Why do you take photos?

[Tronhard]

This is a very simple, open question. Why do you take the photo's you do, and what kinds of images are your favourites?
perhaps the corollary of this is also worth exploring... What kinds of image would find it hard, or not want to take?

[Tronhard]

OK, well since I stuck my neck out and asked I should probably make the first submission...

Over the years I have taken photos for different reasons. I started taking photos because I love the marriage of creativity and technical knowledge and skills. For some time I did it for a living, combining it with my love of travel. Even after I ceased to do so I have taken photos to create art that makes me happy, to document sometimes technical elements in my other careers, to record my the social life of family and friends and to make me get off my butt and look at the world. My greatest photographic love is images of the natural world - animals and landscapes, but I prefer them without the works of people - perhaps I feel we have done too much to the world already...

I have always found it difficult to take photo's of strangers (e.g. street photography) although I hugely admire those who do - I am just too shy and avoid the potential for confrontation and rejection I guess... I have RARELY ever taken photo's to compete... I disagree with the decisions of judges too often!

[Donald]

Why I take photos has changed over the years. When I first was introduced to photography it was the thrill of seeing an image emerge in the developing dish. Any subject would have done, it was the work in the darkroom that I loved.

But now, ........! It is the fact that photography helps me see Scotland ... and anywhere else I happen to be, but primarily Scotland and to be alone in Scotland. Landscape photography provides the opportunity to capture visions of and express my Scotland.

My landscape photography is not one in which no traces of humans must show. In fact, the endeavours of humankind living in the landscape is a feature of much of my photography.

My photography is something done alone. I am not a group person when it comes to photography. I love being with people, but not when I am out shooting. It is that feeling of 'alone-ness' in the landscape that is so energising, restorative.

I admire those who successfully shoot models in studio. But it just doesn't interest me. I love looking at good images, but making such images just doesn't light my fire.

[Shadowman]

I've never taken photos of dead people or accident victims, however I would take a photo of the car accident if it occurred in front of me; I would do so primarily to record the incident and secondarily from the fascination of what shapes that hunk of metal can be transformed into.

[Manfred M]

I primarily photograph to document things I run across in a manner that makes me and others want to look at them. As I tend to travel fairly regularly, recording things I see while on the road has been something I have always done. Over the past decade I have become aware of how the world has changed during my lifetime, so I have concentrated on recording people, places and things to create a record of how things are today.

I am not someone who enjoys looking at things at a small scale, so macro work has not been of any interest so far. I’m not someone who has any real interest in sports, so that is not something I have a lot of images of either. Abstract photography is another genre that I haven’t really gotten into either other than when exploring ways of showing fairly uninteresting subjects in a more interesting way. Pretty well anything else is in my sights.

I’ve always had an interest in controlling the end-to-end process of making an image, so both the wet and digital darkroom have always played an important role in my work. I also like exploring the technology in order to see how I can use it to record things that I see in an interesting and effective manner that does a good job in recording a 3D, dynamic event as a static 2D image.

[gregj1763]

When I first started in the film days it was just taking shots of my cars and bikes, even then though I tried to set a scene that complimented the subject. I went for a long period thereafter that photography was forgotten, then I had children. for a long time it was happy snaps of my kids growing up.
2007 was the turning point, a marriage break up and subsequently a lot of time on my hands led me to by my first DSLR. Needing time to think led me to landscape photography. I loved being alone in the Tasmanian bush and it was then that I really thought about trying to create an image instead of just taking a photo.
I'm probably the most uncomfortable photographing people in a set scene even though I have done a few weddings and family portraits etc its something I always look back through the images and have doubts on what I produced.
Candid street photography I like, I find people going about their daily lives very interesting.
Basically I still have my learners plates on and I don't think I will ever get off them but I enjoy the challenge
Greg

[John 2]

I take photographs because I have always enjoyed it. I am least comfortable with studio type situations and have avoided nude figure work, not because I wouldn't enjoy the photography but because I would feel too awkward to pose a model successfully.

[rpcrowe]

I photograph because it gives me great enjoyment.

First as I am shooting the image; I can totally immerse myself in the process.

Second as I am post processing my images; I enjoy my continuing relationship with Photoshop and other editing programs such as NIK. I am continually learning new tricks.

Third, although I enjoy it when my images are appreciated, that is not a requirement. I am shooting for Richard...

Most of all, I like photography with a purpose. I am not bragging when I say that my rescue dog images have greatly assisted hundreds of dogs to find furever homes.

What type of photography do I like besides dog portraits... Its probably more accurate to say that I cannot think of any types of photography that I don't like with the possible exception of "party snapshot photography".

However, along that line, I shoot very little team sport photographs. IMO achieving good team sport imagery is as much a function of understanding the sport as of the photographer's ability.

I like working with nice gear. I also enjoyed working with nice fishing gear when I was a fisherman (a little old for that now!) and nice rifles and shotguns when I was a shooter. Using gear that I enjoy is every bit as important as the product the gear produces.

One of my wishes is that I had the advantage of digital photography and videography early in my career.

[FujiXuser]

I suspect it’s out of some innate need to create. I can’t draw a straight line w/o a ruler, so there ya go.

[CP140]

To try (and very often fail) to capture an image of what I see at the time... my children's birthday or graduation... a moment/view on vacation that made me step back and say, "Wow... look at the colours/light/view/scene".

[george013]

In the sixties I went for the first tome to World Press Photography. Hitchiking to The Hague where it was that time. I saw the power of the visual image. To me an image still must have a story in it or being part of a ,verbal, story. When looking bag at my holiday images I try to discover different subjects in them.

George

[James G]

I simply am fascinated by light. I developed my first negative 55 years ago and have never stopped since. Photography also became a personal and to an extent private exercise indulged in for my own interest, and has been the one activity that was for me alone. In many ways it is still so.

As regards genres, anything that takes my eye has potential, always though in that underlying fascination with light. (I can be 'moved' by light much the way some people are by music.)

More specifically, I have photographed stained glass whereever I have found it, but enjoy capturing landscape, and nature. I also do a lot of insect macro.
I've always been interested in Astronomy, and thios last 10 years or so I have been trying my hand at Astrophotography.

I have never really got into portraiture/people though I quite like attempting candids.

[Urbanflyer]

Photography, even when I am not actively shooting, has made me more aware of the world around me. That awareness is my zen moment.

I look for details that, often, are representative of the whole.

My father had a black and white darkroom in the 1950's and that process was always fascinating. I last had a darkroom many decades ago but now find post processing just as fascinating.

Thanks for the thread!

I am not good with people--except my own family.

[skitterbug]

I've always had a camera of some sort but never really learned to use it properly. Early on, it was for recording our kids growing up. And now thanks to digital, I try catching glimpses of grand-kids for parents who are too busy to do so.

I am also exploring how to be efficient in producing proper wildlife photos. Eventually, I'd like to start recording some of the interesting landscape we have in the area. I'm going to have to build courage to move into town and record buildings. I doubt that I'd ever be brave enough to be a street photographer.

So to wrap up what I like - grand-kids and wildlife...... they fit together, don't they?

[NorthernFocus]

I shoot because I lack the verbal skills to adequately share with others the glory of creation that I see when I'm out there.

[FootLoose]

Why do I take photos? Because the world astounds me.

[pendennis]

To paraphrase George Leigh Mallory, "Because they're there!"

I've pretty much taken pictures of what fancies my eyes. It's a very deceptively simple question, but there are many things I see, but they don't grab my mind. I've stood in spots where great photos were taken, but unless they "grabbed" me personally, the lens cap is never removed.