Why do you take photos?

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PhotographyBuff

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I think there are probably many different reasons why different people choose to take photos. What are yours? Why are you interested in documenting life through photography?

I think this is a fundamental question that touches on the value of photography whether as documentation or art.
 
#1 Memories for family and friends.
#2 Memories for "clients".
#3 Memories for myself.
#4 It can be a technical challenge.
#5 It gets me out of the house
and this last one is fairly recent and I wish I had thought about it more when first starting out,
#6 docmenting things that may not be around for as long as you think.

Example #6
This scene is long gone in real life (it was shot a while ago).
Mixed train by Richard Taylor, on Flickr
 
•
Because I can't draw… I can't do anything right with a brush but a wall or
door frame. I am so ashamed to admit how bad my sketches look like.
The only way I can use my talent for graphics is through the camera or
the MAC.
 
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Bundles of cash......
 
I do wildlife photography and for one I enjoy going out and watching the wildlife and being out in nature. The second reason would be that it's a sense of achievement and excitemenr when you capture something you've been waiting for ages to see.
 
htid said:
I do wildlife photography and for one I enjoy going out and watching the wildlife and being out in nature. The second reason would be that it's a sense of achievement and excitemenr when you capture something you've been waiting for ages to see.
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Pretty much the same here. My main interest is to be out surrounded by nature. Mother nature is amazing and I try to capture some of it in my photos.
 
it's the only way I can get the pictures in my head into a format that I can share with other people

I can't paint well enough, ditto on drawing and sculpting... so, photography it has to be.
 
cosmicma said:
i see questions like this and the first thing that pops into my head is " does it matter ? "
some people will pay for the privilege, others will enjoy looking at them, i enjoy taking them
isn't that enough ?
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For some people, yes. For some other people, no. There isn't one answer. For some people it does matter why they take photographs.
 
cosmicma said:
it's enough for me but i but i am strictly amateur and don't have the pressure of making a living from photography
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I'm an amateur too, but making pictures that are nice to look at soon became boring for me. Everyone has their own motivations. Neither is right or wrong - just different.:)
 
Because I bought a load of expensive gear

Not really, well maybe a tiny bit, but mostly because it makes going out and walking so much more interesting
 
To give other people happy memories and occasionally the same for me :)
 
Because it makes me happy.

Of course it'll provide me with family memories, nice images to (maybe) put up on the wall, document a particular moment in time, etc. but, essentially, I take photos because it makes me happy.

[emoji3]
 
Ed Sutton said:
I'm an amateur too, but making pictures that are nice to look at soon became boring for me. Everyone has their own motivations. Neither is right or wrong - just different.:)
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i suppose it depends on the subject most of the photos i take are family orientated which i never tire taking or looking at them but we all have different reasons for owning a camera
 
PhotographyBuff said:
I think there are probably many different reasons why different people choose to take photos. What are yours? Why are you interested in documenting life through photography?

I think this is a fundamental question that touches on the value of photography whether as documentation or art.
Click to expand...
My reasons for taking photos have evolved over the decades. When I received my first point-and-shoot as a young teen, my motivations were to preserve precious memories. I was also secondarily interested in doing "fashion photo shoots" for friends and family because I found it a joy and challenge to make someone look gorgeous for all of eternity on a piece of paper.

In 2003, I started blogging, and photos became a necessary method of illustrating my blogs. I paid attention to composition but capturing the moment was always more important than anything else. So if a cat happened to wander into shot and ruin it, tough luck, I'm using the photo because that's when Johnny made that amazing duck face.

Then social media happened. A few years ago, I started becoming hugely inspired by stunning photos people shared around the world. And I saw you could be technically competent and artistic AND still manage to capture the moment.

Also, one of my blog readers told me I should get a good camera and take better quality photos for my blog. I was still using a point-and-shoot and had a lot of noisy photos since I tended to document events happening indoors and had to turn up the ISO. But I ignored that advice then because my blog was really more about the writing, but his comment stuck with me over the years.

So it was a very long and gradual process but I eventually started wanting to do photography as art rather than merely documentation and illustration. But I think, for me, capturing the perfect moment and preserving beauty and memories will always be the main motivation for me. Art is fun and inspiring but will probably take back seat. :p
 
Can't draw or paint and I have a lousy memory! Enjoy the technical challenge of getting exposures correct, especially when second guessing the meter.
 
