Don’t Forget to Grab Some Snaps

And it revolves around the point at which you start to consider yourself to be a “photographer”. By which I mean somebody who stops to consider a subject. And composition. And light, exposure technique, and what you might do with the pixels that you capture when you are post-processing them! Because as you become more adept at photography, these are the considerations which you simply cannot avoid every time you put a camera to your eye, or raise a smart phone with the camera at the ready. They are automatic reactions to any photographic situation from anybody that has any interest in and has taken steps to develop and progress as a photographer.

Of course, this might be a completely separate discussion: “at what point do you see yourself specifically as a photographer”. But for the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume we have taken that title upon ourselves and we feel that we are “a photographer”.

Which brings me to my main point: It is a rare event for me to go out and about without my main camera. It’s just a habit. Because you never know. And even if I only have a smart phone with me, there will be an app at the ready which gives me manual control over the camera.

But the problem is, I have found myself simply not bothering to take a photograph because the light was poor, or the composition wasn’t exactly how I would’ve liked it to be. Or a hundred other “photographic” considerations which made me feel that there wasn’t an image to be had.

And I was completely wrong!

Because capturing a simple memory of a moment with someone special, or somewhere special, or both, should not necessarily be conjoined with creating an image and enjoying photography for its own sake.

So I present here a few snaps grabbed to simply create memories of enjoyable times. They may benefit from skills which I have acquired and continue to hone, But whether they meet the exacting requirements of successful artworks bear no relevance whatsoever to their validity in my body of work.

So my message to any photographer is: don’t forget to grab some snaps!