothing spectacular about, not even the brightening sky. I’m not sure about the objects that are in line with the top of the spinnaker, a flair in the in the iphone lens? But the important thing is that it is one of thousands of similar pictures I have of the same scene
Others I would have taken because the sky is interesting. These latter pictures are, I feel, more valid than the ones that were recorded just because I was there.
I don’t really have an argument with the pictures that are less interesting, but I do feel that I should put some effort in to taking more pictures that have this reason – one particular area where that would apply is street photograhpy. There are people who just call out to be photographed, and really, it is here that I start to have a problem with equipment.
I have a perfectly good compact camera, the Panasonic TZ99, it really is a very nice camera, but to my way of thinking, it’s not quite there for the speed and spontaneity that a camera designed for street photography woulld provide, when I turn it on, I have to check the settings to make sure they are correct for the moment, there are so many menu options that by the time I’m ready, the moment has gone.
My new phone has an excellent, indeed superb, camera, and actually is an ideal device as they are everywhere, invisible to people, and ideal for mose situations. But, I am now talking myself into the situation where I want a specific camera, for a specific purpose, and I am not quite sure if I am not being just a bit silly, and should really just get familiar with what I have.
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