I never thought I’d one day write a blog post on starting my journey into photography, mainly because I was resistant to the idea of photography as an art form for a long time. I knew photography was more than pressing a button, but since the content of any photo is made of objects or people already created, it didn’t seem like it was that much of an art form. Photography is very different from drawing or composing music where you literally start with a blank canvas or sheet.
And yet as months went by, I moved away from designing 3d printable models on my laptop to crafting seashell artwork with my two hands and in the process, this blog appeared deserted. That was until I realized that photography is the medium that could bridge the offline world to the online one. Photography could also be a shortcut to 3d scanning what I craft and turning those 3d models into 3d printable ones.
Having planned on releasing a photobook series with what I created until now, I thought I’d just hire a local photographer. Things looked very simple at this stage and I got to focus on sculpting. But I started sketching ideas of props and lights and step by step I realized how many creative decisions go into shooting just one photo. The more I brainstormed how this project would end up, the more interested I got about learning photography myself. I also needed a creative outlet that could be practiced in bits of time here and there as I welcomed home my first child. No matter how difficult the newborn stage is, I still need to create just as I need to breathe and photography fits the bill.
A photo camera is an artistic tool just like a brush or a piano and yet photography is an art form that depends on equipment much more than drawing or singing. I refrain from buying multiple gadgets since they are difficult to recycle and extremely polluting, but I needed to make an exception now as both my smartphone and point-and-shoot camera were very old and limited in features. There are so many niches in photography which I’d like to explore, yet for the moment I restricted myself to product/fine art/abstract photography and bought my first DSLR camera. Once I’ll get some practice with it, I’d love to try underwater and macro photography.
One mistake I did when I dismissed photography as something worthy of learning is that I didn’t consider all possible niches of it. Art is so personal and there are more things to shoot than buildings and portraits. The latter were the topics I associated with this art and I don’t find them particularly interesting. But I love still life photography – especially close-ups, fine art and anything filmed underwater. Hence when the time came to start playing with my new camera, I started taking pictures of something I hold dear: my collection of seashells – the two examples seen below were bought from street vendors on Enoshima Island, Japan.
Enough about me, how about you? What do you like to take pictures of? If you have one, please include a link to your photos.
Copyright © 2018, Anca Ioviţă
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