My thoughts about photography and my intimate, long lived relationship with it.
I still remember the little excited me, opening up the parcel that has just arrived in our mail box. It was the printed photos of our camera. Looking at every single photo that was now on paper. Could I catch that bird flying in the sky? Was the photo of the sunset captured well enough? After carefully watching every single photo, I had fun holding up those negative photos on the film and watching them closely. What weird color my face and this background had!
A few years later, very proud, I had that modern compact camera in my hands. Wandering around in our garden, taking photos of every single flower and insect that caught my eye, knowing that after I could easily and without waiting watch them in my computer and delete the photos that I did not like.
Then, when I finally could get my first mobile phone, obviously the most important thing for me was a camera in the phone. My first mobile phone that I could choose myself was a Nokia 6103. Back then I was amazed by the 128x160 pixels the camera could shoot at. Today I’d probably be laughing at the photos I made with it...
Later, in high school, I learned for the first time a little more about photography. We learned how to handle a DSLR and were taught about the history of photography. The highlight was to build a camera obscura for ourselves, the primitive, first camera that was ever constructed. We also made photos in a dark room: We exposured photo- paper, developed our photos in those chemical baths, washed and dried the prints. Amazed and excited to see the photo develop in front of our eyes, we were remembered and amazed how the early photographers worked.
Nowadays, owning a modern smartphone, I get barely excited when shooting a photo. I know how fast and easy it is to just click on that shutter button, automatically taking a good photo without thinking much.
Only when I started to deepen my knowledge, focusing on shutter speed, aperture and so on, I realized:
The smartphone or compact camera is easy to use and gives good photos. But that's not enough, I wasn’t satisfied. I wanted that excitement back I used to feel as a little child, looking at those negative films, or developing my own photos in the dark room of our high school. That’s why I decided to go one step further and get myself a good DSLR.
And guess what, every time I go shoot with that DSLR, I’m that young child again, excited to see the results, edit and work with them!
I wrote those words not only to reflect on my relationship with photography, but to remember the history of photography. The quick, almost too fast development that happens in technology and thus in photography.
Let’s just sit back again, have fun with the good old cameras, whether that be analog or digital, and be a little more childish and excited about small thing in life again!
Ein Hoch auf die gute alte Fotografie! (German ~ " A toast to the good old photography!")
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