Everybody’s A Photographer

A couple years ago I went to a fourth grade classroom to make a presentation about photography. My first question was, “How many photographers do we have here?” Nobody raised a hand. So, I then pulled out my cell phone, and asked, “How many have one of these?” Just about every hand went up! I said, “That makes you all photographers because you all take photos!”

They’d never thought about that way. Neither do most people. But most do take photos. There are millions of photos uploaded to all sorts of social media platforms every day. We’re the most photographed generation ever to exist.

Why is this true? Lots of reasons I suppose, but at the top of the list must be the fact that we like to share our lives, and photos are, perhaps, the single best way to do that. A photo takes seconds to make and upload, then share. It takes longer to write up what you were doing.

There are photographers, and then there are photographers. Most use a cell phone, but others invest in expensive cameras, spend a woeful amount of time editing pictures on a computer, and then try to figure out what file sizes are allowed or take the least time to upload. Occasionally, they print those photos, something more people should do with more photos!

Photography, as an art, is changing. Technology is driving that change. What once took hours trying to set up a camera, manipulate settings, then more hours in a darkroom with smelly chemicals and more, now takes far less time on a computer or even a cell phone. Artificial Intelligence will soon reduce the amount of work it takes to make fantastic photos. We already have amazing technology and it will only get better.

Embrace the changes, keep working the older technology, do whatever you can, but be a photographer. You’re making a record of life, of history, of emotions, events, good and bad times, and so much more.