Making photos, not taking them.


Too often, we enter into photography the way we are introduced to it. Somebody has a camera and wants to capture a moment. This is often a candid moment or a family event. "Take a picture", is often what is said because we want to record the moment. 

But what if we changed how we say this? What if, instead of, "taking" the picture, we became more invested in "making" the picture? What's the difference?  Well, "taking" the picture suggests a passive idea that your job as a photographer is simply to record an event with minor care to how it looks or is presented. Just photograph the scene as you see it and do it quickly.

"Making" the photo conveys something much different. Making a photo suggests creating, crafting, manipulating, etc. This would be a more accurate representation to how someone serious about improving their photography thinks. They want to "make" the photo, control the lighting, colors, and way the viewer sees the picture. The subject matter is always important, but even the most mundane of scenes can be "made" and treated with careful consideration of settings, exposure, composition, and details. A photographer who "makes" the photo approaches each shot with the knowledge of where he wants his viewer to look in the frame and, if all goes well, how the viewer would even think about the scene. 

Anyone can "take" pictures, but the point here is that to improve your photography, you must care enough to work to "make" the pictures.

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