I find that photography helps me to relax. It gets me out of the house. I take an interest in the outside world, visit new places and forget about my worries with people.
Does anyone feel the same?
Later I can relax again looking through my photograph collection, organising and improving them.
Overall it is a therapeutic job hobby. That can be done both alone and with others.
Hi Robert
I have been interested in photography for more than fifty years
My father used to go into a wardrobe and do strange things and come out with a film in a developing tank. Then I watched as he poured chemicals into the tank, and after a period of time after changing the chemicals and washing the film ... a reel of negatives. Then after drying the negatives, he took me into the blacked-out dining room, where after some chemical magic the pictures would appear before my eyes. After washing them in the bath, the prints were dryed and then stuck in the photograph album.
The smell of the chemicals I can still sense. The vinegar smell of the stop bath, the sulphury smell of the fixer are forever deeply implanted in my subconscious.
In some way, the arrival of digital photography has removed one of the fun elements of photography - the messing about with chemicals and the joy of seeing a picture appear in a tray before my eyes. However, there are other ways to be creative with photographs, and the one huge difference is that now it is so much cheaper to pursue my creative urges.
Nowadays there are more photographs taken than ever before. Nearly every event is recorded, but with that a lot of photographs become ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow. With them being easy to take, they are easy to delete. Which is a great shame. I do hope that enough are being kept.
I know from experience that the most treasured photographs are often those that didn't seem worth much more than a second glance at the time of taking. And now I try to ensure that I take many pictures of seemingly 'mundane' subjects. These are the things that I believe will be very useful in showing how we live nowadays - things like everyday scenes, crowds, people, fashion, household items, packaging, views of streets, traffic, buildings. Yes, the 'famous' things will always be there or so we think. But everything changes and it changes remarkably fast. Before we realise it things have gone forever.
Photography also helps as an adjunct to other subjects. Taking pictures of things has led me to try and find out more about the subjects, and also I often try to get pictures of subjects of things I am interested in. I also 'imagine' pictures and try to put them into practice, with varying degrees of success but I only really try to please myself.
You can see some of my pictures here (Note to moderators: This does not compromise my anonymity as it does not show my full name). There are a lot of pictures of steam locomotives but there is more there than that! The pictures on public display there are just the tip of the iceberg, there are over a hundred thousand pictures not on public view!!!
Hi Robert
I have been interested in photography for more than fifty years
My father used to go into a wardrobe and do strange things and come out with a film in a developing tank. Then I watched as he poured chemicals into the tank, and after a period of time after changing the chemicals and washing the film ... a reel of negatives. Then after drying the negatives, he took me into the blacked-out dining room, where after some chemical magic the pictures would appear before my eyes. After washing them in the bath, the prints were dryed and then stuck in the photograph album.
The smell of the chemicals I can still sense. The vinegar smell of the stop bath, the sulphury smell of the fixer are forever deeply implanted in my subconscious.
In some way, the arrival of digital photography has removed one of the fun elements of photography - the messing about with chemicals and the joy of seeing a picture appear in a tray before my eyes. However, there are other ways to be creative with photographs, and the one huge difference is that now it is so much cheaper to pursue my creative urges.
Nowadays there are more photographs taken than ever before. Nearly every event is recorded, but with that a lot of photographs become ephemeral. Here today, gone tomorrow. With them being easy to take, they are easy to delete. Which is a great shame. I do hope that enough are being kept.
I know from experience that the most treasured photographs are often those that didn't seem worth much more than a second glance at the time of taking. And now I try to ensure that I take many pictures of seemingly 'mundane' subjects. These are the things that I believe will be very useful in showing how we live nowadays - things like everyday scenes, crowds, people, fashion, household items, packaging, views of streets, traffic, buildings. Yes, the 'famous' things will always be there or so we think. But everything changes and it changes remarkably fast. Before we realise it things have gone forever.
Photography also helps as an adjunct to other subjects. Taking pictures of things has led me to try and find out more about the subjects, and also I often try to get pictures of subjects of things I am interested in. I also 'imagine' pictures and try to put them into practice, with varying degrees of success but I only really try to please myself.
You can see some of my pictures here (Note to moderators: This does not compromise my anonymity as it does not show my full name). There are a lot of pictures of steam locomotives but there is more there than that! The pictures on public display there are just the tip of the iceberg, there are over a hundred thousand pictures not on public view!!!
