Occasional thoughts on photography…

When I was writing my original travel blog I used the phrase “If it was easy – everyone would be doing it…” this got me to thinking about the current state of the photographers lot because my implication was that photography was not easy and that not many people were attempting to do it for a living. I think this may of been a little misleading!

A quick online search or a look at the list of photographers on the members list of any of the main directories and associations quickly dispels the “everyone would be doing it ” part. However whether they are doing it well is probably the topic of another blog entirely!

As to the “If it were easy..” bit, that’s also a relative question of course. If it’s something you love doing it’s obviously easier to you than doing something you hate. However the advent of digital photography has democratised the image making process. At least when we were shooting on film and for those of us involved in the printing process, there was at least a degree of mystery and alchemy involved in the chemical process. My feeling now is that almost anyone with a digital camera can get a half decent image and you have to admit everything does have a lookalike feel as everyone it seems is now a master photoshop technician…

Not that I hate digital – (although I was dragged kicking and screaming from my Nikon f5 film camera and favorite film stock) – it’s just that now there is no choice and I do genuinely miss the organic feel of film. A bit like comparing vinyl to Cd to use the old analogy. I suppose in image making terms vinyl might have a more appealing tone to it but can you really be bothered with all the effort of turning it over to hear side two…?

It seems to me that the only photographers (if you can still really call them photographers – that is) still guaranteed a future in the industry are the ones involving themselves in CGI!