Why younger photographers just don't get it sometimes.
/Yes this is a little bit of a rant, and it won’t just apply to a certain age group, though I do find this with the younger age demographic, and there is a specific reason for that. So let’s jump right in.
For the past 6 years or so I have been working as a full-time, self-employed photographer, within motorsports primarily. I have been taking photos for much longer than that, but it’s only over the previous six years that I have been doing it to pay my bills. With that said, I have seen plenty and even mentored plenty to have a solid opinion regarding what I am about to say.
THERE IS NO PERFECT PHOTO!!
1/500th f/5.6 3200 iso 500mm
Maybe some of you should read that bold statement a few more times and let that shit sink in. It has become glaringly obvious to me that the generation that has grown up with iPhones, tablets, the internet, etc. is completely clueless sometimes. That isn’t to say that people my age aren’t clueless as well, but they have taken ignorance to an entirely new level. They have never played with 400 speed, 800 speed, light metering, etc. It has become a spoiled game with instant gratification needs.
It seems like every event that I am at it’s the same damn discussion with these folks. The constant worries of whether everything is “tack sharp” or if there is too much “noise” etc. They process if you really want to call what they are doing “processing”, to the point where it looks like a Polaroid that was left in a damn mudpuddle for a day before being posted to their favorite social media platform. I am all for art and expression, but WTF folks?
What it appears to be to me and many others in the field, and there are a few exceptions, is that these young photographers are worried about all the wrong things. Most don’t seem to give two shits about telling a story, capturing emotion, etc. They want a photo with no “noise” that is “perfect focus” and everything looks so great. A photo that might be technically proficient, but boring as hell.
1/500th f/3.2 200mm 12,800 iso
Now, I am the first to understand and appreciate the fundamentals of photography and how things work together, but I am also not so damn self-absorbed that if a panning photo is a touch out of focus I won’t post it because it’s not “perfect”. Another thing that I see all the damn time is people that put their cameras away after it gets dark out because the photos will be too "noisy”. A prime example of this would be the shot that I posted above from earlier this year when Marcus Birt took flight. The photo is noisy, the front clip is out of focus, and guess what…it’s still a damn good photo because you are trying to tell a story and create emotion for the viewers.
There was a time when I was so concerned that my photo had “noise” or more commonly referred to as grain in a photo. I would look at a photo that was shot at 6400 iso and lose my mind thinking that it was a terrible photo. Now, I have no issue shooting night photos at 12,800 iso and even printing them if need be. While the “quality” of the image will be different than a shot at 64 iso, if I am capturing something specific I don’t care what my iso is, and neither should you.
There is a close friend of mine that is also a great photographer, and I hear him bitch about low f/stop use and depth of field on stuff. He wants his photos to be tack sharp from front to back when photographing motorsports. While I agree there is a “limit” to DOF, I also think that photography is still an art form that should allow for whatever type of expression you want. That certainly doesn’t mean that I will like it, it just means it is how they handle their art. The same can be said about my over-processing analogy earlier.
Photography is the means to which we use to stop time, to freeze a moment, a moment that will never be repeated again. I have preached for years in life that the one thing you will never get back is time. That moment that fades or zips right past you and then onto the next. Photography is an art form, an expression of one’s eye, what the person behind the lens is seeing in exactly that moment. That is what photography is.
A photographer though is the person behind that camera. It is their responsibility and duty to capture moments and to stop time for even a split second. There is no greater power on earth than the ability to stop time, because it is the one thing that can never be replaced, replicated, or done again. As a photographer, you get to stop time, capture emotion, and all the while creating emotion. The visceral reaction that someone has to a photo is what your goal should be. It should strike emotion within a person. If there is no emotion or inherent connection with your work, then what the hell are you doing?
Please stop! I don’t care how old you are, how great you are, how smart you think you are, how many social media likes you will or won’t get with a certain image. Stop worrying about chasing perfection and start worrying about capturing moments that inspire, create emotion, and make you love picking up a camera. There is no perfection, there is no pinnacle, there is no right or wrong, there is your interpretation of art, and all the while being that one person that can stop time at any given moment! Cherish that part of it.