Why? (nature photography)

Why nature photography? Why do you spend thousands of dollars

on equipment and put up with the inconvenience of hauling it

around with you (and worrying about it getting stolen or

damaged) just for a few pictures? If you wanted pictures

(and probably better pictures) you could buy a book or a

calendar! If you love nature, you could just love it without

all the camera gear you drag into the wilderness with you.

Assuming you aren't (trying) to make a living off your

photography, why do you do it? Just before you press the

shutter for your 136th image of a Canada Goose,

do you ever pause and ask why?

<P>Why did Albert Einstein play the violin?

 

<P>I guess I just get pleasure from the search for that elusive "beautiful" picture, image, etc.

 

<P>I used to cook for a living; now I cook "for fun." There is no reason for me to make anything truly delicious; I could survive on nutritious, but bland food. It's a challenge making a tasty meal day in and day out (and as a single guy, I cook for one). Sure, I could go out a lot, but I like making food on my own. I like good food and drink. Why? I don't know. I'll blame my parents. ;-)

 

<P>I guess hobbies are just something people like doing, whether it be playing a guitar, gardening, designing yachts, sculpting, doing needlepoint, making paper, playing basketball, taking photographs, brewing beer, etc.

For the same reason there is a mass exodus from the cities every weekend. Man�s constant conflict with nature. You are still part of the hunter/gather world and regardless of the luxury and gadgets you surround yourself with, it is only a temporary fix and you will always find yourself one way or another heading back to something in nature. The photography, all the equipment, is merely a vehicle to rationalize the trip much like hunting, fishing etc. You know, discussions like the best gun, the best fly rod, the best picture, how to take the best picture? It gives meaning to something we have yet to understand and allows us to be better hunters.

 

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I recall reading in one of the questions about the rules for not having zoo pictures qualify for certain photo contests. Think about that! If the real purpose of nature photography was to get a nice picture of a animal to share, what is wrong with a zoo shot? Could it be like fishing in a hatchery? The fish would taste as good, but the quest would be missing and that makes it incomplete in our minds, because deep down we know (but some don�t realize) the hunt is more important than the kill.

Short Answer: because I can't draw.

 

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Longer Answer: When I take a hike in some beautiful mountains or down along some exotic coast, my eyes record what I see most likely in a way no one else will ever see. And I have the utmost urge to record what I see on those trips, to create my own expressions and interpretations of nature. Hence I will never buy calenders and books featuring nature shots for "enjoyment" -- they are not mine. Even if my photos are considered crap by every one else in this world, it is still mine and it gives me satisfaction.

Bob, perhaps you ought to put all that EOS gear in a closet for awhile, get yourself something like a 2x3 Century Graphic and use only that on your hikes:>.

 

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Anyway, why do people do anything for themselves in this day and age? It's because there's a lot of satisfaction to doing something yourself. Be it fixing your car or something around the house, making a piece of furniture or taking a picture.

 

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Sean and others mention the hobby aspect(People design yachts as a hobby?) and that's certainly a major reason. I program computers all day and if I didn't do something different once in awhile, I'd go insane. Also, I think that seeing nature through a camera lens helps you see it in a different, and better, way.

Because seeing with a camera is different from just seeing. I would

go to all those places anyway, but the camera gives me an assist in

slowing down and really looking. As one other said "because I can't

draw." That's another way to change the way you see. Perhaps, if I was

into meditation, I could go there and meditate on the object before

me. This way I do meditation with a camera and have found that my

meditations, recorded on film, are appreciated by may others who may

never get to "see" that way on their own.

In the first place, I just enjoy being in the great outdoors. Secondly, learning something new is wonderful therapy. Thirdly, I find it fun. I still appreciate beautiful photos on calendars and in books and magazines, and marvel at the technique and the patience it took to make that photo in the first place. I admire the ability of the photographer, and being able to do something just as well is a challenge.

