What is photography really about? Why is there such a hype at the moment around it? And is it really just about the camera you use?
Photography is my way to express myself and capture moments and memories that are important to me.
T.W.
That is what I really think about photography and what it means to me. Simply it’s my way to express myself, my inner creativity and to capture moments to remember them even better and be able to get back to those beautiful memories.
For me it all started in the year 2016, when I was going to study in the United States for some weeks. I planned to travel the US for 4 more weeks afterwards on my own. My contact with photography until this point where throwaway cameras for kids and my dad who were trying to make us smile for family or travel photos (which I deeply hated).
But it was also my dad again, who gave me my first camera (a Sony Alpha 5000) as a gift and to capture the US for him, because he always wanted to go. To be honest I had no clue what I was doing and at first I shot random photos and used the intelligent automatic modus the whole trip.
But something caught me there. I just keep shooting, used my camera everywhere, tried long exposure, timelapses for the first time and tried to teach me the basics of photography through youtube. And I’ve seen real improvement and all the possibilites I had with my camera. Photography got me. I wish I knew about ISO, shutter speed and aperture at that time, because when I look back now, I can only laugh about those pictures. And that is okay. It shows the improvements I made with time. But it also reminds me on the amazing time I had on this trip and what I experienced.
I was always a creative person. As a child I loved to draw a lot or build stuff. Then I kinda lost track of my creative journey for a couple years. Photography brought me back on the track and it fired up a new/old passion deep insided of me.
As I returned back home from the trip, I got more and more into photography and tried to teach me the manual mode. I carried my camera everywhere around with me and capture everything that was appealing to me. And then I discovered the world of photo editing. That was a whole new world for me and stepped up my photography a lot. At first photography was only being out there and capturing stuff. Now it also involved sitting down and creating even more with the content you produced. I was able to live out my creativity even more, play with colors and go wild (high saturation, if you know what I mean.)
I started to learn more and more, saved up for new camera gear, new lenses and bodies and loved the whole process of it.
So. What is photography for me?
It’s my form of art. My way to capture moments for eternity and go out and see the world with different eyes.
And a little note at the end. It’s not about the gear you use. Sure a nice body and fancy lenses are needed for some sort of photos and having lots of gear is truly amazing, but it’s not the deeper meaning of it. Use what you have and use it in a creative way.
Peace out
Tobi