{"id":29532,"date":"2016-07-15T09:00:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=29532"},"modified":"2016-07-14T19:51:33","modified_gmt":"2016-07-15T02:51:33","slug":"embrace-the-snapshot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/15\/embrace-the-snapshot\/","title":{"rendered":"Embrace the Snapshot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hawaii,
Hawaii, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a word looked down with disdain and hatred. No photographer wants to hear that his\/her photos look like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshots.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We want our photos to be respected, appreciated, and seen as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153art.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

But what if there is a benefit of making snapshots in our photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and what are the joys of making \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshots\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in our daily lives?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take your photography too seriously<\/h2>\n

99.9% of us have day-jobs that pay the bills, and we view photography as our leisure, our hobbies, and even our passions.<\/p>\n

While some of us aspire to make photography our full-time living, many of us are satisfied with the lives we already have\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to make photography our living.<\/p>\n

So if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a living from your photography, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take your photography too seriously\u00e2\u20ac\u201d in the sense that somehow you shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take snapshots (because \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photographers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take snapshots).<\/p>\n

Almost every single \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photographer I know still loves to take snapshots (usually with their smartphones). We take a bunch of random photos of our food, friends, family, places we visit\u00e2\u20ac\u201d snapshots that have no value to anybody but ourselves.<\/p>\n

So if you see something you feel an uncontrollable urge to photograph (but you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153artistic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just shoot it anyways.<\/p>\n

What is a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d anyways?<\/h2>\n
\"Garden
Garden Grove, 2016 #cindyproject (I try to treat all my photos of Cindy as ‘artful’ snapshots)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think when people think of a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d they think of a photograph you take without any consideration of composition, form, or artistic value.<\/p>\n

However I think taking our photos in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot-mindset\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a way to liberation in our photography. By not letting our conscious mind obstruct our intuitive and creative mind, we are less burdened by \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rules\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of composition and form. When we shoot a snapshot, we are fully-in-the-moment. We appreciate the experience more than the photograph. And isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that what life should be all be about anyways?<\/p>\n

Photo critics are funny<\/h2>\n

One of the reasons I started the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Learn From the Masters<\/a><\/strong><\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d series is because I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand all the jargon and nonsense that I read from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153serious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photo critics. Rather than \u00e2\u20ac\u0153drinking the kool-aid\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of famous photographers, I tried to discover for myself, first-hand, what made great photography\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and why certain master photographers were great.<\/p>\n

One photographer I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand at all was William Eggleston<\/a>. All his photos looked like random snapshots.<\/p>\n

But photo critics said that he had a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153purposeful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u201d that he \u00e2\u20ac\u0153intentionally\u00e2\u20ac\u009d embraced a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot aesethic.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I laughed to myself.<\/p>\n

But at the same time\u00e2\u20ac\u201d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always believed in the democratization of photography. That anyone could be a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153photographer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d that photography shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be constrained to only \u00e2\u20ac\u0153experts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with fancy cameras. That anyone with a smartphone could make a lovely image that is personally meaningful to themselves.<\/p>\n

\"Snapshot
Snapshot with Anders Petersen! He told me that his favorite cameras were compact cameras– the Contax T3 and Ricoh GR cameras.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started to discover that many other master photographers embraced this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d aesthetic\u00e2\u20ac\u201d like Daido Moriyama<\/a>, Stephen Shore<\/a>, and Anders Petersen<\/a>. Their photos felt more real, more natural, and more authentic (compared to photos with absolutely perfect lighting and aesthetics).<\/p>\n

The beauty of the imperfect<\/h2>\n
\"Berkeley,
Berkeley, 2016 #cindyproject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the aesethics that inspires me the most is the Japanese aesthetic of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wabi-sabi<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the concept that there is beauty in imperfection.<\/p>\n

Snapshots are by default \u00e2\u20ac\u0153imperfect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Nowadays our snapshots are shot mostly on our phones, and they allow us to appreciate the small moments of everyday life with loved ones and family. Not only that, but our smartphone snapshots are easily shared with one another through digital means.<\/p>\n

Snapshots can bring a lot of joy into the lives of others. For example, Cindy and I have been doing a practice of making more 4×6 prints, and sharing them with close friends and family. Seeing the happiness and excitement of our friends and family holding physical prints brings me so much more joy than getting 1,000 likes on Instagram.<\/p>\n

For me, the value of a snapshot isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about recording memories for yourself, but recording memories for others<\/em>. At the end of the day, photography is a social act.<\/p>\n

As \u00e2\u20ac\u0153street photographers\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d we are concerned with documenting humanity all around us. And if there were no other humans to photograph, would we even bother?<\/p>\n

So if your photos bring joy and happiness to others\u00e2\u20ac\u201d share them as much as possible. I remember in the early days of Facebook, I would meticulously upload all these snapshots I took of my friends and tag all their faces. This brought me a lot more joy, satisfaction, and purpose than making \u00e2\u20ac\u0153artistic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d photos for myself.<\/p>\n

Use the easiest camera at hand<\/h2>\n
\"Hawaii,
Hawaii, 2016 #cindyrpoject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The great beauty of shooting snapshots is that you can use any camera. It can be your DSLR, your Fujifilm camera, your compact camera, or even your iPhone. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to shoot in manual mode, aperture-priority mode\u00e2\u20ac\u201d just use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153P\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (program mode, as I do), or fully-auto. Embrace JPEGs, and share your photos with your loved ones.<\/p>\n

Me and my entire family use \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kakaotalk\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (like a What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s app\/Facebook messenger\u00e2\u20ac\u201d primarily Koreans use it) and I love sending snapshots to my close friends and family. Cindy and I send \u00e2\u20ac\u0153selfies\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of each other at places we visit, and share them with our loved ones to keep them updated with our lives. We are also very happy whenever we receive family photos of adventures they go on. This is a good way how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153social media\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can bring family and friends closer together.<\/p>\n

I advocated for this before\u00e2\u20ac\u201d to share more photos with close friends and family directly<\/a> (with instant-messenger applications); rather than uploading your photos for everyone<\/em> to see on Facebook or other social networks. By directly sending someone a certain snapshot or photograph, it is more personal. And isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that what makes photography meaningful to us?<\/p>\n

Keep snapping!<\/p>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a word looked down with disdain and hatred. No photographer wants to hear that his\/her photos look like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153snapshots.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d We want our photos to be respected, appreciated, and seen as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153art.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/R0002900-2-1.jpg?fit=4928%2C3264&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}