# Photography

I bought my first digital camera in July of 2005. I have
taken over 39,000 photos with it—and a series of
increasingly sophisticated devices[^1]—over the ensuing
nineteen years. The act of taking photos is woven into how I
experience holidays, family gatherings, vacations, and—at
times—my daily life. It's something that I enjoy doing.

The appeal of photography is multifaceted:

- It's an accessible form of artistic expression.
- Photographs are windows into the past; they reflect the life we've lived.
- It is a technical puzzle: How do you get the results you want by understanding and manipulating your equipment and the environment?
- There is [_gear_][1] to be researched, evaluated, purchased, and lusted after.
	- Cameras & camera bodies of every degree of quality and sophistication.
	- Lenses in every shape, size, and manufacturer—don't forget vintage glass!
	- All sorts of bags, straps, holsters, and clips to keep everything organized and at the ready.
	- Filters—glass filters—that abate or modify the light entering the lens in all kinds of ways or stay out of the way and act as protection.
- There are a host of workflow and digital asset management concerns.
	- Let's talk about RAW files… (hours pass).
	- How to I merge all the photos I take on my phone with the ones I take with my "real" camera?
	- What replication strategy across cloud providers makes sense for my needs?
	- How much digital refinement or modification to the images do you want to be able to do?
	- How can you adjust your camera's settings to get the best results without having to do as much (or any) post-processing?

Last week, after much indecision, I purchased a full version
of [Capture One Pro][1]. Now I have a desktop application
where I can manage my entire collection of photos for the
first time since Google stopped development on [Picasa][2]
in 2016. I've been reviewing the photos I've taken—all
39,000—to see which ones I like enough to share on
[Glass][3] ([@dbh][4]) and, in the processes, I've come to
the conclusion that I'm not a particularly good
photographer. I'm an unremarkable amateur that hasn't
meaningfully improved in over a decade.

<image-figure href="/photo/unremarkable-photo-2048.jpg"
src="/photo/unremarkable-photo-1024.jpg" alt="Photograph
with muted colors of the top of an office building with a
limestone façade and art deco ornamentation stained dark by
acid rain in the foreground and a larger, darker, more
modern office building extending skyward in the background."
aspect="r2x3">Why did I take this photo? Does it make you
feel anything?</image-figure>

This isn't surprising. My once-fervent enthusiasm has waned
over the last decade as the pressures of adult life and
disillusionment with my results encroached upon my creative
drive. I don't look at the photo books or instructional
texts I've purchased or asked for as gifts. I haven't taken
the online photography courses I've purchased. I've stopped
listening to photography podcasts. I don't watch any
photography content on YouTube other than gear reviews.

I can get better through directed effort or languish as I am
now. Prompted by this newly-acknowledged reality, I finally
cracked open my copy of [The Art of Photography][5].[^2]
These points from the _first chapter_ elucidate why I am
struggling:

- Photography is visual communication.
- Photographs are manifestations of the photographer's interests and how they feel about them; they convey _emotion_.
- Great photographers know their strengths and weaknesses; they leverage their strengths to explore their interests.

Over 99% of the photos I have taken say:

> I saw a thing, I positioned the thing in the center of the
> frame (or, sometimes, on one third of the frame), I
> checked focus and exposure compensation, I triggered the
> shutter.

There is no emotional weight to the scene. Lines, shape, and
form are limited to rudimentary expression. The _direction_
or _intensity_ of light is barely considered beyond exposure
compensation and (rarely) metering mode. Visually striking
results occur rarely and randomly because I'm not
_deliberately making_ images—I'm taking [snapshots][6]. I'd
like to be able to do better than that.


[^1]: Canon PowerShot A95, Canon Digital Rebel XTi, iPhone 4s, Canon SL1, Nexus 6P, Pixel 3, iPhone 13 Mini, Fuji XT-5
[^2]: The second edition was released in 2017; my unread copy predates that.

[1]: https://www.captureone.com/en/products/capture-one-pro
[2]: https://picasa.google.com/
[3]: https://glass.photo
[4]: https://glass.photo/dbh
[5]: https://rockynook.com/shop/photography/the-art-of-photography-2nd-edition/
[6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapshot_(photography)