Weekly Poll: Take Pictures or Make Pictures

[leight]

Photography for me is an art, I'm just starting to realise this. I haven't yet found myself as a 'photographer', but I'm sure it will come. Just taking a photo doesn't do it for me... hence my frustration of my NZ quick tour holiday.

I think because I see photography as an art form, it has to have meaning... that'd be why I like to make it

There is an exception however, candid people photography - that's taking a photo, but it also has meaning.

- leighton

[peeperita]

i'm a maker.....

if i read nicole correctly, one of her options of making is the editing process....i have loved taking pictures my whole life.....but, the frustration of trying to please myself straight out of the camera has been and always will be the bane of my hobby....

in 98 i discovered photoshop and have been enjoying it through several versions ever since.....it gives me joy to make the mediocre sublime.....

peeper

[Richard]

Well if the ornery bugs/birds/critters would just pay attention to my posing instructions, then I'd be making massively staged wildlife shots....

Doesn't look like that is going to happen, so I take what I can get. I think it helps to have an image in mind of what I want to capture and get in a good position to capture it, but then that is where the plan meets reality and plan B often gets called up...

That being said, there is often a good bit of making after the taking if the image you had in mind stretches the limits of the gear you have. I often wind up underexposing by one stop to get sufficient shutter speed and depth of field on many macro shots and have to adjust the raw file to get it back to looking like a daylight shot, then often a bit more tweaking to get it to look like what I saw.

[kkathy]

I like to take photos. The most spectacular photos I've seen have been shots that have just happened. The right place at the right time.

[lizziebelle]

I prefer to capture the world around me as I see it. Very rarely do I stage or arrange what I'm capturing, and then it's usually to remove a stray dead leaf or move a branch for a better view.

[forever fallen]

Taker....
I find my inspiration in the things I see around me.
I haven't done much still life photography and may change
my mind if I really tried it. But don't feel I have the "vision"
to set one up at this point.
fallen

[Amigone201]

I take. I'm far too lazy to do anything else.

[ditch_azeroth]

i take and make em. i do agree with your proposition, of photography being an art. sure, there's a science behind it, but like most things that we are passionate about, these things usually tend to be an artform; and freezing a moment in time and space is no exception.

[Marmalade]

like most people I take pictures. I love to be outside trying to capture the moment.

[Rattail]

I think we all start out as takers, but grow into makers as we grow in the art.

This subject has got me reflecting. I started out as a happy snapper simply taking pictures. Eventually I was doing weddings and baby photos and my taking grew to creating art. Now, years later, I find that even if I look at a tree, I "make" the shot. I have developed that talent of seeing life though a viewfinder - even if I do not have a camera on me. I look for opportunities and I make them if they are not easily found. In my garden, I break a twig that should not be there, I remove a dead flower that does not fit what I intend, I chase the dog away.

So I think it's an evolution. We start as takers and become makers.