PHOTOGRAPHY!

The people who make up today’s thriving photographic community are our eyes to the world. Whether established artists and journalists or passionate emerging voices, they inform us, they inspire us, they amaze us, they put our world in the broader context of history.But that community also faces great challenges — dwindling sales, increased competition and a fragile trust in photographers’ mission to inform. Too often, those factors can make those of us in that community, photographers and photo editors alike, lose sight of what drive us.
Photographs are the universal language of our era. Everyone has hundreds, maybe thousands in their pocket. Weightless, they turn the scale when the argument is: What happened here? Images don’t age or warp. A great photographer’s strings never go out of tune.Photographers use their cameras as tools of exploration, passports to inner sanctums, instruments for change. Their images are proof the photography matters-now more than ever.
It is for this reason that we need photographers. They are the ones who sort all the chaos of the world into images that bring clarity to the free-for-all of life. They are the witnesses and artists who can distill the mayhem and beauty that surrounds us. They call our attention to the things we miss in our everyday lives and they call our attention to events and people at a great distance from our own patch of the universe. When they direct our eyes and hearts with precision and honesty, we know what we know differently and better. Photographers teach us to look again, look harder. Look through their eyes.Photographers are the dedicated, passionate and sometimes half-crazy individuals who are willing to give their lives, too often quite literally, to show us what needs to be seen, what needs to be known. I can think of no greater honor nor privilege than to have lived a life surrounded by images and the amazing individuals who create them and share them with us.
To start taking pictures, all you need is a camera, which can be anything from a basic smartphone to an advanced DSLR or a mirrorless camera. However, photography equipment is not all that important – light, subject, emotion and composition are all critical elements of a successful photograph.There are a number of photography genres that are very popular today. These include portrait, landscape, architecture, fashion, food, sports, wildlife, macro, street, event and documentary photography.You can learn photography from many books and online resources. A lot of information related to photography can be obtained for free in the forms of articles and videos. This article is a part of photography basics series, which is provided by Photography Life for free to everyone.
“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” If the idea behind a photo is weak, using the right camera settings won’t make it better.At the same time, camera settings still matter. In a way, every technical choice is really an artistic choice in disguise. These settings are worth learning. Your understanding of photography will improve tenfold when you understand how camera settings work.