A Novice Photographer’s Expanding Understanding of Photography
(I wrote this in January 2017 but I still felt like it was worth of posting here as I had come across it while going through a google drive account )
In the past I had always associated “photography” as the person that stands behind the camera taking family portraits, that were boring, lifeless and generally annoying to wrangle that many people into a confined space. And that’s what stuck in my mind whenever I thought of photography. I disliked this type of picture taking that even when I had a “nice” DSLR I would leave it at home so that these photographs weren’t expected of me. It wasn’t until recently that I began to form a more robust view of photography. As a film student at a small college, I learned a lot about framing and composition, the importance of lighting and all of these other aspects of film, but it never made the leap to photography until this summer, when I got the chance to go take pictures and video in Nicaragua. I had always considered myself a videographer and not a photographer, but I took the opportunity to try it, and I really enjoyed it. I began to realize that photography was about EXCLUSION, specific choices of what is in the frame, what’s not. When to take the picture and when to leave the moment be. I had a wonderful time going out and photographing people in their home environments. I got fantastic pictures of their actual lives, a still life portrait of reality. And that’s exactly why I always felt family pictures were so lifeless. They made no effort to exclude, the goal is to fit everyone in without chopping anything off. They were artificial, someone decided to gather everyone around for a group picture and thus that moment occurred. I understand the necessity of pictures like this because they document an event or family gathering and give something tangible to remind people of who was there and can serve as great keepsakes, but that doesn’t make me like taking them any more. But I learned that’s not where the wonder of photography lies, in catching real life moments, being able to tell a story with pixels. To capture emotions besides the generic “cheese” moments captured in family portraits. After that trip to Nicaragua I was excited to take those same kind of photos back home, but I ran into a couple problems. The mundaneness of “normal life,” the tendency to overlook the beauty and moments around you because you’ve seen it a million times. I had already explored my house and the area around it in the past, I wanted the new, the fresh. I extended my circle a little larger and found some spots, flowers, that I had never taken pictures of. But nothing wowed me, that newness of being in another country, seeing people that are so different, yet still so human didn’t happen in the streets around my house. Plus the fact that I’m very introverted, I don’t like interrupting or inserting myself into other people’s lives. It amazed me how brazen the people I went to Nicaragua were when it came to whipping out their cameras and take pictures. (It’s also much easier to take pictures of people you know will never see you again as opposed to your neighbors) I’m still trying to fix this, but being more outgoing and assertive is something I’m working on in many parts of my life. But back to photography, but soon I had another opportunity, a family reunion. My cousin’s children were playing in my grandparent’s babbling brook and I just could resist, I ran and grabbed my camera and snapped away gleefully. I was able to capture some fantastic pictures of our family reunion. But as soon as it was time to take the family portraits, I hid myself in the back (and cringed slightly as the camera of choice was a cellphone camera). From that day on, I’ve begun to look for those moments to capture, it’s easy to get caught up in the mundane or distracted by the worries of life, but I still try to carry my camera with me and pluck up the courage to go and take the picture. I still hesitate in calling myself a videographer let alone a photographer because I feel like I’m always honing the craft, and that I still have a lot to learn.
In the past I had always associated “photography” as the person that stands behind the camera taking family portraits, that were boring, lifeless and generally annoying to wrangle that many people into a confined space. And that’s what stuck in my mind whenever I thought of photography. I disliked this type of picture taking that even when I had a “nice” DSLR I would leave it at home so that these photographs weren’t expected of me. It wasn’t until recently that I began to form a more robust view of photography. As a film student at a small college, I learned a lot about framing and composition, the importance of lighting and all of these other aspects of film, but it never made the leap to photography until this summer, when I got the chance to go take pictures and video in Nicaragua. I had always considered myself a videographer and not a photographer, but I took the opportunity to try it, and I really enjoyed it. I began to realize that photography was about EXCLUSION, specific choices of what is in the frame, what’s not. When to take the picture and when to leave the moment be. I had a wonderful time going out and photographing people in their home environments. I got fantastic pictures of their actual lives, a still life portrait of reality. And that’s exactly why I always felt family pictures were so lifeless. They made no effort to exclude, the goal is to fit everyone in without chopping anything off. They were artificial, someone decided to gather everyone around for a group picture and thus that moment occurred. I understand the necessity of pictures like this because they document an event or family gathering and give something tangible to remind people of who was there and can serve as great keepsakes, but that doesn’t make me like taking them any more. But I learned that’s not where the wonder of photography lies, in catching real life moments, being able to tell a story with pixels. To capture emotions besides the generic “cheese” moments captured in family portraits. After that trip to Nicaragua I was excited to take those same kind of photos back home, but I ran into a couple problems. The mundaneness of “normal life,” the tendency to overlook the beauty and moments around you because you’ve seen it a million times. I had already explored my house and the area around it in the past, I wanted the new, the fresh. I extended my circle a little larger and found some spots, flowers, that I had never taken pictures of. But nothing wowed me, that newness of being in another country, seeing people that are so different, yet still so human didn’t happen in the streets around my house. Plus the fact that I’m very introverted, I don’t like interrupting or inserting myself into other people’s lives. It amazed me how brazen the people I went to Nicaragua were when it came to whipping out their cameras and take pictures. (It’s also much easier to take pictures of people you know will never see you again as opposed to your neighbors) I’m still trying to fix this, but being more outgoing and assertive is something I’m working on in many parts of my life. But back to photography, but soon I had another opportunity, a family reunion. My cousin’s children were playing in my grandparent’s babbling brook and I just could resist, I ran and grabbed my camera and snapped away gleefully. I was able to capture some fantastic pictures of our family reunion. But as soon as it was time to take the family portraits, I hid myself in the back (and cringed slightly as the camera of choice was a cellphone camera). From that day on, I’ve begun to look for those moments to capture, it’s easy to get caught up in the mundane or distracted by the worries of life, but I still try to carry my camera with me and pluck up the courage to go and take the picture. I still hesitate in calling myself a videographer let alone a photographer because I feel like I’m always honing the craft, and that I still have a lot to learn.
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