burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

What do you photograph?

I've been reading and answering questions in this forum for about a year now, and I see lots and lots of different perspectives and backgrounds. It's cool to read others' points of view and such.

My own photography has run a lifetime gamut... First I recorded family and friends, as a kid. In junior high, I got into school newspaper and yearbook photography. In college, I covered concerts, events, landscapes and travel, all with color slide film.

After a brief career in college radio and commercial radio, I became an AV producer, doing training and promotional slide shows, filmstrips, videos, and photo illustrations for print, in a company that printed school yearbooks and portraits. Eight years of that led to 25 more years in that industry, in eight very different but related roles.

I've continued to photograph people, processes, products, and procedures, in addition to the occasional event or landscape.

But what I most want to know is, what subject matter gets YOUR creative juices going? Are there any really weird specialty photographers here? Where do you point your camera most often?

Tony Britton Loc: California

Hi Bill,

I enjoy capturing portrait style photos, whenever possible, with my long zoom point-and-shoot cameras. This is what I'm passionate about and what continues to motivate me in my love of photography. Here's what I like to do:

Canon SX50 HS Gallery:
http://tonybritton.smugmug.com/

Nikon Coolpix P610 Gallery:
http://tonybritton.smugmug.com/Other/Nikon-Coolpix-P610/

"Strictly For The Birds":
http://tonybritton.smugmug.com/Other/Strictly-For-The-Birds/

Best regards,

Tony

Hershel Loc: New York City

Good question. My primary photographic interest lies in People, witness to this are my posts in the People Photography Section. Beyond that would be Places and Things. I am not drawn to photographing insects, flowers, pets etc.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

At first I was into portraiture by training then I moved to $$$ through weddings and boudoir.

Then I quit for about a decade.

I went to extremes: macro/close-ups to landscape and large panoramas. I do not take folks anymore, even if I am still good at it.

I rarely carry a camera as, from my point of view, someone else already took a picture of something I am looking at.

When I do I have something in mind and will fixate on that for days if not weeks until I get what I want to reject it later on as ordinary.

Result? My production is low and I am never satisfied with my own work.

I hope this answers you.

ebbote Loc: Hockley, Texas

My main interest was auto racing, racing of any kind. When I lived in So. Cal.
I went to all the races that I could go to which included Nascar, IndyCar, F1,
CanAm, TransAm, sports car, International Race of Champions and drag
racing. I also like airplanes and boat. Now I can only watch them on TV.

Joanna27 Loc: Lakewood Ca

I like photography which shows me some detail or perspective I don't normally see. Close ups of rocks, seashells and Landscape panoramas, for example. I like black and white because it allows me to focus on form.
I'm not good with people and urban settings.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Wow! Nice work, Tony! I like the style. You have a great sense of how to use side lighting.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Great, Ron! I think I understand... I, too, quit photography for about a decade after I did AV production. I'd only pick up the camera when prodded by my wife. And the whole fixation thing is understandable. I once burned a whole roll of K64 on close-ups of water striders (insects). I like one of those... 38 years later, the rest of them are crap.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Damned wives... She is the one who took be back onto photography.
:hunf: :hunf: :hunf:

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

My professional career started with portraiture, then came weddings, then I added glamour in the 80's. By 1997 I became fed up with the stresses of shooting people, sold my studio, and started shooting wildlife and landscapes full time. Much more enjoyable, just less profitable at first. I instructed wildlife photography via seminars in and around Yellowstone Park for 10 years and only stopped them to open my areas only camera store 2 1/2 years ago. Several UHH members have attended some of my very last seminars. Now my only direct photography income is from my decades long collection of images by selling prints.

JosephSF Loc: Sonoma County CA

Wow! Fantastic images. Very inspirational.

Ol' Frank Loc: Orlando,

My personal preference is wildlife, particularly water birds. I love the Everglades swamp that I get to about one time a year and the Black Point WMS in Titusville, FL. that we get to about once a month. We are going on a cruise pretty soon and I will take a little point and shoot and leave my DSLR at home due to security and space.. This is our third cruise. The first was with the DSLR, Monopod and several lens and proved to be a PITA. Now just a p& s with two cards and two batteries with charger so I will be set.

Quixdraw Loc: x

Started as a boy, moved through the usual stages, finally freelancing. Eventually settled into a career outside photography, but maintained it as a hobby. Never left, but had a rough patch when digital got big. I had a very fine set of film cameras and lenses, which I had acquired over many years, and having a growing family at the time could not afford digital equivalents. I still took pictures of anything and everything that interested me, primarily for my own pleasure, as well as "family" shots, both with film and lesser digital cameras. Now I have quality digital cameras which work with both old and new lenses. I am currently challenging myself by working on photo specialties where my skills have yet to meet my standards (some may never make it!). At the same time, moving in parallel to reestablish film processing / printing capability. Though I have various hobbies, this is one of only three I have pursued lifelong. No plans to stop till mortality stops me.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

From the time my Dad let me borrow a camera for the first time (I must have been about 8 yrs old) I have tried to "make stories". It was a school field trip, and I tried hard to get images of us getting on a bus, all the kids on the bus, some of the things we did, and finally, the back end of the bus as it was leaving the school parking lot. What I had to pay attention to immediately, was that Dad had loaded a 24-exposure film, and so I had to plan carefully of what I took photos of.
Today, I'm still making photo-stories: on holidays, the grandkids' birthdays, even the birds visiting the feeder. It is rare that I take a single photo in isolation, although there have been some occasions. One example is a photo of Mount Robson (Canadian Rockies), when we passed by there, in a bit of a hurry. But it was the first time ever that we saw the mountain without her head in the clouds.
Even though I can now take limitless photos and cull them afterwards, I am still looking for that story that I started with as a child. If we're out with other people, I will take some photos of them, but only as part of my story, not for the sake of taking people-photos.

paulrph1 Loc: Washington, Utah

[quote=burkphoto]What do you photograph?

I do not have a particular set of photography but like to photograph what is at hand. I think we photograph what we have access too. I will default to that and do not like to be fixed on one particular aspect. But if the truth be told I like landscape photography best but and will set up my vacations around them but when I am not traveling I will take what is close at hand. But I could never miss the family and the grandchildren. I have recently tried people again after failed attempts but I do not have a studio so has it limitations also. I like to walk and if I find something nice I will return with the camera and photograph it under ideal conditions. Nothing is ruled out by me. I find people the most difficult to capture but I have not ruled that one out. Actually when I think about it people make up most of my files.