The language of photography has spread widely over the recent years, and this due mostly to the proliferation of images in our modern visual culture, but also to the increasing availability of high quality cameras built in smartphones all around us. Most of us already carry in our pocket a device able to shoot incredibly high quality digital pictures, and this might be of inspiration for all of us to try and take a picture of a scene or an object. Sure, most of these pictures are disposable, maybe useful to commit something to memory, and they end up in some kind of storage alongside countless others. Sometimes, though, it happens that a single picture, taken in the heat of the moment with a smartphone, is extremely inspired and able to capture what is happening better than any professional shooting. There could be many reasons for this, from lucky circumstances to the ability to seize the moment, or maybe it is just a matter of numbers, given the huge amount of pictures taken there has to be one which is perfect. In most cases, though, we end up with digital drives full of disposable pictures, only as good as the memory they capture.
There are now many apps for taking and editing pictures, like filters, and this has pushed people to use their cameras even more. The feeling of creating artistic shoots, without too much pretence obviously, is fueling passion for photography everywhere. This ability to induce and promote passion for photography might be the best result from the widespread of digital portable camera devices, a thirst for knowledge we could say. Indeed we must be aware that there is no app or filter that will substitute a proper camera. There are just so many filters, and therefore we will end up with standardized shoots, but reasons run deeper than that. The difference between a smartphone and a real camera goes well past the amount of megapixels. The depth and volume of real lens are something that no mobile app will ever replicate, just like the analogic setting of all the light and focus variables. Furthermore, no matter the device that you carry, what really makes the difference is the willingness to understand how the camera works and the language of photography, beyond the ephemeral. Getting the right moment it is not enough, you have to understand the relationship between light, colour, composition, volumes, the objects portrayed and the laws of perspective. Moreover you have to know how to relate with you targets, be them people or objects, and you have to be willing to undestand them to shoot them in the best possible way to avoid standard or superficial pictures. The camera, the actual one not the app, is also a very complex machine with endless customization and variables to study and understand. It takes time, talent, passion and the willingness to get involved. The results are worth it. Why then choose to limit ourselves during important events or special occurrings, hoping to get that one lucky picture, especially when you can choose to have a professional dedicated photographer? Let’s see some reasons to clear up our minds about this.
Experience
Let’s take weddings as an example. They are delicate and hard to predict situations. The people in them are important, all of them, and there is often a lot of them. Stories and situations get unpredictable, but having been in tens, if not hundreds of them make you develop the right eye, always ready to catch things as soon as they happen, but also that sixth sense that tells you where thing are actually going to happen any time soon.
Ambience
Events, parties, dinners or ceremonies. All these are often not so easy to manage. The natural light changes as time goes by, and there are often artificial lights that might be trouble for shooting. People are always on the move, and spaces are never quited settled. A professional photographer is able to read light in real time, and maybe also to sense how it will affects colours in the picture, both the structural ones in the setting and the occasional ones created by dresses and situations.
Creativity
The creative component is necessary, and anyone who spent hundreds and thousands of hours is somehow fitted with this ability. It is not something that you are born with, but you have to develop it with commitment and perseverance. Getting to know how perspective and lighting works is necessary to be in the right place at the right time. Because it might be true that sometimes we just shoot something in the heat of the moment, but that single second of intuition stems out a whole set of knowledge that it took years to build and that it goes far beyond the picture itself. Every moment is unique, and to account of it you have to give it what its worth.
Emergences
We plan our most special events, like a wedding or some kind of ceremony, months before, so that everything will be perfect. But they hardly ever will. Things happen, and it might be that on the very special day the weather is clouded, or it might, let’s hope not, rain. It could also be that the lighting system wasn’t set properly. The professional photographer knows how to handle such situations and still get good results. On your most special day, you cannot improvise.
Empathy
Having participated in hundreds of weddings might lead you to think that the professional photographer has grew detached and started working automatically. That’s far from the truth. Empathy is something that is also built in time. Appreciating the people and the situations you face, understanding how important is that very day or them, is something that you have to understand, and it takes time. Only by doing this over and over again, and everytime witnessing all the joy and pleasure, you learn how to appreciate them.
Art is not something for its own sake, and you do not improvise it.
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