 

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Ultimately, to be able to make a photo that would appeal to the editor of a magazine would be the "crowning glory". The camaderie I have experienced since I got involved in this hobby has been something that I treasure. Photographers are a wonderful group of people I have found that they are willing to share information, and help a struggleing beginner, and that is very gratifying. All hobbyists are not like that. .

Admittedly, I don't always take a camera along. I find that the camera is often an intruder on my interaction with nature. I have asked the same question that Bob has posted here, and I've often concluded that the answer for me is that I won't drag the equipment along.

 

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When I do bring equipment along, I am not always rewarded with anything special. Sometimes the only reward is a sore shoulder, or aggravated companions.

 

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Still, the special slides are an awful lot like trophies. It is fun to look at them in subsequent years. When I bring the camera gear, it is because I have some hopes that the outing will provide an unusual opportunity to bring back a special picture.

The simple answer is, I love it.

 

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The honest answer (barring the above) is, I don't know.

 

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It all started some years ago as a bet with my borther-inlaw. We were both pretty good (above average) general photographers at the time. One day we were at a spring outdoors show looking at some very nice nature prints that were selling in the $500 range. We both had the idea that we could do just as nicely ourselves and vowed to spend some time that year proving it. Well, needless to say, we were both quite impressed with how difficult it actualy is to get 35mm film to produce well composed, razor sharp 16x20 images of wild living things.

Well I got hooked! Now I guess I do it because I love it.

...1..2.2./Test 1

There is no doubt that nature photography can be seen as impractical or even irrational, as Bob points out. I think this very impracticality is one of its major attractions: everything we do in life is done to accomplish some useful purpose. We need another outlet for things that don't make any sense, for artistic endeavors. Ancient cultures (and present indigenous peoples) learned from day one

that art and creation were vital aspects of life, and they learned how to create in many ways. They learned how to see and be with beauty. Hence, their lives often were beautiful. We have created a world in which most of us separate these elements--or exclude the esthetic portion entirely. We don't have the skills to create--to paint, carve, or knap exquisite stone tools by hand. But, if we slow down a lot, some of us can still see beauty, and are attrated to it. Photography gives us the tools to harness this seen beauty when we no longer possess the skills to make it with our own two hands.

Here's another major reason: we hominids have survived for millenia due to our innate drive to control and possess nature. We cannot control this instinct, and if we try to, it will simply "pop out" somewhere else and probably in a well-disguized form (as is true of any basic human need...). Nature photography is such a form. We "take" photos, "capture" images or animals, "shoot" film, and bring home slides as "trophies". The jargon is a dead giveaway. Nature photography is a substitute for hunting, gathering, and altering our environment in a myriad of ways. We satisfy this need when we alter the color of the sky with filters, or finally get that photo of an elusive animal. And imaging makes this all easier than ever. The control is illusory, but very effective. This need to control used to be of survival benefit but now, due to our unrelinquishing need to propagate, threatens the survival of many living creatures on this oblate sphere, including ours. Photographers ARE a special group of people because many have grappled with this issue and consciously chosen a less harmful way in which to be fully alive and human. And when digital "film" makes regular film obsolete, photography will become even less harmful to our world (presently, film production releases the greatest single point source of pollution in the U.S.).

Here are a few reasons:

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<UL>

<LI>I love it! It's fun, challenging, exciting, blah, blah, blah...

<LI>It provides me with an excuse to drag my behind out doors and away from all the thick, heavy, dreadful course books that always seem to snarl their sharp wordy teeth at me...

<LI>because I am irrational, insane, and illogical...

<LI>because I want to take pictures that are worth saving

<LI>because if I don't buy something, I end up "broke" anyway, so why not be "broken" and have all that heavy stuffs to carry around...sound good to me!

<LI>what's else...that's it for now; I am still learning and God! it is <em>not</em> easy...

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I have loved being in the outdoors for over forty years. First as a angler/hunter, and now as a photographer.

