Out of curiosity, I often wonder what Photography means to people that view it. Do they enjoy it in a similar manner that I do? How differently do they see the image? Do they enjoy the perspective that I shot it from or the interpretation of the scene that I chose? Let me know in the comments what you enjoy about the images.
Empty industrial building. Shot on Canon 5DMKII. 13yr old camera.
Many of my previous posts have talked about the reason that I shoot or a piece of gear that I use. Often I justify a position that I take on an idea of why these things are important to me. Photographers often struggle with the current situation or outlook on image making, whether that is about new equipment or trends in the industry. This is understandable as growth of any type of artist changes your perspective on how you see your practice and the things around you.
Another empty industrial building. Canon 5DMKII
Recently I took a step back from the constant pursuit of increasing image quality from the use of new equipment. Every camera company always touts the latest equipment is what you need to get the quality of file you want when capturing an image. While I was ready to invest in some new equipment, it was never in stock and was months away from being available. I felt betrayed a little by an industry I was trying to support that just couldn’t deliver the tools that I felt I needed to make the images I wanted to make.
Friendly bunny visiting while shooting in the industrial area. Canon EF28mm f1.8 handling the portrait here. Cheap discontinued lens for the win!
I definitely got suckered into the industry hype around new mirrorless cameras and equipment. I realized this when looking at some medium format images posted on Reddit. The portrait images in question had this amazing 3 dimensional look that medium format film photography is known for. All of this equipment was 30 years old or more and all shot on film. I was immediately thinking of my mirrorless camera and how different it was from these older film cameras and at the same time realizing why the images I was creating with it are different than what I was looking at on Reddit.
Train track marker. Canon 1DMKIIN with 85mm f1.8. 17yr old camera.
I don’t always have the time to shoot film even if I was using some of those older cameras, I did have another option. My older DSLR and the fast prime lenses that I have for them. While they go against what most of the industry is adopting as new and good, this older bit of equipment is exactly what I needed for what I wanted to create. This also lead me closer to the answer of what photography means to me.
Wild flowers and the abandoned door. 5DMKII 28mm @ f1.8
Photography, for me most of the time, is the tool that I use to bring forward the image that I see in my head when I look at a scene. Its the way an old building looks, or how I interpret a sign on a door or the beauty of an old chair that nobody sits on anymore. It can also be the experience in a moment or how a relatively mundane thing can look interesting. By being a photographer I have developed the creative muscle that sees things this way and technical part of photography allows me to share that with people. Unlike a painter, everything in my image is already there, the skill is bringing it out until it is visible to anyone that looks at it. I could use composite techniques to change the image to be more fantastical but the practice of working around this limitation is something that I enjoy and makes me happier when things work out the way I want. to me it’s the same as the landscape photographer that travels to the far off land where everything looks magical at a few times a day and they are the only ones to see it. I like doing the same with places that see thousands of people everyday and maybe I get to show them this place in a whole different way.
The broken down break room. Chair outside an industrial building. 28mm @ f1.8
The plants will take over. 28mm @ f1.8