Finding Pictures

There is really only one subject being discussed anywhere at the moment. However, I won't be sharing my personal opinions or unscientific guesswork here regarding the pandemic. 

Instead, let's talk about photography. 

As a retired photographer, I still spend a fair amount of time taking photographs but less time talking about it. I'm not so sure that what I have to say will be helpful to anyone . . . but here it goes. 

Good photography is about visual sensitivity. It's not about cameras and lenses and kit. Does a photographer need good equipment? Of course! Those things are our tools and to do any job right one needs good tools. However, if you have no talent, buying a great camera will not make you a great photographer. It will only make you someone who owns an expensive camera.  

These days, I produce only common-access editorial images for Alamy, a stock photo agency located in Oxfordshire here in England. Stock is a game I play with some rules that are Alamy's and some that are mine. I don't do it for the money, although I welcome any money that comes my way. 




Sometimes I follow a shot list or a plan as to what subjects I will try to capture. The picture above of the new World Trade Center in New York was planned. I've gone there at different times of day for different light to capture this important landmark. At Alamy, there are over 200 images that I've taken at the World Trade Center.  

With the majority of my images, however, there was no plan. Mostly, I found the subjects while aimlessly walking around. I'll see something that captures my interest and if I like the light, the shape, and the colors, I take a picture. A decision about this is made in the time it takes to snap my fingers. If a caption occurs to me, then it's Stock. 

If there are people in the scene, I want them to look interesting, alive, positive, and graceful. Well . . . maybe. There might be a reason to capture someone looking totally negative. Every subject, every image, is a judgment call. On most days, I find shooting Stock very interesting.



If camera carriers are set on producing Fine-art photography, they are usually looking for something beautiful or unusual, something special that will serve the artist in them. In shooting for Stock, I have one foot in that camp, that is I don't shoot or upload images that I don't like. But my other foot is firmly in the commercial aspect of Stock photography. I'm often looking for beauty, yes, but beauty in the subject in front of me.