Would you still take that Photo

Barney

Barney

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Name
Wayne
Edit My Images
No
Obviously if your on a job you will be taking a photo of anything your asked to, but what if you're not?

I think we all like to see images of other photographers and like the fact that we can show others our work but I have been plagued by a nagging question lately about intent and creativity and I came to the conclusion that I would,

If no one else ever saw the picture or ever would, I would still take it,

The scene may have stirred something inside me and created emotions at that time that resonated with me, from awe to inspiration to the simple pleasure of dappled sunlight or simply the fact that I created the image for me, for what I like.
 
If I saw (envisioned) a particularly good image (potential), then yes; of course... that's the only reason I ever take a picture. I don't take pictures for sharing/likes/etc...

And no, I won't take a picture of "anything I'm asked to" for payment (or favor)... I don't need it. If it's not going to (at least potentially) meet my standards I won't do it.
 
I only take pictures to please myself. It is a way to be in some way creative. I enjoy the process of taking the pictures, I enjoy the editing of the images. Occasionally I may show friends, even more rarely I post images online for others to see. 99% of my pictures only I see, and I am fine with that. :)

I think if you are doing this to please/impress others, or in some way competition with others, may lead to disappointment a lot of the time. Just my pov. :)
 
I think pictures should be made to be shared and talked about - it's a visual language / method of communication after all, but that's different to pandering to the crowds. I also think not all photos need to be shared with others, a good photographer is able to edit their own work, in fact very few photos need to be shared.
 
I take photos for me. I enjoy the process. If I make something I'm pleased with, I show my wife whose opinion I value, as she sees differently to me. If it's fitting to a current theme on TP, I'll likely share it here and it's nice if some people "Like " it. In the end though, it's mainly for my own pleasure. The only time I've ever taken photos that weren't for my own enjoyment were commissions, but even then I tried to make them fit my own definitions of what is good.
 
Likewise, my photos are taken for me. I do like to share them, and if others like them, than that's always a nice feeling, but I never take them with the intent of pleasing anyone else though.

I was a member of a camera club for a while and the whole competition ethos really put me off - taking the sort of pictures I don't really like to please a (often subjective) judge who doesn't really care. Bleh.
 
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Barney said:
Obviously if your on a job you will be taking a photo of anything your asked to, but what if you're not?

I think we all like to see images of other photographers and like the fact that we can show others our work but I have been plagued by a nagging question lately about intent and creativity and I came to the conclusion that I would,

If no one else ever saw the picture or ever would, I would still take it,


The scene may have stirred something inside me and created emotions at that time that resonated with me, from awe to inspiration to the simple pleasure of dappled sunlight or simply the fact that I created the image for me, for what I like.
Click to expand...

There are perhaps only several good reasons to take photographs.
Most are in terms of memories either for yourself or other people.
When I was a working photographer a vast majority of the pictures that I took were for someone elses benefit.
The majority of the rest are what I would call family snaps, photographs of family holidays and events that we visited or took part in.
I almost never took pictures just to show other people, or
that had a competitive nature.
Now that I'm in my 90s I take very few pictures at all, but it is still a pleasure to look back especially at older ones that I took perhaps for very different reasons.

For me, taking photographs has been a compulsion, I cannot imagine not taking them. To have a reason to do so is nice but not entirely necessary.
I expect very very few of the pictures I've taken Will survive me. Those few that do survive will almost certainly mean more to people who have them, than they ever did to me.

Just about all photographs that survive for posterity, do so as evidence of past times, it seems that the older they get the more interesting that they become.
It is a pity that so few survive.
 
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I take photographs for memories if the subject is personal, and for aesthetics if I just like the image.

There are so many people taking photographs of anything and everything out there that there has to be something very notable in an image before someone would look at your photo above anyone else's. Unless you are a professional photographer, paid to take pictures of certain subjects, I would say that any amateur is taking photographs for themselves or their family and friends and if anyone else takes an interest then that's a bonus.
 
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Like most above, I take photos for me. I rarely share them, unless they're basically record shots that might be of interest to others (like my recent car show thread.)
 
Would you still take that Photo? Nah not if you can see a thousand shots of the subject on the net...e.g. Tower of London. What you don't see often is "then and now" shots and have posted a few here...e.g. could be a scene in a village 120 years ago and what it is like now.......erm but unless you have a VPN you can't see my posted shots as I was using imgur.
 
Barney said:
If no one else ever saw the picture or ever would, I would still take it,
Click to expand...

Of course.

I do post pictures here but they're still all for me and Mrs WW.

It is nice when other people like my pictures but sometimes a picture I like very much gets ignored while ones I'm not really happy with might get likes. It's difficult to tell what other people will like but really... who cares? They're for me and Mrs WW and if she doesn't want to look they're all for me :D
 
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I need to take pictures for me. I'm stuck with family photos took by someone else and half of these from my childhood, I can't really remember. I dread not remembering the things I take now, 20 years from now..If I'm still here. If other people like what they see, it's fine, most of my stuff is kept private.
 
Barney said:
Obviously if your on a job you will be taking a photo of anything your asked to, but what if you're not?

I think we all like to see images of other photographers and like the fact that we can show others our work but I have been plagued by a nagging question lately about intent and creativity and I came to the conclusion that I would,

If no one else ever saw the picture or ever would, I would still take it,

The scene may have stirred something inside me and created emotions at that time that resonated with me, from awe to inspiration to the simple pleasure of dappled sunlight or simply the fact that I created the image for me, for what I like.
Click to expand...
I'm not all that interested in showing other people my work; I make photographs because I find making photographs enhances my connection with, and enjoyment of, the subjects I photograph.

I then re-live that experience when I work through my files and reprocess them.

As I enjoy seeing the photographs of others, I feel guilty about this and feel I should share my work, but it isn't relevant to me making photographs.
 
I, long ago, decided I'm not "a photographer". I record things visually with a camera.

This is a photographer (with a client)...

Photographer and colleague at Wiveliscombe cropped.jpg
 
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