What Makes a Photographer?

Well in my experiences a photographer has make it big by taking an unbelievable picture. I’ve read about a few photographers that say that, if you ask about what camera you need to make it big, they say your asking the wrong questions. I totally agree, I believe that if you go out and spend thousands of dollars on a good camera, you should be able to take a picture. Only thing is you can have the best camera in the world and it still wouldn’t help you become a great photographer. When taking a picture you should know how to take a picture without a camera, you would need to visualize what you want to take a picture of. Now when you take that picture you are not going to make it big by going back to a computer and making a lot of manipulations. Some of the best pictures I’ve seen where back when digital cameras were in the future. For example the photo “lunchtime atop a skyscraper” which was taken in 1932 was a great photo and will always be remembered. Photos don’t have to be about something important like, the first plane flight or the first person to low craw across the United States or something. A photographer needs to have a good eye and know what he wants his or her photos to be.

I believe that a photo should be personal and have emotion. If a photo has a person smiling it is just another photo but if a photo of a person holding a cone of ice cream with the ice cream falling in front of their face has more of an appeal. When taking a picture you need to take a photo with enthusiasm, make the photo want the person looking at it laugh or cry or give any other type of emotion that a person can give. For example the picture of the “Migrant Mother” taken by Dorothea Lange shows you the hardships that the mother in the picture has gone through. When you look at that photo you feel remorse, exhaustion and other emotions just by looking at the photo. Most of the photos that you see today have some sort of emotions that is what I believe that makes a photo good.

Before I take a picture I think what I want in that picture. I look at what I’m about to be taking a picture of and try to imagine what it will look like thru a camera and what I can do to make it better. For example I take a lot of picture of my German Sheppard, I’ve taken a lot of her face with her emotions. I started taking pictures of her playing in our pond or playing with a ball more because it makes a person looking at the picture feel her joy, which is exactly what I want in my pictures. Now also its taken me a few pictures to figure that one out, which is why I think that if you want to be a good photographer you should always carry a camera and take pictures of things to see what you like to photograph.