Curtis N
12th of June 2005 (Sun), 19:33
There are lots of photography forums on the www. Some of them seem to be populated by sanctimonious old farts who run around with their Leicas and take every opportunity to cram their own definition of "real" photography down everyone else's throat.
The people who inhabit this forum seem to have a more down-to-earth perspective. Photography has become a rewarding hobby for me because I can hand someone a print and they'll smile and say "Wow! What a great picture! Thanks!" Even though we tend to nit-pick our own pictures on both technical and artistic grounds, we need to remember that most people don't look at photographs the same way.
The attached image is of my 8-yr-old nephew. It was taken at a soccer match shortly after I bought my DRebel. I didn't know much about RAW files then (and very little about photography in general), so I just turned the dial to "Sports" mode and started firing away with my 75-300 zoom. Thankfully I had enough sense to stand on the sunny side of the field. The original image isn't very sharp and would have been an easy cull for any pro sports photog.
My wife did the graphic artistry to make it look like a magazine cover and printed it 8 x 11. We gave it to our nephew, who thought it was really cool and hung it on the wall in his bedroom. No doubt he loves showing it to his friends and relatives.
I'll continue to climb the learning curve and work to sharpen my skills. And throughout that process, I'll measure my aptitude as a "real" photographer by my ability to put a smile on a kid's face.
The people who inhabit this forum seem to have a more down-to-earth perspective. Photography has become a rewarding hobby for me because I can hand someone a print and they'll smile and say "Wow! What a great picture! Thanks!" Even though we tend to nit-pick our own pictures on both technical and artistic grounds, we need to remember that most people don't look at photographs the same way.
The attached image is of my 8-yr-old nephew. It was taken at a soccer match shortly after I bought my DRebel. I didn't know much about RAW files then (and very little about photography in general), so I just turned the dial to "Sports" mode and started firing away with my 75-300 zoom. Thankfully I had enough sense to stand on the sunny side of the field. The original image isn't very sharp and would have been an easy cull for any pro sports photog.
My wife did the graphic artistry to make it look like a magazine cover and printed it 8 x 11. We gave it to our nephew, who thought it was really cool and hung it on the wall in his bedroom. No doubt he loves showing it to his friends and relatives.
I'll continue to climb the learning curve and work to sharpen my skills. And throughout that process, I'll measure my aptitude as a "real" photographer by my ability to put a smile on a kid's face.