Photography turning into a "fad"? - General

Only if it's black and white mirror photos for Facebook, else it's really only for those with skill.

Although there are many good photos and photographers are rare.

There was a girl a while back who I fancied, and one time I commented on her facebook profile picture, and how it looked good. Cue: "Oh thanks, it's a professional photograph!" "Wait what? You hired a photographer for your facebook picture?" "Oh no I took it myself, I'm a photographer, I have a bunch of photo's" *Shows me Flickr* *Entire Flickr full of saturated photo's of her self* "That's not photography...." Needless to say, that mutual crush did not last long.

I love how some people in this thread consider themselves "photographers" and yet their photos are either terribly generic or suck.

They are loads of people who either buy DSLRs for family photo's or there are those who buy for artistic reasons, then there are those in the middle. Those people, i think are the people who take all these terribly edited pictures, but i think it's mostly because they haven't been exposed to good photography yet.

[QUOTE=daijitsu;24624660]I came back to that venue when that band was around again, with my camera. I made sure to stand as close as possible to the guy with my camera out, giant flash on top and my 55-200 (with the hood on just to make it look bigger).[/QUOTE] That's hilarious dude.

I've been wanting to get into photography for some time now, but I worry about things I do being grouped with people like this. Just seeing their shit on dA drives me nuts.

[img]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs549.ash1/32050_431601410863_565270863_5508215_2985088_n.jpg[/img] ...the korean girl is my ex. Her entire facebook is pictures like this, she claims artsyness but at least it's with a webcam. for the record we broke up after a week because I came to the conclusion she was the blondest korean on the planet.

It is a fad because good cameras are cheaper simples

Well, since pretty much PHONES now-a-day have a camera good enough for taking pictures, and with the power of editing programs, it's not very surprising...

My father started me out on film when I was twelve. I have the past ten years of my life documented. It's amazing to see times gone by. When it all comes down to it, photography is what it means to you. The next time you look at all the pictures you've ever taken, they should remind you of those forgotten times. Places that might not exist anymore, people who have passed away. Your memory is volatile, photos are not. Strive to improve the skills necessary to make a great photo. You will appreciate it years from now. Maybe others will too. Now, photography pays for a third of my living expenses. Thanks Dad. [img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4904018906_383cf7928e_z.jpg[/img]

Actually that is the last thing I care for with photography. I will not have feeble imagery replace my memory.

On the contrary, I have a an iron deficiency (related to anemia I think) and that lack of iron and B vitamins messes with my memory (allegedly that's the cause, I could just be naturally goldfish-brained). I can't make those key neural connections to just recall anything at will, having some form of picture always helps to trigger a nostalgia-chain of memories for me. Also makes me a bit of a collector of trinkets.

I know about 3 people in my school who can actually take decent photos with their expensive cameras, and only 1 of them would call himself a photographer. He has had works published in loads of photography magazines and is actually going somewhere with it. People who do the horrible saturated self-portrait crap just anger me.

[QUOTE=daijitsu;24660946][IMG]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash1/hs549.ash1/32050_431601410863_565270863_5508215_2985088_n.jpg[/IMG] ...the korean girl is my ex. Her entire facebook is pictures like this, she claims artsyness but at least it's with a webcam. for the record we broke up after a week because I came to the conclusion she was the blondest korean on the planet.[/QUOTE] My ex has ridiculous pictures. Her best friend is her Fish-eye lens which she only uses to take stupid photos of her and her friends. example: [IMG]http://i52.tinypic.com/2ch3w4j.jpg[/IMG] About 30 more pictures. Just like that.

That's pretty funny, actually. Haven't seen that before.

"Oh look at me! I took a black and white photo of a lawn chair! I'm such a good photographer!"

Well I recently got my DSLR, I take pictures, if they look interesting enough I use them, tweak them a little in photoshop and upload them to flickr. I'm hardly a pro, I know some of my pictures are generic and uninteresting, probably most of them, it is damn hard to make something stand out as different. I'll improve with practice. Sometimes I also take regular pictures and play around with them, such as making people look like zombies, that's just for fun though because I enjoy photoshopping. The fact is I know I'm not creating anything special and I simply do it all for fun.

