Is your enjoyment Photography or viewing photographs?

Cockney

Cockney

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What's your enjoyment, the open air, the camping, the candid nature of street?
What's your driver, creating a photo or viewing them?
How much time do you spend viewing? Really looking, not editing or categorising?
My wife just remarked about how long I spend taking and how little time I spend viewing. But that's not the point, is it?
 
I do like going back through time often (for example) looking at previous years about the same time.
If asked to quantify probably almost split three ways taking, editing and viewing.
I do rather enjoy reworking old photos with different techniques and software so am often looking through old external drives
 
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I do like using the gear and processing pictures for an end result, that's all a part of it but it started out and is still mostly about recording pictures of people and things and capturing moments and memories. The kit fondling and processing are a part of it but in the end only add to the experience.
 
A bit of both for me, along with a certain amount of GAS/kit fondling pleasure!
One reason I take photos is to slow me down and now, the main reason is to help me remember things, places and people. Having slowed down to take the shot, I stand a much better chance pf remembering when, where, who etc.. I can then appreciate them all the more when I view them. I rarely share them on the web since it's all but impossible to appreciate screens instead of prints IMO.
 
Getting out there, capturing the moment, whatever that moment is. Preferably by myself, alone with the camera and my thoughts.
 
New here, but been taking (mostly bad) photos for almost 50 years, many just "snaps". I started for the memories, and to a large extent thats's still my driver. Capturing a moment - a place, a scene, kids growing up, things that catch the eye, but it's also taking the time to look back and reflect on that moment at a future date. I've got around 25k photos on my hard drives, and I can spend hours just wandering through them.....
 
For me the ergonomics of operating the machinery are a big part of the pleasure which is why, after the best part of ten years digital only and maybe 70:30% Android device: FF DSLR, I have reunited myself with 35mm and 120 film.

I enjoy the being out there, composing, framing, grabbing. I even get some enjoyment, perversely, from noting the wifely walking on leaving me to catch up.

Can I do it without the bother of the fillum itself? I ask myself that quite regularly and happily the little rituals around the celluloid product have a significance for me too.

I do not want to develop & process however.
 
I thought I was alone as a "secret" kit fondler! :)
 
My enjoyment is using the camera, if it is a nice camera to use. I do enjoy viewing photos and videos, as it is nice to experience past moments again, especially if those moments are nice ones. It is helpful for me, as my memory seems to be fading a little.
 
All of it......

Being out - be that mountains, misty forest, at the coast, autumn countryside, middle of the night shooting Milky Way..... I don't mind being out for several hours and only coming home with one great image. Me and my son (14) were at Portland shooting the Milky Way last Saturday and that Comet a few weeks previous - you can't buy stuff like that. That's priceless.

On the other hand, I do also enjoy the whole photo taking process so I do like to catch more than just one image if I can. I also enjoy the editing and tweaking the image to how I want it or pictured it at the time.

I enjoy others images for inspiration of composition, style and location. I equally enjoy looking back at my own images. I can tell you where virtually all of them were taken. And probably guess the lens used too ;) I used to print 200 images a year for an annual (obviously) album but that was when I divorced so me and the kids had something to show for all our days out, holidays etc Now they are teenagers that had fizzled out really.

So yeah. I enjoy the whole 'scene' as such.
 
Definitely taking photos, I may have taken over a thousand that I've not looked at. :oops: :$
It's fairly common for it to be several weeks before I review images from a club trip on anything bigger than the cameras rear screen.
 
Good question
I’m into wildlife anyway especially insects and would go out anyway if I didn’t have a camera , but have got really into macro photography and have been doing it since 2006
My driver is getting photos of species that I’ve not seen before and then once I’ve got them to get better ones
I know what you mean I don’t spend long actually looking at the pictures :rolleyes:
 
Both. (y)
 
For me it's about the personal challenges:

Understanding & mastering the kit, which is why I have only ever changed systems once in the last 30 years.
Capturing what was in my head at the time and making a "record" of that.
Producing work that Mrs J is happy with me putting on the wall.
The social side, chatting with others of a similar mindset, helping them, and them teaching me.

So to answer your question, it's all of it really. I love using my kit, and enjoy going to places to shoot. I enjoy the PP side, although to a lesser extent, and I love looking at great photo's and learning from them.
 
Finding new locations, photographing old locations with different lens/focal lengths in different weather - I love it all
The thrill and disappointment of seeing the image on screen for the first time.
Discovering new processing techniques and viewing the before and after of the images.
Posting finished images on forums and flickr and waiting for the response from other viewers excites me. Most give pointers on how to improve but a few can be downright negative but each to their own. We can't please everybody. Some we can't please at all :D
The email that comes through saying that one of my images has won a prize or someone has bought a print or canvas of one of my images. Doesn't happen too often, unfortunately.

This sure is one exciting hobby/way of life that we are involved in :love::love:
 
I like the process of taking a photo, whether it’s trekking up a peak to get a landscape shot or trying to nail the technique of panning, I like the process of trying to get it ‘perfect’. I also like the processing side. Don’t tend to look much at photos now as it’s kind of a case of “seen that all before”. I only tend to look at certain ones of my own for the memories.
 
I like different aspects at different times.
Sometimes it gives me the motivation to get up early and go out to a nice location which subsequently involves a walk which obviously has health benefits.
Sometimes I really like the artistic nature of finding a good composition.
At other times (perhaps if the weather is bad) I like doing the post-processing.
Plus when posting my own photos on somewhere like Flickr it means I see other people's photographic locations (and techniques) that perhaps I wasn't even aware of.