I'm luckly enough to have a five thousand acre state park thirty minutes from my home. I can't think of a thing that is more relaxing than walking in the forest, a field of wildflowers, or by one of the small lakes in the area. The forest scenery, smells, and sounds of the birds, and other wildlife are the reasons I'm there almost every weekend.

 

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I can only capture the scenery with my camera equipment, but the smells, and sounds also replay in my mind when I view the slides days, or even years later. The reason I do outdoor/nature photography? Because when I can't go out because of the weather, or other reasons, I can get the light table out and relive those peaceful walks, and it makes me feel great.

Brian, Ivan, Glen, and Jim have all mentioned how rewarding it is to have photos taken by themselves on their respective walls. I get great satisfaction from this as well. It does feel great to look at our own wilderness scene or wildlife shot; it's a constant reminder of that epiphanic event in our lives. But just why does it feel so good? I think it is because it compensates for how divorced we have become from our natural environment. If we lived, for example, in a butte-top Anasazi dwelling overlooking 100+ miles of Colorado Plateau landscape in every direction, I don't think we would have much need for photos on our walls... I look at my photos and remember--and become nearer to--certain sacred or special places, places where I would ideally like to be.

<P>Since I also paint and draw, I'd probably say that one reason I go out and take photographs is that at this point in my life I'm too lazy to haul out an easel, oil paints, canvas, etc., etc., and spend days, weeks painting a image.

 

<P>Let's face it, it's easier to haul around a 35mm SLR, a couple of lenses, flash, and tripod than all the crap for oil painting. I used to work as a professional cook; I now enjoy dining out very much as well in addition to cooking for friends and family.

 

<P>Photography is a new hobby for me. On rainy weekends, I might end up writing, making homemade ravioli, sketching a still life, visiting a museum, drinking coffee, reading, playing a musical instrument.

 

<P>Someday I may just put my camera aside and take up something else. Making wine, learning woodwork, taking singing lessons, restoring automobiles, building a yacht, etc. I don't <EM>need</EM> photography to be free.

I've been interested in creative expression since I was a little kid.

I started with sketching and drawing, but never really got the hang

of painting. I picked up a variety of stringed musical instruments and actually did pretty well on a few...but just got tired of the same old outlet. Besides, working in a variety of studio settings or clubs always puts one indoors, and I just needed to get out more. I had always been interested in photography, and gravitated to fine art photography, and even forced myself to get a little formal education

in it. But this genre allows me to get out into open spaces, look around at the planet a bit, gives me a reason to do some traveling,

and has its own unique set of challenges to overcome to master it.

I try to integrate elements of what I've learned in other settings, and it's a real gratifying thing when it all comes together now and again.

 

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So, I enjoy the technical aspects, I enjoy the surroundings, I enjoy the challenge, I like fiddling with the equipment, and I enjoy the reaction of people who appreciate what I'm trying to convey. What else is there? It's pretty cool stuff all the way around, isn't it?

Why?

 

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To produce something beautiful. It's a very basic, although not utilitarian, human characteristic. There is something sublime and infinitely gratifying about producing something beautiful (even if only to the beholder). It's one thing to observe it, another altogether to create it. That applies to all photography. It's what makes us different from animals.

For me, it's why I photograph, why I render 3-d images, why I tinker in photoshop...it's not for sale, it's for soul. Plus the techinical aspects appeal to my intellect.

I used to think there was some utilitarian justifaction for it... there isn't for me. Our human expression of creativity in any form, and our aesthetic sensibilities elevate us and inspire others.

(apologies for waxing so rhapsodic).

....The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust

 

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Each of us has something to discover, and often that changes each time we head out on a trip, whether it is to the neighborhood park or the other side of the world. Everything each one of us puts into our photography, each pound of gear carried, each hour of sitting and waiting, each late night spent planning a trip, enables us to make a new discovery, to learn something new, to tuck away a new memory. And each time you track a Canada Goose in your viewfinder, there is something new, waiting to be seen. Anticipation.

