It's usually 3-4 minutes after you've bought the digital camera when you feel you're already a professional photographer. If there are buttons and dials you don't understand, you're definitely on the right track. If it's a more expensive camera, the weekends for the following 3-4 months will be spent on seminars on how to take photos like a pro (and learn what the buttons do). And then you go on trips for professional photo shooting in unique places. On the way there, you get to show your gear to other professional photographers who share your taste. Even the memory card is carefully weighed and admired with that air of elegance and sophistication of people that ask for beer on the plane from the flight attendant with the drinks trolley. Once you get there, you embark on the quest to get that unique photo that nobody else will ever get (except for the other 20 pros on the bus. Or someone from the next group, next Saturday). Most of the times it's a flower growing on a stump or dead insect on a stump, about 100 meters away from the bus stop.
Once all this is over, you're finally ready to shoot like a pro. Anything else in your life becomes an opportunity to take a really good photo. Well, I say one... It's usually 4-500 per weekend. Everybody has to sit still now, this light practically begs for a group photo against that background (a mall or some trees). Look at that original angle! Look at that shade! Unmissable! One more time now, because I missed the light. Or rather, the light was not right (it's never right the first 15 times). And again, 20 minutes later, the light is even better now. Now you move there, you hold that flower, you tilt your head like this. Now don't move for 10 to 20 minutes, because there's a better lens for this light. A lens that's always at the bottom of your backpack. The one specially designed for cameras and accessories. It takes ages to find anything in one of those 35 compartments and pockets, but it's still better than an average backpack because everything is neatly organized. People who are not professional photographers like you usually complain it's starting to rain or their leg is starting to feel numb while you're focusing and exposing, but in about 3-4 years (processing the photos is never easy) they'll see the photo and really appreciate the effort.
By the time those photos are ready half the people have died of old age and you're back to using a compact camera -like the one you had before you got the big, expensive one- but somehow even more expensive. Because it still has interchangeable zoom and bipolar lenses and autistic viewfinder. And the difference in quality is marginal even to a pro's eye. For everyone else it won't matter either because they will never see the pictures anyway. Also, it's easier to carry around. The photos you're posting on facebook are still taken with your phone, because the camera is too valuable to carry around in your pocket. Yes, it is pocket-able but only an idiot would carry it like that. The best way to protect it is to keep it in the desk drawer, at home. For really good photos there's always your iPad.
Once all this is over, you're finally ready to shoot like a pro. Anything else in your life becomes an opportunity to take a really good photo. Well, I say one... It's usually 4-500 per weekend. Everybody has to sit still now, this light practically begs for a group photo against that background (a mall or some trees). Look at that original angle! Look at that shade! Unmissable! One more time now, because I missed the light. Or rather, the light was not right (it's never right the first 15 times). And again, 20 minutes later, the light is even better now. Now you move there, you hold that flower, you tilt your head like this. Now don't move for 10 to 20 minutes, because there's a better lens for this light. A lens that's always at the bottom of your backpack. The one specially designed for cameras and accessories. It takes ages to find anything in one of those 35 compartments and pockets, but it's still better than an average backpack because everything is neatly organized. People who are not professional photographers like you usually complain it's starting to rain or their leg is starting to feel numb while you're focusing and exposing, but in about 3-4 years (processing the photos is never easy) they'll see the photo and really appreciate the effort.
By the time those photos are ready half the people have died of old age and you're back to using a compact camera -like the one you had before you got the big, expensive one- but somehow even more expensive. Because it still has interchangeable zoom and bipolar lenses and autistic viewfinder. And the difference in quality is marginal even to a pro's eye. For everyone else it won't matter either because they will never see the pictures anyway. Also, it's easier to carry around. The photos you're posting on facebook are still taken with your phone, because the camera is too valuable to carry around in your pocket. Yes, it is pocket-able but only an idiot would carry it like that. The best way to protect it is to keep it in the desk drawer, at home. For really good photos there's always your iPad.
No comments:
Post a Comment