Why is one photographic process more valid than another?
Digital photography may have many benefits but for whom?
Undoubtedly the commercial photographer can reduce costs and overheads and get images to market quickly by using digital cameras and computers.
Most of us are not commercial photographers.
How I shoot is, ultimately, my business. I earn my money honestly and no one has the right to tell me how to spend it.
If I want to use a cheap plastic cameras from Hong Kong, that's my business. No one else's.
If I share my work and others enjoy my work, and they do, who is to say my photography is invalid in some way?
Anyone who has views like those suggested are usually trying to validate their own decisions for spending lots of money on Digital equipment.
Ultimately its the final image that counts not how it was made.
For the hobbyist photographer, more involvement in the photography process gives more personal satisfaction than simply pressing a button will ever do.
If your digital camera takes superb photographs (and they do), then why worry about what others do?
That you have a process that works for you, does not give you the right to criticise the process others might use. Mind your own business and create work that you are happy with.
The problem with digital cameras is that people often confuse "technically excellent" photographs with the lack of personal satisfaction of having made that image. Digital photos that are boring or dont engage the audience can be blamed on equipment rather than a lack of personal skill or artistry.
So often this situation results in more equipment being purchased without a resulting improvement in the ratio of keepers to those which can be binned. Cheap storage just means that terrabytes of crap are being stored.
Think about this, AI is being trained on that crap...
100% Mr S. You do you and I'll do me 😊
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ReplyDeleteExcellent Andy and well as you know we share largely similar views on the subject.
ReplyDelete"For the hobbyist photographer, more involvement in the photography process gives more personal satisfaction than simply pressing a button will ever do."
That exactly sums up my rationale although slightly differing to your opinion is to me the camera does matter. I am at my best when I am using a tool that forces me to engage with it, to slow down and apply myself. There are cameras that facilitate this (as you know) and I produce my best work when I am using them. You and Dave's Blogs on the "mind your own business" "rants" (lol) have forced me to make a long waited for decision to expand my arsenal.
In a nutshell though, what other people think of what I do, and how I do it is irrelevant (present company excepted!)
Follow your heart !