In this post, I am going to tear apart my self-imposed 1-page and useful-topic-rules once forever; it clearly cannot work in my blog. I am going to discuss photography, but I am not a professional photographer and you should not buy what I am going to say too easily. The way I am going to talk about it is arguably helpful. This is, by all means, a J’accuse.
If you are here, you probably noticed the photos of my website already. Before being as it is now, the photos belonged to a sub-page of a half-page essay on photography, which is pretty much what you are going to read here. Whoever knows me is aware that I can have extremely strong opinions on certain matters. Sometimes I exceed, and I realise it (give me time). In the first moment, I decided that my short essay was better as a sub-page of the photos page. In a second moment, I decided that it was better to remove it altogether and turn it into a blog post. So if you are reading it, it means that you looked for it, hence now it’s your responsibility only and my conscience is clear.
Whatever you may think of my photos, I am not a good photographer. I got my first camera when I was 12 years old (great present!), one that was still working on films. I always liked museums, animals, plants, rocks, and landscapes. Photographing people has never crossed my mind. During my BSc, I became interested in taxonomy and I needed some sort of records because I have never been too keen on collecting animals. I was lucky that my favourite groups were butterflies and moths, and that I could identify most of them from photos. A close friend of mine who was captivated by beetles wasn’t equally lucky. For being able to name an insect, I needed a clear photo of the species showing the important morphological characters for its identification. I was not looking for the dynamic, special colours, composition, and other elements that are essential to be a good photographer. Photography was just a tool for being a better entomologist; I sought realistic photos.
While the Advent of Photoshop was blessed by most amateur photographers, I repulsed it. The postproduction I do on my photos does not go over cropping and straightening the horizon when I messed it up; that’s it. Even some of my friends were telling me that I exaggerated (I told you) and that the program allows you to get closer to reality, as a photo is never identical to what your eyes were seeing. Postproduction could make it closer to what it was, they say. I kept being suspicious because everywhere around me I saw photos that were more and more different from the original object, not closer. Colours, light, sharpness, contrast were changed and I was not even sure about the veracity of the elements (in two books I read, professional photographers suggest to crop elements from one photo and paste it into another). For me it was shocking.
Repetita iuvant; I am not a professional photographer. I don’t sell my photos for a living and I have to luxury to be picky enough when it comes to doing whatever I want with my photos. I believe that modern photography is becoming excessively dependent on editing. Photographers no longer search for a photo; they make a photo. And everybody decides where to set her technical limits. One person will correct only minor defects, a second person will alter most of the colours, and a third person will crop and paste an object from another photo. But then, if everything is acceptable when editing, where does it stop? Can I make a good photo just sitting in front of my computer without using the camera?
I decided to keep doing with my photos exactly what I was doing: nothing. Photography is a matter of lifestyle for me. I need to spend an afternoon in the park trying to make a close-up of an Acrida hungarica mediterranea staring at me. When I realised that a wasp was crossing in one of the photos (photobombing!) it amazed me. I want to go on the seashore when it’s so cold that the Baltic is frozen and The Little Mermaid is surrounded by ice and not by water (and by tourists). I enjoy following the traces of an Arabian horned viper (Cerastes gasperettii) on the sand until luckily I find her and I can put my macro lens and shot a close-up (not that close-up). And it excites me when I realise that a Bedouin is walking his camels on the seashore in Sinai, and I must run to take my camera because I see the photo I want in my mind already. I don’t need editing for any of these things. I have to be outdoor, being patient, practicing the use of the camera settings, and of course, I need a bit of luck too.