[QUOTE=daijitsu;24662844]On the contrary, I have a an iron deficiency (related to anemia I think) and that lack of iron and B vitamins messes with my memory (allegedly that's the cause, I could just be naturally goldfish-brained). I can't make those key neural connections to just recall anything at will, having some form of picture always helps to trigger a nostalgia-chain of memories for me. Also makes me a bit of a collector of trinkets.[/QUOTE] It just strikes me as odd to put something as important and emotionally charged as memories into something so tangible and fleeting and fragile. Much like it strikes me as odd putting your innermost thoughts on paper for the world to see but whatever.

[QUOTE=daijitsu;24652490]I hear it mostly from the guys in the MS Paint section, but obviously jpg compression in MS Paint kills puppies[/QUOTE] Well yeah, obviously for two reasons: 1. The compression is not changeable and is somewhere around 3-6. 2. They often draw with limited colours which is perfect for PNG. [QUOTE=articpenguin;24663152]My ex has ridiculous pictures. Her best friend is her Fish-eye lens which she only uses to take stupid photos of her and her friends. example: [IMG_thumb]http://i52.tinypic.com/2ch3w4j.jpg[/IMG_thumb] About 30 more pictures. Just like that.[/QUOTE] I don't see a problem with that? Fisheye effects are fun and she is not trying to be artsy. It's no different than fucking around with webcam effects, it makes up for some cheap laughs there and then. [editline]04:05PM[/editline] [QUOTE=BmB;24663769]It just strikes me as odd to put something as important and emotionally charged as memories into something so tangible and fleeting and fragile. Much like it strikes me as odd putting your innermost thoughts on paper for the world to see but whatever.[/QUOTE] Well you see, in 20 years you will have a real hard time remembering everything and a lot of things will be cluttered up and faded away. Photos will help you remember more correctly and bring up memories you just can't grasp. You constantly change all the time, photos do not, so it's fun to look back at yourself 5-10-20-40-80 years ago and try to remember how you were and compare yourself with the current you and the past you. Do you think it's odd to write up a list for what you're going to buy in a store? You know, just so you won't forget anything?

You obviously haven't been in school very long. It's become so easy to get good pictures because really nice cameras are much cheaper than they used to be.

If I can't remember it in 20 years it wasn't worth my while. I can remember shit from nearly 20 years ago clearly now. So what's the problem?

I use pictures as triggers, not as the entire deal of emotional value. That has lead me to have a habit of taking strange and obscure pictures, of little details that I would remember of a place and a time. For the time of my life I didn't have a camera glued to my face, I need to trigger things the hard way, via trinkets or actually walking through places.

[QUOTE=daijitsu;24667865]I use pictures as triggers, not as the entire deal of emotional value. That has lead me to have a habit of taking strange and obscure pictures, of little details that I would remember of a place and a time. For the time of my life I didn't have a camera glued to my face, I need to trigger things the hard way, via trinkets or actually walking through places.[/QUOTE] Get out of my head :psyduck:

I find it's easier to remember things clearly if you don't constantly have your memory refreshed by such "triggers", part of my dislike for pictures really.

Do you listen to music and remember a time when you were listening to that song whilst something important (or just a random memory) happened? [editline]06:20PM[/editline] Goddamn automerge -ffff double post-

Like I mentioned before, I lack in a few things (Iron, some kind of B vitamin) that are essential to short term memory and recall. I take iron supplements but the B thing is too strong and I require a little more help in triggering things than just trying harder or whatever. I know as I grow old it will grow worse, so collecting things now helps for when I really need it later. obviously I'm a rare case, but I understand why people take pictures for memory sake. Sometimes there's just so much to take in when you're having fun that it all flies by.

[QUOTE=Espio;24668036]Do you listen to music and remember a time when you were listening to that song whilst something important (or just a random memory) happened? [editline]06:20PM[/editline] Goddamn automerge -ffff double post-[/QUOTE] I do, and each time that memory degrades.

Oh okay, I have flashback moments when looking at certain pictures or places or even just listening to parts of a song and I can remember everything about that moment, it doesn't appear to be degrading either as you've mentioned, then again I am but 17 and I expect my memory to fade with age. I might also add in that without these flashes into memories I can never remember things well but that has a few exceptions like moments of extreme happiness or regretful moments. I don't want to derail the thread into memory talk though (I haven't read the previous pages I just jumped to the last page and saw Dai's post at the bottom of the page)

[QUOTE=BmB;24668109]I do, and each time that memory degrades.[/QUOTE] Well, then you're one of those special few who work a bit backwards compared to most people.