You Are a Photographer

It’s Day 1 of the SITS Spring into Action Photo Challenge and I really can’t believe all the amazing talent and positive feedback the event is receiving so far! I’m excited to learn with the rest of you!

Today’s article is all about Composition and Perspective, giving you some easy tips to take your photos to the next level right away. If you’re already utilizing these tips, we would love it if you’d share your knowledge over in our forum discussion.

Additional advice is welcome, as are photographic examples and blog posts highlighting these techniques.

I’ve truly been blown away by the response. There are over 100 participants from Twitter counts alone! Y’all are immediately diving in, tackling this challenge and posting or blogging about it. This is exactly what Fran and I dreamed would happen! It’s so hard turning dreams into reality, so thank you so much for that. As my middle school version of myself would say right now, “Cool beans!”

Here are just a few cool responses I’ve seen so far today:

• Jenna of You and Me Plus Hudson is Three shares some wonderful photos of her son taken down on his level.
• A Professor’s Wife gives us some perspective on her office stationary.
• Tanya of A Rose and a Star did an amazing spring photo shoot of her daughter (using her iPhone!)
• Amy of BabyBabyLemon shows us a unique perspective of her child from the ground up.

I put together a daily paper of all links with the Twitter hashtag #SITSpics to make it a little easier for you to view what others are sharing. You can subscribe and see what came in as of noon today at the #SITSPics Spring into Action Daily Paper!

Deep Thoughts, Yo.

Lindsay over at The Designer Wife wrote a fabulous article today, I Am Not a Photographer. {Why?}. It evoked many emotions in me.

I’ve always had an interest in photography, but as a kid, I really had no clue at all that photography was a profession or that people learned it. I just thought people bought cameras and better cameras took better photos. I set up photo shoots with my toys and stuffed animals and I don’t think I ever realized what I was doing or why. I wanted to make art with my photos.

I was raised by a single mom on a tight budget and I’m so grateful to her that she found the resources through the years to buy me film point and shoot cameras. But a roll held 20-30something shots and was expensive and timely to develop. While it made me carefully consider every time I clicked the shutter, it also stifled me immensely. It’s impossible to learn and improve a craft you cannot afford to practice. (This is why I gave up knitting, incidentally.)

Drove out to the railroad tracks one day in 2002 with a shot like this in mind.

My Turning Point

My life truly changed when I bought my first digital camera for digitalwoe.com in 2001. It was a Kodak 2.1MP POS (which in this case could either stand for point and shoot or piece of $#!T) It was an impulse buy and it never occurred to me to research my camera purchase first, but I still fell in love with the gratification of taking a photo and seeing it immediately before me.

Even more than that, I loved that I could click as much as I wanted to. I was only limited by the space on the memory card and I could buy more of those or dump the photos on my computer and wipe it.

Click. Click! CLICK! Freedom!

Back then, everyone who blogged was familiar with Noah Grey. He authored a script called GreyMatter, the first well known free automated blogging platform released at the end of 2000. He was also a photographer. Using a Nikon Coolpix point and shoot, he very well may have started the whole concept of photo blogs. He introduced me to the possibility that being a photographer is something I can achieve. I can learn more about it and learn from others who took photos. I don’t need to make money from it, I simply need to enjoy it.

I am a photographer!

In 2002 I participated in Blogathon by taking a photo every hour. This was one of them.

You Can Be a Photographer Too!

I hear self-deprecating comments a lot. “I’m not a photographer…” “My photos may not be the best…” But you like taking photos and you’re interested in learning more about taking photos. You may even dream of being able to use your camera’s manual settings.

The definition of photographer does not specify a skill set. It doesn’t mention the cameras, lenses or accessories you need in your collection. It doesn’t limit itself to those who make money. All you need is ANY device that can take photographs and then click that shutter button. If you’re doing that, you’re a photographer.

The photos I shared in this entry were taken before I seriously started studying photography. I just liked taking pictures and am no more a photographer now than I was then, though I do hope I have improved.

Don’t let that little voice inside your head convince you that you aren’t a photographer or artist just because you aren’t getting paid or don’t have the greatest camera.