With a PHotographer's eye

photo edu

DON'T JUST TAKE A PICTURE. MAKE A PHOTOGRAPH.

You may have heard it once or twice—I know I have. In my line of work, it’s inevitable to hear someone make the argument that “photography isn’t art.” Some like to claim that photography is a point-and-shoot process which anyone can do without much creativity, and I’ll agree that anyone can take a picture. The majority of people have the ability to aim a lens, look through a viewfinder, and press a shutter release. Heck, a baby can push a button.

BUT not everyone can make a photograph. This special process is reserved for the creators and the artists, the thinkers and the dreamers. Only those who think outside of the box and notice what others don’t can take the everyday, the mundane, and the boring, and make it beautiful. These are the ones who have a photographer’s eye, and they simply see the world differently. It’s what sets them apart. It’s what they do.

Art is based in ideas, and the most successful artwork stems from originality. The same goes for photography. The most beautiful and striking images, the ones that not only catch your attention but hold it, are unique. They capture an element of the world in a way that’s extraordinary. They may focus tightly on a detail that you’ve overlooked, or they could transport you to a magnificent place you’ve never visited. They’re in the business of illustrating the world’s beauty, and they do so by using its own essence as their tool.

Photography is based in choice, and the best photography takes time. Photographers develop and perfect their “eye,” or their ability to frame the world in new and interesting ways, through practice. They create their compositions through tools such as framing, focus, lighting, and timing, just to name a few. Like many forms of art, photography takes patience and knowledge of one’s medium, which is in this case not simply their camera, but also the world.

So how do you make the transformation from a simple picture-taker to a photographer? Well, that’s easy—change your perspective. Look at your medium, the world, in a new way.
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Look at it with a photographer’s eye.