If you could never share your images

I would still shoot. The routine of charging batteries, cleaning lenses, packing bags, gassing up the car, and going to a nice location to enjoy nature is more important to me than sharing the photos.
I also love the 'Got It' moments.
Without TPF, what I've learned would have taken longer. If I couldn't share the images, I would still get to see all the photos of my kids growing up; and if I couldn't share the images, what others thought - would not matter. I never cared about having the best equipment because I can't afford it.

I share on TPF to contribute and pay it back for all the advice and entertainment it has provided me.

What would wedding photographers shoot?
 
This seems like a rather extreme premise. People have been sharing pictures in some way since tintypes.

People have always been drawing and painting and sharing their work in some way. Maybe not all of it, and I think many of us are drawn to create something not necessarily with an intent to show others as much as it's inside you and you're compelled to draw it or paint it or photograph it.

I thought at first Vivian Maier was an unusual example but then again, there have been works of art or unfinished sketches discovered years after the artist was gone, or an artist didn't even become well known until after the person's death.
 
Yes.
Because for me, photography is therapy and I need it.

And what Zombiesniper said.
 
I'd still shoot and I doubt it would change what I shoot.
The only difference would be that learning how to overcome some deficiencies would take longer.

In short I'd shoot but suck even more.
You most certainly do not suck.
 
It wouldn't change a thing for me. It's my therapy.
 
I'm a narcissist and an attention-whore.
I'd find a totally different hobby.

:)
 
Damnit, the guy SWORE he wouldn't put that on the internet!
 
I don't think I really care if people like what I see or how I see it.
I tell myself I shoot just for me, but I know I would want to share that awesome capture ...

I think I only shoot for myself.
The process of finding and capturing an image is a solitary thing for me.
I enjoy being in that place by myself and finding that groove where I see things.

If 99.9% of people think your vision is crap, does that mean anything?
What if only one other person saw the world the same way you did?
Would you ignore them because they were in the minority?
Or would you think you found your soul mate?

Anyway, after some soul searching I printed some of my favorite shots and then deleted 7 years of photographic blah blah blah.
Only way to prove I shoot for myself me thinks ...

Starting over feels good.

Look at all that hard drive space.

[Don't try this at home. I am a professional.]
 
Would you still be into photography?
Would what/how you shoot change in any way?

No social media.
You could print, but could not show the images to anyone.
I'd just ignore the rules and show them anyway.
 
I don't think I really care if people like what I see or how I see it.
I tell myself I shoot just for me, but I know I would want to share that awesome capture ...
you're just a human after all ;)

The process of finding and capturing an image is a solitary thing for me.
I enjoy being in that place by myself and finding that groove where I see things.
I'd like to think that most photographers feel that way, but I know that's not the case

If 99.9% of people think your vision is crap, does that mean anything?
What if only one other person saw the world the same way you did?
Would you ignore them because they were in the minority?
Or would you think you found your soul mate?
soul mate

Anyway, after some soul searching I printed some of my favorite shots and then deleted 7 years of photographic blah blah blah.
Only way to prove I shoot for myself me thinks ...

Starting over feels good.

Look at all that hard drive space.

[Don't try this at home. I am a professional.]
I haven't backed up my images for a few years. I was aware that all of those thousands pictures could be gone in a second. Valuable memories, some good shots, fails...never mind. So what? I'll make new ones.

I backed up most of my images recently, but I still haven't backed up shoots I did a couple of months ago till today...

I'm not attached to things I create. They are mine but they don't belong to me. The same is with writing. I wrote lots of words. They're mine, they came out of me, but as soon as they are written they don't belong to me anymore.
It's just the way I look at the world.

I don't think you need to prove something to yourself, I think you can be "aware" of things. Why would you prove anything to anyone?Including yourself.
 
Yeah, I would do it. I like looking at them and going out to look for them, so anything else really doesn't matter. I share because it's fun to do so and sometimes I get insights that are useful.

In terms of the effect of shooting for others, I always think of the quote from Cyril Connolly (who I've never heard of otherwise): "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self"

It's an exaggeration like any generalization, but there's some truth in it.
 

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