 

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p.s. Sean, I beg to differ, because I also paint, and I must confess I carry a sketch pad, watercolors and inks in my camera bag, always. kaethe

That's a question I ask myself every time I shell out money for film and processing. I get the same answer every time:

 

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I came out of childhood with lots of technical knowlege and skill, but with very little artistic talent or development. To this day I can't paint, I can't draw, and every time I try I get horribly frustrated by the results. It's a terrible thing to grow up artless and unable to express yourself.

 

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Not too long ago, my wife bought a 35mm slr, and we both started playing with it. I began reading the Ansel Adams technical series, I picked up everything I could find by John Shaw, and I ran film through that poor camera as fast as I could afford to. I looked at the results and KNEW that they weren't quite right, but I could look at them and say, "What I really wanted to show was..." I went back and did it again. "But this really doesn't express how I saw..." I did it again. "But in my mind I saw the image as being..." I did it again and again and again, each time knowing I was getting closer.

 

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Today I haul around that same 35mm SLR and a 4x5 monorail, and take them wherever I go. Why do I continue to buy film and wear myself out dragging all that gear everywhere? Because now I can show my pictures to others and say, "This, this is how I see the world."

 

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Tom Benedict

Why? I remember the moment that I realized the answer was when the the old man was lying on the viewing table in the movie, Salient Green, and seeing how beautiful the earth once was. I want to see, touch, smell and record as much of it I can while we are both still here.

 

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Chris

All of the above responses lend credence to 'Why Nature' question.

Man has a creative streak. We like to make things. I don't 'take'

pictures, I create photographs. I borrow that scene for the express

purpose of creating an image, one that I may never see again.

On the rare occassion an excellent image is made, I gain personal

satisfaction and am proud to display it to friends and family, not for

the compliments, merely to state 'I made this image'. There is much

I do not understand about nature, and photography really helps me

with this a great deal.

Our fearless leader has asked:

 

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"Just before you press the shutter for your 136th image of a Canada Goose, do you ever pause and ask why?"

 

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Yes I do. And the usual answer is that I am trying to improve on my previous work. There is always the possiblity that the next image of a Canada Goose may just be a little better than my current best. I guess it's sort of like golf. Until, you can routinely shoot 18 on an 18 hole course you always have room for improvement. And that is fine for me. Purchasing a calendar with nature photos in it reminds me of sitting in a narrow seat on CattleCar Airlines. Making my own photographs reminds me of siting in a wide seat with plenty of legroom on the Coast Starlight as it heads down the California coast or chugs over the Cascade Range. For me the train is part of the experience and making a photograph is just as much a part of the experience as viewing the image on the wall.

You could just buy a calender for $20 and put it on your wall. But where would the fun in that be, why let some else go out and spend their time surrounded by aome of the most beautiful scenery in the world, and pay them for it?

The satisfaction value from your own photo hung on the wall, is just a little bit more than that of a calender hanging on a wall. This is why I choose nature photography; I love photgraphy and I love the outdoors and their a prefect mix. Then when I'm at home, in the boring everyday world, I can surround myself with the memories of all the places I've been etc. When you look at a calender, you get a feeling of despair, because someone else is going out in the wild and not you. When you look at your own photos you remember your experiences, not someone elses.

I don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs, and am single. I have to spend my money somehow. I deal with machines, people, deadlines, and problem solving all day, everyday. I had been out of photography for about 6 years, and noticed that lately I was getting very short tempered. Plus I was begining to hate a job that up until 6 months ago I really enjoyed. Photography to the rescue. I like nature photography because it's relaxing. I don't have to talk to the subject, I do enough talking during the day. It gets me out of the house. It makes me go for long walks. Before, if could not see something from the car I din't bother to go check it out. Photography also makes me, look and notice little details in almost everything. Now, a bug is not a pest but something to explore( I mostly do macro). The same goes for leaves in the backyard they are not litter anymore. It is true that this is a very expensive hoby, if you see it just as that. To me it has become an investment to keep my sanity and peace of mind.