That's a great mysterious picture Richard. Why I take pictures keeps changing. I don't have much interest in family or holiday snaps although most of my picture taking happens when I'm away. I started years ago taking slides of architecture for my partner who's an art historian; she doesn't need me so much anymore with the internet there ready to plunder, but I still take them to illustrate her website for tours she's organising. Because of doing this for years I automatically frame shots to be illustrative but I'm moving more towards taking pictures for their own sake that I hope will have meaning or give me the raw material to be creative. I'm a lapsed visual artist trying to rediscover a visual language.
 
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Just for enjoyment, I like being out and about, I like creating things, I like technology, photography brings all these things together. Probably 80% of what I photograph will never been shown to anyone but Mrs Sirch
 
RichardTaylor said:
Why do you?
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Thanks for asking the question to me too!

I enjoy it as an artistic hobby, most of all. I like to capture the beauty in nature that my inner eye notices and to preserve it and share it. Another reason would be to preserve memories, like many people have already said. In this domain I take family photos and photos of events that I attend. Yet another reason might be because it affords me a way of personalizing the world, i.e. the world as seen from my viewpoint, my eye. This might serve to make my personal recollection of a place or of a moment a tangible thing. Otherwise it would have to reside solely in my memory. The latter might not be a bad thing, especially for those with great memories. But the former is an aid to the personal memory of a place or a moment. As we say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

By the way, I liked your 6th reason which is something that we rarely think about. It is something that needs foresight to realize and take photos of for the future. It provides us a reason beyond ourselves to pursue photography for.

On the negative side, I have noticed that taking photos often keeps you from enjoying the documented moment itself. Also, to get great photos you have to invest too much into it (like an expensive, heavy camera and expensive, heavy lenses, and big files to later archive), into the documentation of life rather than life itself, the moments of life themselves. As such, I sometimes try to get away from photography. I think it's not worth investing too much into the mere documentation of life (as opposed to life itself, the experience of the moment itself, especially since life is limited) as in having to carry heavy gear and multiple lenses about. (This is my personal, subjective viewpoint as an amateur). Because of that I have been looking for an all-in-one great compact camera that will allow me to take photos along my way, while still allowing me to enjoy the things I take photos of, and not weighing me down, not causing me to make taking photos the purpose of whatever else it is I am doing (i.e. enjoying a trip in nature, an event, etc).
 
Because I enjoy it.
And very very occasionally I'm able to give people some images which, whilst they may not be able to bear looking at for a while, will eventually be a huge comfort.
 
I'm very much a hill walker, bird watcher, astronomer, whatever first and photographer second. I do go out to 'do' landscape photography but a lot of the time I'm wishing I was somewhere on Dartmoor with my camera slung in my rucksack rather than dragging round tripod, filters, lenses etc. But I do enjoy it when I get back and process the results. I was given my first camera when I was about 9 and I seem to remember my first photo was a black and whilte collie that I obviously realised at the young age would look good on the black and white film that was all mere mortals could afford at the time. I've never been without a camera since. Like a number of others, I do some sketching but have no talent whatsoever. In any case I can't sketch out on the moors in the middle of winter. I definitely do have an artistic itch that photography scratches. Recording - yes I do that. I have a lot of photos of obscure heaps of granite that no-one but me would ever be interested in, remains of old mines, farms etc on Dartmoor that are not going to be there for ever, things that subsequently get damaged or stolen. However there have been some momentous accasions that I deliberately haven't recorded, like the 1999 total solar eclipse when I left the camera at home because I just wanted to watch and not spoil the moment (2 minutes or whatever it was). On the other hand I would never be satisfied with dropping a compact in my rucksack to go walking (I do have one and rarely use it). If I see something that makes me want to take a photo, I want to do it as well as I can.
 
To preserve and share moments.
For fun.

And I'm not sure in which order. :thinking:
 
For me its massively rewarding, taking the shots, trying different settings and that buzz you get when you put the SD card in to your laptop to see your results.
 
To capture wildlife mainly, seen most of it, so thought i'd try and get my own images on record for my own pleasure
 
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