Photography is one of my big passions - my biggest passion, in the area of creativity. I love those framed moments and captured spaces. It's such a personal thing for me; it's art - self expression. When I show you a (particular) photo I've taken of someone else, it can sometimes feel like I'm showing you a portrait of me - and I am, just not in the physical sense. And those that I've taken of myself? The 'selfie' takes on a whole new meaning...
So many people view photography as just "point and shoot", but they've got that confused - that's a camera. Photography comprises imagination, creativity, style, light, feeling, self, thought, angle, work, experiences, talent, skill, stories, subjects, themes, collaboration, plans, ideas, and you - and sometimes a lot of swearing, too. The camera is the wonderful tool used to capture all of that. We wouldn't have photography without cameras, but we wouldn't have so many amazing photos - works of art - without photography, without the minds behind them.
Photography can sometimes be seen as a weak practice, by those who believe that an image is as simple as aim, click, done. I get very irritated when some say "isn't photography just another word for unemployed?" or ask photographers "yeah, but what's your job? What else do you do?". Even worse than that is when people say or insinuate that the photos are only beautiful because you have a good camera. Ehem, was Harry Potter a great wizard because of his wand? I-don't-bloody-think-so. Tim Walker certainly doesn't make the amazing images he does because he bought a shiny camera with a big lens, throws his arms out in a random direction and presses a button.
On photos that I have taken of my sister, I have had comments in which people say that the images are only pretty because she's so beautiful. Well yes, sometimes the photographs I post haven't had much effort or creativity put into them, they are not the pictures that make me feel like I'm showing you a part of me, and they are pretty because the subject is...but I like them and I like taking them.
Out of all my photos, I tend to prefer the ones that I found more challenging, that incorporate more of my imagination, and sometimes they aren't the most gorgeous ones, the ones that everyone else favours, but that's okay, it's for me. Photography, writing, clothes, blog posts - first and foremost, they're for me; my rabbit hole - a whimsical world to escape to.
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The photos above were all taken by me (and if the subject is human, then they're of me too), snapped on my Samsung Galaxy Mini gt-s5570 phone. Most of the other pictures on my blog were captured with a Nikon L120. All except the last have appeared on my Instagram. Most of them, like the photos I take with my proper camera, are un-edited.
They are a mix of just pretty captures and photos that have a little extra something behind them: putting on a dress that matches a vintage mirror for the sake of a shot; getting my mum to stop the car because I noticed that the blooms on a tree, a sign, a steel fence and a grey sky contrasted perfectly; spending ten minutes trying to get the perfect shot of me donning a sixties hat picked up in a charity shop that day; almost tripping over myself in the search of a mirror when the afternoon sun is filtering through my window beautifully; waiting for the right time for the sun to make some Bottlebrush seed pods cast the perfect shadow; and, most notably: waiting until dark so that I can turn off the light in my bedroom, close the door, hang an embroidered silk shirt on my cupboard door as I hold the front of it up so that a reptile light - balanced on my knee - could shine through it, while I hastily snap the photo.
So many people view photography as just "point and shoot", but they've got that confused - that's a camera. Photography comprises imagination, creativity, style, light, feeling, self, thought, angle, work, experiences, talent, skill, stories, subjects, themes, collaboration, plans, ideas, and you - and sometimes a lot of swearing, too. The camera is the wonderful tool used to capture all of that. We wouldn't have photography without cameras, but we wouldn't have so many amazing photos - works of art - without photography, without the minds behind them.
Photography can sometimes be seen as a weak practice, by those who believe that an image is as simple as aim, click, done. I get very irritated when some say "isn't photography just another word for unemployed?" or ask photographers "yeah, but what's your job? What else do you do?". Even worse than that is when people say or insinuate that the photos are only beautiful because you have a good camera. Ehem, was Harry Potter a great wizard because of his wand? I-don't-bloody-think-so. Tim Walker certainly doesn't make the amazing images he does because he bought a shiny camera with a big lens, throws his arms out in a random direction and presses a button.
On photos that I have taken of my sister, I have had comments in which people say that the images are only pretty because she's so beautiful. Well yes, sometimes the photographs I post haven't had much effort or creativity put into them, they are not the pictures that make me feel like I'm showing you a part of me, and they are pretty because the subject is...but I like them and I like taking them.
Out of all my photos, I tend to prefer the ones that I found more challenging, that incorporate more of my imagination, and sometimes they aren't the most gorgeous ones, the ones that everyone else favours, but that's okay, it's for me. Photography, writing, clothes, blog posts - first and foremost, they're for me; my rabbit hole - a whimsical world to escape to.
____________________________________
The photos above were all taken by me (and if the subject is human, then they're of me too), snapped on my Samsung Galaxy Mini gt-s5570 phone. Most of the other pictures on my blog were captured with a Nikon L120. All except the last have appeared on my Instagram. Most of them, like the photos I take with my proper camera, are un-edited.
They are a mix of just pretty captures and photos that have a little extra something behind them: putting on a dress that matches a vintage mirror for the sake of a shot; getting my mum to stop the car because I noticed that the blooms on a tree, a sign, a steel fence and a grey sky contrasted perfectly; spending ten minutes trying to get the perfect shot of me donning a sixties hat picked up in a charity shop that day; almost tripping over myself in the search of a mirror when the afternoon sun is filtering through my window beautifully; waiting for the right time for the sun to make some Bottlebrush seed pods cast the perfect shadow; and, most notably: waiting until dark so that I can turn off the light in my bedroom, close the door, hang an embroidered silk shirt on my cupboard door as I hold the front of it up so that a reptile light - balanced on my knee - could shine through it, while I hastily snap the photo.
