I never was one to take pictures. I remember in the 50s when dad went and bought a movie camera to go with the old box one we had. Mom was beside herself with fury at the price for the camera, projector, screen and all that other stuff one needed to show home movies. Actually she was mad until dad started showing the movies at night on the roll up screen. It was like magic to a family and some of those early films we saw so many times, I would think they would have worn through. Some times they did break and needed repair or they just didn't focus right and I would learn more of my future vocabulary from dad on those nights.
Of course taking film meant dad didn't get involved in the family activity since he had to run around being the Cecil B. DeMille for the rest of us.
I think it was that personal removal with the events that made me decide I didn't want to get caught up in picture taking or movie making as I grew older. I watched as everyone was having fun while dad fretted and cussed or went into a closet to reload or something else that made me decide I preferred to live events rather than document them. As I grew older, I would often see friends clicking away at something while I just did the something with no camera in hand.
As the times have moved on, cameras of course have become digital and that has probably been the biggest advancement in those things since the invention of the whole process two hundred years ago.
In my job now I find myself using a camera more and more. One of the strengths of an internet paper over print is the ability to publish huge quantities of color photos that would be too expensive to print. One of the weaknesses was that I, with minimal experience, had to figure out how to take good pictures without reading an instruction manual, which I would never do.
As the last 18 months have gone by, I have made leaps and bounds as a photographer. I learned to wait for the picture to come to me rather than just snap a picture and hope it looks good. Sometimes it means looking through the view finder for a minute or more for just that right glimpse but it always pays off with something worth publishing.
The company has upgraded cameras twice to help the four of us in the field get better pictures. The new one is almost like alien technology to me. I knew it was something special when I took a shot of three people together and a little note saying a subject had blinked popped into view. Now how the heck the camera could tell that I don't know but it allowed me to know I needed to take another picture.
The camera has settings for landscape and theatre and even a special 45 second movie capability.
The camera also allows multi shots, up to ten in a second and a half which means with active subjects I can just start taking pics and I always find that really good one.
No doubt the spookiest thing about the camera is that I can take over a thousand pictures with no film, no darkroom needed and how the heck that little chip can hold all that is beyond my comprehension.
During the fair, four of us took almost 3000 pictures to end up with a published album of a staggering 252. I can't imagine what that would have cost in the old days of film and processing costs but in that one week, the new cameras almost paid for themselves.
I have found that a really good picture with a good caption can take the place of just words almost all the time. That grates on me a little as I make my living in so many capacities using words. But then I upload pictures and see something that tells me in this day and age a picture really is worth a thousand words, no matter how good the writer is.
The other day a large group of bicycle riders came through town. As they all gathered together for a picture, I could see they had blocked themselves out. I yelled out, "If you can't see the camera, the camera can't see you." A woman from the National Park Service also trying to take the picture smiled and agreed and asked me if I was a professional photographer. "I answered,. "Almost, just as soon as I read the owner's manual."
Freelance writer, columnist, author and writing coach, ex-Chicagoan Mike Fak presently resides in Central Illinois. More information about Mike's services are available at his home website www.mikefak.com
Mike currently writes primarily humor columns for searchwarp bi-weekly and is the managing editor of www.lincolndailynews.com
Mike now offers a 26,000 word e-book on making money as a freelance writer for only $10.00 at this page. http://www.mikefak.com/id45.html
Digital cameras have made it easy for everyone to become 'professional photographers'. My husband teaches photography but still teaches his students the old way, with the dark room and developing their own prints. It's becoming a lost art. He also teaches digital, so much easier, no mess! Good article Mike, have you read the manual yet? I avoid manuals whenever possible. :)
Cameras baffle me too. I just got a knew one and by the time I use it I've forgotten what the instruction manual said to do. Guess I'll have to throw the manual away.
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