Has photography changed you?

[cr8vxpozr]

This is a question i have asked myself and am glad to see some discussion around this. Photography has opened my eyes to look at things differently and enjoy how you can expand the creative boundaries. Photography provides me with a release mechanism for all my stress and pressures my job bring me. I have started keeping my camera on my desk and take off for a short bursts of shoots between calls and meetings. i happen to work from home most of the time and i can do this.

leveraging technical aspects to be creative has kept me excited about this hobby. As a hobby it has added a lot of interest in going out, new places, same faces new angles, respect for the golden hour, appreciation of how you can leverage reflections etc...

learnt something new everyday.

 

[Joves]

No I have always been kind of diffrent from other people. I have been shooting since I was 9 years old.

 

[keith204]

Hmm... How can you be sure that the new-you wasn't packaged with the Ego-Module included with the 5D Mk II..??

Believe it or not, the 5DII is one of the least on my list of photography amusements now - I mean, don't get me wrong - it's intense. However, I am also having a blast working on my extra-den-studio, playing with alienbees more and more, and trying out my creativity for creating scenes & scnearios for the kids, and getting more efficient & faster in the studio. Tomorrow I am doing an executive stock-photo-ish shoot in a training room for my company's website. Got an hour with 5-10 people for some group shots, and the marketing team has high expectations. It will be fun & a great time to learn.

 

[sarallyn]

i've slowly gone from extrovert to ambivert to introvert. photography has a lot to do with that, I think.

 

[abraxas]

i've slowly gone from extrovert to ambivert to introvert. photography has a lot to do with that, I think.

This is curious. Why do you feel photography has caused this to happen? Is this change good/bad?

 

[awarepoint]

Photography has made me realize how important it is to capture moments in life. Yeah sure, that's what we have memory for...but memory re-creates an image, and a photo records it. When looking at a picture, you can remember so many things just by noticing small details here and there and paying attention to what the subjects are doing. It makes me realize that you need to remember the past so you can live more fully in the present.

 

[sarallyn]

This is curious. Why do you feel photography has caused this to happen? Is this change good/bad?

my camera forces me to observe -- the more i'm with my camera, the more I watch, listen, think about what i'm shooting. of course, some life-changing events have helped me become an introvert... i'm a philosopher-photographer now instead of a "participant". it's hard to explain, I guess.

but, then again, who's to say I know myself well enough to know where to place myself on that scale...

if I truly am changing (I really believe I am), it's a change for the better.

 

[jwesleyc3]

I purchased my camera in May of 2008 because of the death of my mother in 2007. While doing the funeral arrangements we had came across a problem for the obituary. None of my relatives and I had any pictures of my beloved mother. Her best friend came forward with a recent wedding picture that mother had attended some years back. I felt really bad about this whole ordeal along with her death. So now I am taking up the hobby of photography in honor of my mother. Never again will that happen to any of my family members or friends. So yes it changed me in a positive way. I share my camera with my family and spend quality time with my 7 year old son by showing him how to take photographs. Yep I know it really sucks that it took my mothers death to get me in the hobby but I know she is smiling down on me when I pull my camera out at every family visit.:hugs:

 

[Harmony]

I think I'm going to divide 'photography' into two things... taking the photo and making the photo.

Ever since I began to spend time in the darkroom, I've begun to appreciate analog much more. I write in paper journals with pencils, and save comic strips from the paper instead of scanning them into my computer. I am much more patient, able to spend the complete hour in the darkroom by myself without the need of distractions such as iPods or the like. I appreciate "real" things much more, and enjoy them much more.

As for taking the photo... I have become bolder, but quieter at the same time. I don't participate in the action much anymore, mostly content to watch and record. I am no longer afraid to take photos of what I want, but I try not to disrupt the scenes around me - for instance, I almost never use a flash.

Photography as a whole (especially in recent months) has helped me learn when to expend energy and when to just smile and walk away.

I believe I have changed, and changed for the better.

 

[Vautrin]

This is curious. Why do you feel photography has caused this to happen? Is this change good/bad?

You know I am a naturally introverted person, and I find it's easier to be extroverted when you have a "purpose" -- like asking people to pose for pictures...

I too have a very stressful job (I get yelled at by one set of people then go yell at another), and I find a lot of the stress just melts away when I just spend time trying to get a panorama, fiddle around with autopano / photomatix, or just try to get good shots...

 

[GeorgeUK]

In some respects I think it has somewhat changed me. Now when out on the streets I find myself being more observant, looking for interesting details that would be worth shooting. Certainly I believe you 'see more' when you look through photographic eyes.