Having just acquired a digital camera and spent a morning cycling around eagerly snapping this and that, it occurs to me, not for the first time, that the most rewarding part of photography is the picture-taking, rather than the end results.
Occasionally, sometimes at home but more often on holiday, I'd wander off in the evening with a camera and in creative mood take a number of artistic, carefully composed, shots. On getting them back from the chemists, the end results would be, frankly, disappointing. "What are these?" I'd be asked, as a picture of a field, followed by another picture of a field, would interrupt the normal flow of castles, or chateaux, or people sitting at cafes, or coming out of the sea laughing. I'd struggle for an answer, because what was revealed were indeed pictures of undeniable dullness: fields like thousands of others, with some trees in the distance, and maybe a cow. What to say? At the time I was trying to capture a moment of transcendent beauty, with the setting sun caressing the upper branches of the beeches, the clouds tinged golden-red, the stillness and peacefulness of it all...
Clearly I'd failed, totally. Maybe I'm just a lousy photographer, but frankly who wants to bother with all that "Amateur Photographer" stuff - "Reader's photo of the month is from Mr. G Crump of Northampton. His picture "Flying Swans at Dawn" was shot with a Nikon 376B SLR with Zeiss A32 Reflex Zoom lens, Kodachrome 400 XTR film and a Ektoplant TRA filter, F32 at 1/5000."
Maybe no photo could capture it: I'd have needed to be an artist. Which I'm not. But for those moments when I was taking the photograph, I was, you know, seeing. Which is maybe as good as it gets.
So what's the answer? If the end results don't matter, should I just wander round with a pretend camera? That would be, well....silly. Just forget the camera altogether? We're heading into deep philosophical waters here. For the moment loads of dusty photo albums - or from now on chunks of memory on my hard drive - are a small price to pay for the chance to really look at the world every now and then.
I've now managed to download that first set of digital pictures on to my PC. The whole process is so straightforward: I'm amazed at the wonders of modern technology. If I'm honest, though, the pictures are a bit, well, disappointing. But I had a great time taking them.
Don't be discouraged! All it takes is capturing one great shot and you'll feel more comfortable. I found your blog because I was checking search engines using the name of my blog and found your post- check my blog out, it might help give you the confidence you should have...
http://zenandtheartofphotography.blogspot.com/
Posted by: John | March 02, 2007 at 02:47 PM