Your favourite quotes on the subject of Photography

[landyvlad]

Let us know your favourite (serious) quotes on the subject of Photography, cameras etc


Some of mine, which agree with the way I think about photography, or at least attempt to emulate.



"Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like." - David Alan Harvey


"Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you are looking at, then you are never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures." - Don McCullin


"It's one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it's another thing to make a portrait of who they are." - Paul Caponigro


"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." - Elliot Erwitt


"The only photographer you should compare yourself to is the one you used to be." - unknown.

[John King]

"Don't take a photo of what you're looking at, take a photo of what you're seeing in what you're looking at" ... me, to myself.

This describes my greatest difficulty in improving my own photography - taking a photo of what I'm seeing, rather than what I'm looking at. That, and composition of form and colour.

[MarkChap]

One that I always remember, and I will attribute it to he who told me, but I cannot be 100% sure where he got it from

"Find the light and put them in it" which was them expanded a little when introducing artificial lighting to "make the light and put them in it" I will attribute these to Shelton Muller as it is he who taught me those two mantras

[Tannin]

I like all of yours, Landyvlad, though I maintain it's not so much about what you feel as what you know. I say "Don't shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it is like."

But my favourite photographic quote of all time is this one: "F/8 and be there."

[ameerat42]

"Watch the :perched: or :eagle: or :bbird: or :bird: or :rbird: ":D
"Say [a dairy product]":tog:
"Sm1.6km!":flowersnap:
...

[jim]

I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don't like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.

Diane Arbus

[Mark L]

Thanks bobt for the quote that has stayed in my signature longer than I thought it would.

[ricktas]

"Oh Crap! The battery is still in the charger.. at home" - Photographers everywhere!

and this one from Abraham Lincoln "There are no bad pictures; that is just how your face looks sometimes"

[Gazza]

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it." – Ansel Adams. (← that hung around in my sig for such a long time)

Spend some time planning. Check the weather. Move to the left or right. Get down low or take a ladder...you get the idea. (Btw, I rarely remember any of that. Do as I say, not as I do... :p)

Now, if all else fails, PHOTOSHOP!, after all, Mr. Adams was also a master in the dark room.

[Glenda]

I came across this one the other day and liked it, as beginners often assume it's the better, more expensive equipment which makes the shot (I know I did) and the second part gives me permission to be creative in my PP.