better living through living better. part 2

I don’t claim to be a photographer of any real merit, of any high caliber, but i have taken thousands upon thousands of terrible photographs. As an artist, i tend to lack interest in photos unless they are really good, and the fact that i can’t eloquently figure out what it is that makes them good or bad means that my understanding of what is happening in the photo is rudimentary at best, and not at all developed. But i try to figure out what it is that’s working.


When i was in school, i was in a class that required photos for each project. this was not a photo class per se, it was a 2D design class that just happen to use photos as the medium. At the time it was a bit of a pain, and i struggled the whole way through, but now looking back it was infinitely educational. This was the time before digital cameras were as ubiquitous as they are now. They were low megapixel high price ordeals, and the quality was questionably at best. So everything was done on actual rolls of film. And since this was not the proper photo class, we didn’t have darkroom access, not that i even knew how to do it. So i would get the film developed at wallgreens or whatever 1hour place was around. Each project required me to shoot at least a whole roll of film, if not two. We had 10 projects and i had a box of 36exp. film. Then if we didn’t do it right we would have to reshoot in order to improve the grade. So i easily ended up with 500 photos in that 10 week period. and not only that but my girlfriend at the time was in the class as well so we would help each other and that probably counts to increase the number.


I quickly learned that taking a good picture was a pretty lucky endeavor. out of all those photos all of them are terrible. but there were some less bad than others, some that were worth turning in. but so few and so far between. it was so frustrating, knowing that the things i shot might be crap, but that i’m going to have to pay to see them anyway. it made me very aware of what i was doing with the camera very quickly. it made taking pictures a bit nerve racking.


Then on top of that, as i was ending undergrad i was beginning to apply to grad school and slides were needed. shooting slides is a completely different thing from just taking normal pictures outside. there is special film, special lights, special ways to position everything, special ways to take the picture, special settings , everything about the whole process is special. and that means it’s hard. oh and the developing process is even more special than regular photos(read expensive). the first forrays were disasters, but i was able to figure things out well enough to start to take good slides of my work, good enough to get into grad school i suppose. and now i have some understanding of studio photography that i’ve kept in my head.


And then digital cameras became affordable and of worthy quality. digital photography now is almost as good as film, and the differences are negligible unless you are a photo snob, which i am not. and i’m really only talking of the consumer level camera, not pro quality because the high end shoots better than film, and each year we get higher def for lower prices, so this will only be true for a little while longer. And with my digital camera i’ve been able to just hold it out and shoot at things with no remorse, with no worries that i’m wasting a photo, or wasting my money be having to develop them just to see them. It has allowed me to shoot thousands and thousands of pictures that i can just sort of throw away, they only take up space on my harddrive. right now i have 1400 photos on my computer and that is just from the last 5 months. I’m to a point now where i take good photos, so maybe i can offer some advice.



HOW TO TAKE BETTER PHOTOS


1. get a digital camera with a large (4gig) memory card

2. take photos of everything all the time (this is the main step). live your life with your camera in your hand.

3. turn off the time and date stamp.