Friday, September 30, 2011

What is Photography – Street Photography

Author Bio :
Samuel is researching on What is Photography and he is writing about What is Photography, photography jobs, photography career based on his research for What is Photography.

Street photography is an exciting, raw, and modern element of art and thus many photographers seek to partake in it. It covers a wide range of photographing yet it is an extremely difficult area as you have to be naturally gift with quick reactions, patience, and of course skill. In order to create the most awe inspiring street photographs you need to be willing to put in an awful lot of hard work.

You MUST think before you shoot...

You need to be prepared before you start shooting and thus often it is good to go and watch your subject in action without a camera prior to the actual shooting. This is great because you will get a feel of what is going to happen and thus you will be more prepared.

In addition to this, you need to be prepared to miss the best photographs. Do not spend your time worrying about that one great shot you could have had, because even the best in the business miss vital shots. The skills is acquiring a great photograph no matter how many you missed prior to doing so.

You also need to learn to anticipate a photograph; quick reaction skills are everything and if you don’t have a fast reaction then you will find yourself missing the key shot each and every time. There is no magic formula to acquiring a quick response, it simply takes practice.

Of course every photographer needs to make sure they have a full equipped camera ready and capable of doing the job. It is best to make sure your camera has a zoom lens, preferably with a length of 28-300mm, 24-105mm, or 70-200mm. This will mean that you can position yourself a substantial distance away from the area you are shooting and thus it allows you extra time to react.

Finally, after you have acquired all your photographs make sure you review each and everyone thoroughly in order to determine your strengths and weaknesses in order to aid you for your next batch of street photography.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

What is Photography : Photography, Both Tool and Art

Author Bio :
Samuel is working as Photography Jobs consultant and photography career adviser specially about What is Photography as he had got experiences as a photographer and had researched about Photography gallery for his website.

The term photography has been coined from the ancient Greek words for light, phos or photo, and drawing, graph. Photography can certainly be described as drawing with light, as it consists of light being used to imprint an image onto a light-sensitive medium.

Humans have been creating images since the first cave drawings around 20,000 years or so ago. Photography now makes it possible to create a realistic image within a split second, something that would easily have taken even the most skilled of artists days, if not weeks to do.

Today, photography touches the lifes of millions, not only by crystallising memories, but also as a powerful tool of communication. Newspapers, magazines and the television use photography to provide information and advertise myriads of services and products.

Every aspect of life, from medical diagnosis and astronomy to industrial uses like quality control and even security measures everywhere we go makes use of photography. It extends our vision into the realms invisible or too fast for the eye to see and allows us to view situations in places too dangerous to enter.

It can provide pleasure by bringing back memories or simply because it is beautiful. It allows us to see things we might otherwise never have the opportunity to experience.

It is also being recognised more widely as a form of fine art, although this has not always been the case. Many critics did, and some still do so now, believe that as the image is created by a mechanical device it could not be a form of creativity.

As it is, just like the brush in a painter's hand, it is not the tool that makes the final image, it is the person using it. Without the photographer using it, deciding on the distance, the angle, the light and the general composition of the image to be taken, a camera is nothing but a lifeless object. \

In the hands of the right person, whether used as a hobby or a a career, even a camera can create a work of art.

What is Photography : The Age Old Question - Is Photography Art?

Author Bio :
Samuel is working as Photography Jobs consultant and photography career adviser specially about What is Photography as he had got experiences as a photographer and had researched about Photography gallery for his website.

The majority of people believe, quite wrongly, that photography is a fairly recent addition to the world we call art. Few people actually realise that optical devices were used by artists in the creation of their work from as early as the 15th century.

During the Rennaissance period, for instance, the strong desire to depict nature in all its beauty as close to reality as possible prompted many artists to make use of tools such as the camera obscura in combination with their brushes and pigments. The camera obscura provided them with the ability to project images from afar onto their flat working surfaces.

The daguerreotype and calotype, both initial kinds of photography invented around 1839, further revolutionised perceptions of reality. At the time, photography was accepted as an art, simply because it supplied a growing patronage of middle class individuals with entertainment and immediate images.

As far as Masters are concerned, the truest, or greatest achievement of art consists of the ability to depict nature in its true appearance. A photograph achieves this in a way no other artistic medium can. But is a photographer really an artist?

