Today i'm going to share with you some of my favorite quotes about photography!
photography has been with us for well over 150 years and through the ages there have
been some amazing photographers as well as recording historical moments trends
and technological advances some of these photographers and their subjects have had
some wise words to say and these can help us in developing our photography further even today
in the modern era of digital photography if you want to be a better photographer stand in
front of more interesting stuff now i love this quote and i strive to do this although with the
current restrictions on travel at the moment it is a little bit more tricky than usual but it is true
if you don't put yourself in front of interesting things you won't produce interesting photographs
this can be anything from sporting events craft fairs interesting buildings interesting people or
interesting landscapes to name a few but if you plan and then go and execute your planned shoot
you will come back with more interesting photos there are always two people in every picture
the photographer and the viewer hansel adams is a famous landscape photographer who spent
a lot of time in the yosemite and this shows that he understood the essence of photography
it isn't just about what you think of the photo it's about what the viewer thinks about that photo
and this is why getting feedback on your images is so important when you do get feedback you'll
get the viewers perspective of your art as well as your own the best thing about
a picture is that it never changes even when the people in it do i do love this quote as
it shows how photography captures the moment it freezes those who are in that photograph in time
i sometimes look back through my photos i've taken in the past of events and people and it takes me
back to those moments instantly and even though we all change over time photography is the one thing
that keeps those feelings and memories alive if your pictures aren't good enough you're not close
enough now i've used this quote many times and i really do believe in it when i first started
taking photographs i was into motocross i had a back injury that stopped me from riding anymore
so to keep going to the event so i started taking photographs of those riders at local and national
races very quickly i realized i needed to get closer to the action and once i did i was getting
much better pictures now hopefully when i can get back to the uk to visit i'll find some of
these photos to show you what i mean but i really do believe in those wise words from robert kappa
photography is not about cameras gadgets and gizmos photography is about photographers a
camera didn't make a great picture any more than a typewriter wrote a great novel now this reminds
me of the odd person that says great photos you must have had a great camera again photography
is not so much about the gear even though i love getting new kit it's more about the person behind
that camera i've been to a few different events and the other photographers got some great shots
that i didn't think of and then they told me that i got some great shots that they didn't think of
so this comes down to the person that is holding the camera and the thought process that goes
into getting that shot and not so much about the camera type they have there are no bad pictures
that's just how your face looks sometimes now obviously abraham lincoln wasn't a photographer
but this is a fantastic quote and it did make me chuckle a little bit i've had one or two portrait
sessions with ceos quite high up in some big companies that haven't gone so well now i'm
not going to mention their names but even though i had the settings and the lighting right and i
was getting a really nice pleasing image they weren't happy with their portraits and i ended
up having to go back a few times and going heavy on photoshop in a few instances to get rid of any
imperfections that they didn't like or that they were really self-conscious of but i would have
loved to have said this there are no bad pictures that's just how your face looks sometimes but that
just wouldn't have been that professional and i probably would have lost that contract and lost my
job as a photographer now if you have photographed people and have had to do some corporate headshots
you'll understand exactly what this quote means now you're probably wondering why i'm quoting
abraham lincoln but he had sat through nearly 100 portrait sessions by the end of his presidency
and he was very familiar with the photography as a medium and even though he was apparently
self-conscious about his own appearance he was not camera shy and he knew it had to be done
so people knew who he was and how he looked as a leader photography has no rules it's not a sport
it's the result which counts no matter how it's achieved bill brandt was a photographer in the
1930s and 40s and in this quote he shows that it's not about the gear or the process it's just
the result that counts so two people could get the same result by doing completely different things
and no one looking at those images would ever know whether you have an entry level camera or a pro
level camera shouldn't really matter if you learn and keep trying to learn to get better results
this is what counts the two most engaging powers of a photograph are to make new things familiar
and familiar things new now this is a great quote from william thackery it shows how photographs are
viewed where you as the viewer might get that wow moment which is the making new things familiar or
in capturing something at a completely different angle or perspective to make that familiar thing
new again i really believe there are things nobody would see if i didn't photograph them
now this quote seems to me a little bit egotistical and it might just well be but
this really made me think of when i was growing up in my family we did have a camera or two
and we did take photos when we went on holidays or had parties but apart from that we didn't really
take any photos of everyday life like we do today now this is where those things i have in my memory
will stay there forever and no one else will ever see them and this is one of the reasons i'm
so grateful for finding photography if i hadn't have got into photography those memories i have
had since having a camera would slowly fade so from our trip to new zealand to visiting those
volcanoes in java my photographs will help me remember those things for the rest of my days
the camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera
at university i studied geology ever since i graduated i've always looked at rocky outcrops
differently from the structures within those rocks to the composition of the rocks themselves
and in driving past cuttings through cliffs and things like that i'll always be distracted with
an interesting structural formation now you're probably wondering what this has
to do with photography but it all comes down to being conscious of something with geology
the degree made me conscious of the land we live on and with photography learning to use the camera
makes you more conscious of light and how it falls on a subject i often find myself looking at how
light comes into a certain environment or falls on a person's face and this is what dorothea lang was
talking about it's all about seeing without the camera and the camera can really teach us this
and then you can't help but notice it skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by
purchase i'm always saying to just get out there and do it and it really is a great little quote by
percy w harris like i've already said you could have a pro camera or an entry-level camera and
you'd probably learn at about the same rate with each however the rate at which you learn
is determined more by how much you practice with that camera regardless of the price tag
most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment photography
is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure now tony ben was a british politician
and as we all know to be successful politicians need to be comfortable with being photographed
in this quote it probably comes down to the things he regrets being a lifetime of embarrassment but
the bit i got from it was that photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure
sometimes taking a photograph of a person or a place might cause you some embarrassment or it
might make you feel uncomfortable to get there and to get the shot but then once you have it
the embarrassment will be gone and you'll always have that photograph
and this relates not only to the person in front of the camera but behind the camera as well
sometimes it can feel awkward or embarrassing to get a photo or to be photographed
but if you fight through this you'll always have that photograph in your collection now have you
got any other photography quotes you love or you hate let me know in the comments below and also
let me know how some of these quotes make you feel some of them can provoke certain emotions so it'll
be great to hear your thoughts now if you like this video and want to see more click here next
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