So I guess the thing I like most about photography is that it has actually opened my eyes, whether that be to a scenic location in the countryside or quirky inner city locations, or even a type of photography that previously I wouldn't have had a clue about. I wish I had found my in photography years earlier.
 
I enjoy both taking and viewing photographs.

But over the last few years I've realised that the taking is just a form of viewing in the environment. The very act of carrying a camera with intent changes the way I experience a place or event. It's partly an issue of switching to a different mode of seeing - and partly down to making time to see.
 
For me its all about capturing that iconic image ( mostly Wildlife) I have a camera and long lens with me every time I leave the house normally
during lockdown I have hardly been at home- spend my time out amongst the reeds and ponds on the Somerset Levels - I hardly ever seen anyone - I love that

Les :)
 
Totally agree. I definitely have a "photo mode" of viewing .
 
I enjoy both, and I'd arge that photography is the taking and viewing of. It was viewing photos that go me into photography in the first place, i enjoyed looking at them and wanted a bit of the action myelf.

And I guess, being able to view images and critque them is part of what photography is for me
 
Definitely photography, seeing a picture in my mind and then trying to capture it.
As Thoreau said over 150 years ago "The question is not what you look at but what you see"
 
Lez325 said:
For me its all about capturing that iconic image ( mostly Wildlife) I have a camera and long lens with me every time I leave the house normally
during lockdown I have hardly been at home- spend my time out amongst the reeds and ponds on the Somerset Levels - I hardly ever seen anyone - I love that

Les :)
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That's what pi$$es me off with lockdown. A couple of days before it came into force, I was in the Cairngorm National Park and met 2 walkers the whole day.
Now I have to exercise locally and can't get moved for walkers and cyclists on the river path near home - GRRRR!!!!
 
mstphoto said:
That's what pi$$es me off with lockdown. A couple of days before it came into force, I was in the Cairngorm National Park and met 2 walkers the whole day.
Now I have to exercise locally and can't get moved for walkers and cyclists on the river path near home - GRRRR!!!!
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I feel your pain Mike- I now avoid public area's and hunt out remote and hard to get to locations for my wildlife photography :)
 
Lez325 said:
I feel your pain Mike- I now avoid public area's and hunt out remote and hard to get to locations for my wildlife photography :)
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We don't always like the more popular areas either. We've just came back from a week in Dorset - didn't do Durdle Door, Lulworth, Swanage, the main end of Weymouth......
 
I enjoy the process of researching and finding places to photograph. I enjoy going to these places and trying to ‘see’ the photograph I want to take and composing photographs that capture what I see and feel. And then I enjoy the process afterwards of taking the raw file and creating something that is mine.

I get a lot of enjoyment out of looking at photographs, mainly other peoples in books and exhibitions. Once I’ve taken, processed and printed my own photographs (or uploaded them to my websites), I don’t look at them again for some time.

Despite having three very good cameras, and some excellent lenses, I can’t say I derive pleasure out of using them. Tools in the toolbox. Sure, as cameras they’re nice to use, but when I’m out taking photographs, I give them very little thought.
 
LeeRatters said:
We don't always like the more popular areas either. We've just came back from a week in Dorset - didn't do Durdle Door, Lulworth, Swanage, the main end of Weymouth......
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I usually do a shoot down that way @ RSPB Radipole ( Weymouth) I did try a week or two back, however: the car park was full to overflowing - I went home :(

Don't get me started on Poole - the gateway to Brownsea Island :exit:
 
I mainly take still life, table top, that kind of stuff. So for me it's about creating an idea, finding props, finding a way of putting it all together and overcoming challenges. Sometimes the camera and gear aren't really that important. It's the whole process of starting with nothing and ending up with something, hopefully that something is pleasing to look at.
 
I enjoy the ritual of finding a landscape photograph, working a scene to decide on the composition, choosing which lens to use, setting up the tripod, working out the exposure, waiting for the light and tripping the shutter.I just enjoy the whole experience of being out looking for and taking photographs.

I'm not wildly enthusiastic on processing (which I still find a frustrating exercise), and prefer looking at other peoples photographs to my own, which I do a lot. This has a lot to do with me not having a good way of printing my own photographs and having a plethora of books filled with photographs from people who are far better photographers than I am.

I also enjoy other kinds of photography, but none are as satisfying an experience as the ritual described above.
 
Buying new (used) toys then planning trip, researching location and habitat of my prey (normally Kestrels, Buzzards *& birds in general) then getting up in the silly hours to travel miles and sit in a hedge for hours, just to get that 1 shot (even if its not that good) its the thrill of the race !
Not to keen (and not to good) at PP.
Enjoy looking at the results and sharing with friends and like minded photographers.
Kept me sane through 'Lockdown' even if my only trip was the back garden !
 
An excuse to go for a nice walk/cycle as much as anything else. I get bored easily so if I have something to occupy me along the way I will tend to enjoy the whole outiing more so. I also see it as a kind of therapy, keeps me calm and takes my mind away from the usual struggles in life [Bills, family issues, work issues, general anxiety or depression] - If I'm out solely to take photos and soak in my surroundings then I'm mostly just focused on that. But I also find the post processing side kind of therapeutic, I enjoy seeing a mediocre image I've taken spring to life and become something I want to show off.
 
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