One theory says that an artist puts his or her personal spirit and imagination into their art. Is it possible for a photographer making use of a camera, which ultimately creates the image, to put their spirit into the final photograph?

A French journalist, Ernest Lacan, once called photography a mistress one loves and hides away; a mistress one speaks about with joy while others are not allowed to mention her.

So far, there are three opinions commonly voiced by art critics, photographers and painters when discussing whether photography qualifies as art, or is at least beneficial to art.

One view clearly states that it can not be an art, mainly because it makes use of a mechanical device, as well as physical and chemical phenomena as opposed to being done by inspiration and by hand.

The second view states that it may be of use to art, but could never be regarded as equal to the creativeness of drawing or painting, while the third and final theory regards photography as close to etching and lithography and therefore beneficial to both art and culture.

Photography has been a controversial yet important part of art for 150 years. Still the question whether photography is art or a form of pure documentation seen with the eye rather than th mind remains.

Monday, September 12, 2011

What is Photography : Commercial Photography - Art or no Art?

Author Bio :
Samuel is working as Photography Jobs consultant and photography career adviser specially about What is Photography as he had got experiences as a photographer and had researched about Photography gallery for his website.


There are those who would argue that commercial photography could not possibly be called an art. Others go even further by claiming that it isn't actually photography, either. So what is it?

Every photographer has a specific niche, a particular subject they like to take photographs of. Some like nature or cars, others prefer food. There are photographers specialising in sports, pets, portraits or medical and scientific photography, in short, if it can be photographed, somebody is doing it. Each to his own, as the saying goes.

It is very easy to criticise another's work because it is not the sort of thing we'd like to shoot. But does that make it wrong, or bad? Picasso is not to everybody's taste, but he was still an artist.

A good photographer should not be judged by the equipment he uses or the kind of photograph he takes. A plate of food or a rail of clothing in a shop can be just as artistic as a tropical sunset if it is the product of a vision.

The most beautiful shop display will not attract customers if the photograph has not been considered well by the photographer. A commercial photographer may not expect his images to be hung in New York's Met, or the Guggenheim, but he uses his vision and his imagination to create a work that will attract viewers.

A good commercial photograph will draw the eyes of an individual to it without them knowing why. This is where the art lies even in commercial photography. To create an image that captures the essence of its subject without needing an explanation.

There is little point in trying to mimic the work of others by getting the same gear, reproducing the same settings and shooting away. It is impossible to create the same situation in exactly the same way twice. One has to see the image through the eyes of the photographer, from their point of view, to understand why a certain technique or setting was used at the time.

Every photograph, even a commercial one, tells a story. For every photograph, there is a reason why it was done in a specific way. Each and every photograph has been created using vision, imagination and knowledge, making it a work of art, regardless of whether it is appreciated by everyone or not.

What is Photography : The Magic of Photography

Author Bio :
Samuel is working as Photography Jobs consultant and photography career adviser specially about What is Photography as he had got experiences as a photographer and had researched about Photography gallery for his website.

Photographs enable us to preserve our history. Whether they portray a child's very first smile or its first step; whether they preserve the image of an endangered species for future generations or the planting of one's flag on a newly conquered mountain, photographs are there to provide lasting reminders of special moments.

While mothers spend hours preparing and decorating large albums of their precious memories, others use photographs to bring another part of th world, or even the universe into their own home. A photograph can give us an impression of standing in a forest, or walking through the silence of mysterious, misty swamp.

Photographs make it possible for us to stand on the highest mountains, or trek through the hottest deserts and the most impassable jungles without ever leaving the comfort of our homes. They introduce us to individuals and families we have never seen and tell us the story of their lives. In other words, photographs play an important role in all our lives.

Quality photographs are taken by photographers that know what their camera is able to do. A skilled person will always take the time to study all instructions and familliarize themselves with the camera before attempting to take a photograph. Sometimes a really skilled individual will even make it possible to get more out of a camera than it is meant to do.

It is knowing the tricks to use that produce winning photographs, like holding a simple magnifying glass just in front of a little point-and shoot Polaroid camera to produce startling images which beat those created by much more sophisticated cameras.

Often leaving the camera to do what it needs to by setting it onto Auto will do just finie. There are occasions, however, when one simply has to know what to do in order to never miss those precious moments.

Even the best, most expensive cameras alone do not make a good photographer. What is needed is a lot of passion for the art of photography and continued willingness to learn more, even after many years of taking myriads of photographs.