Ever notice this reaction?

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Permalink Reply by Alex Torres on May 1, 2009 at 2:21am

man this thread is getting long, but at a recent birthday party I went through the SAME thing. I metered, exposed, spent a good 15 minutes to 30 minutes just goofing with my camera , getting exposure right, realized they would turn off lights, so I checked out how things would look without too much light and what settings worked. I was pretty sure what to do from the on to keep the camera consistent. I take photos of a lot of the guests, they are coming out nicely. Then they see the pics and they say "Oh wow, those photos are awesome, I'm going to buy that camera and take awesome photos also like you" So I told them what camera it was. They asked me to borrow it to take a photo , I said sure, its on manual, I told them not to change any settings, told them the proper way to press the shutter and said go ahead. They couldn't even get the camera to aim right and focus, even though I explained about getting the little box they see through the viewfinder on the thing they want to make sharp and focused.

Its been said, the camera is only there to get out of the way. With that said, its not only the camera, its the decisions the human makes the determines the output of the camera.

I don't care about sharing information about the camera and my settings etc. I just find it annoying when they assume its the camera doing all the work. When clearly its not on auto at all.

Another funny event is when they try to zoom a prime lens.

I love all cameras, they all provide a different platform to MAKE photographs, to MAKE a vision visible.
Thanks for making this thread. It was a good venting experience. :D

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Permalink Reply by Bob O'Lary on May 1, 2009 at 2:39am

Well said Alejandro!
I can see you have experienced the same phenomenon I was addressing in my original post.
Way too much credit is assumed on the technical end of the photographic equation.
Then again, as human nature kicks in, wouldn't you assume a lawyer who drives a big Mercedes Benz is better at his craft, than a lawyer who drives a Toyota Prius? *grin*

A real photographer understands that the camera, as you say, simply makes the "vision visible". It doesn't make the photograph an excellent one by itself.

Thanks for participating in this thread. It certainly has been popular.
Bob O'Lary

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