wild Magazine Ecopix photo wild Magazine
This section is to get us thinking about our
craft. If you visit, have a browse and send in your contributions
so we can have a worthwhile forum. Don't be shy - the nature
photography community in Australasia is a small family, with no
high-flyers.
On the Enjoyment of Photography
Carl Moller
muses about our motives and realises he needs to keep his mind
and eyes wide open to what nature wishes to reveal.
| I t seems that the
more effort one makes to find something, the harder it is
to get. Then, when you least expect, it turns up, right
under your nose. Last year, I tried very hard to find and photograph an oriental cuckoo in my district. It had been 4 years since I last took a photo. This bird leaves Australia each April to breed in other countries. I travelled hundreds of kilometres and spent many days searching, but did not find the bird. However, a friend of mine who was strolling through a suburban environmental park happened to make good sightings of the cuckoo. I was trying hard to find it and was disappointed, while my friend enjoyed a pleasant surprise. It’s easy to forget that photograph is for our enjoyment. If we become too restricted in our goals, we allow ourselves to be disappointed. In future, I will try to happily accept the photographic opportunities which nature presents. |
Defining Moments
Photography has perpetuated a traditional dichotomy of "amateur" and "professional", which implies a division between the incompetent (amateurs) and the competent (pros).
| Nature photography
makes a mockery of this because it is not a very
commercial branch of photography, and many fine
photographers may sell some pictures but mostly work at
something else to support their habit. Even success
stories like Steve Parish mixed photography with other
ventures, in his case publishing. So hours worked is not
a useful criterion to define competency. The Macquarie Dictionary defines professional as: "following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain." Certainly a nature photographer who is dedicated to the finest results, committed to serving his or her customers (be they known or not) and is committed to high ethical standards, is a true professional. So is a photographer who clocks on at 8am in the studio, shoots products for a hardware catalogue all day, and goes home to watch the cricket. I wonder if their motives are the same. There are easier things to spend your time on than nature photography! Most of us, whether we earn a living from photography, dentistry or tapestry, are motivated in our photography by an admiration of nature and a desire to share what we see and feel with others. Most will sell pictures when we can to defray costs, but I venture that none do their photography expressly for gain. |
A casual photographer likes to make good pictures of what his or her life involves, but as a secondary activity to the main interest, and not if it's much of a bother. A "serious" photographer (actually we're a jovial bunch unless we run out of film at the critical moment) sees photography as a primary objective, and works towards perfecting the craft. If you think about photography independently of another activity, as an end in itself, I think you're serious. You'll take the trouble to get better and better results. You'll lug a heavy tripod along. Hey! Now there's a way to define us - tripoded and tripodless photographers. That always sorts the sheep from the mountain goats.
Text and pictures copyright Carl Moller and Wayne Lawler/Ecopix. Available for publication, pease enquire. |
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