Mike Johnston had a very neat post a few weeks ago over at his The Online Photographer. He has been reveiwing full frame cameras, and in an explanatory post about the review process he notes:
“For anybody with aspirations of being a photographer, picking a camera and working out what we now call a “workflow” is only the tip of the iceberg. The much more important questions are, what kind of pictures can you take? What do you care about enough to sustain a long-term visual interest in? How can you develop a “style” that is expressive of your unique outlook? How do you differentiate a picture that’s somehow yours from a picture anyone else might make? And finally, how are you going to figure out what you want to end up with—and how are you going to end up there? (By this I mean a show, a book, a portfolio, a poster, a magazine article, a personal photo album, whatever the “final form” of a group of your pictures might be.) All of this can be enormously engrossing—and for most photographers I think it (rightly) sucks up the lion’s share of their time, attention, and effort.”
I think his set of questions and prompts is truly essential for all of us, but in particular those who might not have spent enough time pondering those things so far. Perhaps you just bought your first compact digital camera and wonder if these questions are of any importance for a casual shooter. Well, nTVW not with the same depth, but you can only improve, and your photography be more enjoyable, if you pay sustained attention to such details as figuring out what you like to shoot, in what circumstances, how you go about taking the photos, what you want to show others, and so forth. Sustained attention to what we do is the key. Enjoy. Thank you Mike!