I said a photographer is an artist. Now, not all artist are good, some can be pretty bad in some people's eyes, but some are great.

The photograph as an object is flat and static, but that doesn't mean that it can't be powerful, tell a story, evoke powerful reactions and emotions. It can be a simple wedding photograph that brings back fond memories years or even decades later. It can be a powerful news photograph that captures a moment that moves a nation. It can be a portrait that captures the soul. It can be a landscape that sucks the audience in to another place and time to make them wish they were there.

All of these (and many more) are different types, kinds and categories of photographs. In spite of their different subjects, approaches, techniques and sometimes levels of luck they can be works of art. The photographer captured their vision and perspective, processed it to bring out the best of what was available in the film or data, and shared it with the world to move them.

Not every picture works, but when they do they have power.

alx

Although it won't guarantee greatness, PRACTICE is a good first step in any learning endeavor.

Varying (bracketing) your settings will help you learn what all those settings do and how they change the picture. When you learn how they change the picture you can harness that knowledge and newly found experience to start improving and getting the results you want.

Be thankful you are setting out to learn this in the Digital Age. You can practice intensely with thousands of shots and see your results on the spot for the cost of reformatting your memory card. I used to buy film in 100' rolls, spool it down and then have to process the shots.

Take your camera out and shoot pictures!

There are cheap services that will convert to digital for about what you'd pay to have found negatives printed. Personally, I tend to be a DIY type and would use equipment I have. I would not waste my money on cheap $20-30 copy setups. I tried a few hoping they would be quick but they were awful.

Taking the OP's opening sentence, "For me a photograph is an image that captures a moment in time." I have known some pen and ink artists that would qualify as photographers because they truly create precise images that capture that moment in time.

If you email or post your file you are fine. As soon as you print it and pass it to your friend you break the chain of light and are GUILTY of abandoning photography and joining the ranks of the pen and inkers! Blasphemer!

If one wants to split hairs here (and after 9 pages and 123 posts, that's where we are), the original question was "What is a 'Photograph'?".

Well, a "Photograph" is the flat, static, usually 2 dimensional product of the photographic process. Technically, even the crappy results of camera shake, poor exposure and bad focus are still a photograph if we just go by a basic dictionary definition.

On the other hand, a "Photographer" is an artist, a multi faceted, multi dimensional creative being. As individuals, we might not like or share another artist's vision as we rate each other on our own very personal and arbitrary scale, but as an artist, they are entitled to use whatever tools they choose to express their vision.

Otherwise we might as well just let the automated Google mapping cars snap every thing as they map our streets and say we are done.

#124 unless someone beat me to the "send" and wants to fight me over that technicality. :)

alx

Stayed there in one of the bungalows for a week the year before Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai in 1992 and devastated the hotel and so much of the island. So many of the places I had known from visits since 1980 were wiped out and I lost touch with many friends.

Just have to ask... Does anyone else here have fond memories of the old Coco Palms resort?

Beautiful shots of a cute little guy!

It's a sad day for all of us who had memories triggered here.

The idea of Nikon and "Full Frame" goes way back before the age of Digital. Originally it referred to the fact that looking through the viewfinder of the Nikon F series showed the Full Frame of what would be recorded on the film. At one point, Consumer Reports dinged the F2 for this because it didn't give the photographer (snap shooter) the right impression of what they'd get back from the lab after it was mass printed or stuck in a slide mount.

Nikon pros loved the fact that they actually could see and take advantage of that FF image to know exactly what would be on the film.

I for one had the film carriers in my Durst enlarger ground down by a machinist so that I could take advantage of every bit of the film image. (I was not alone in this practice.) Unless it was for portrait or people shots where an 8x10 was expected, I generally printed more like 7.5x10 to capture the actual framing from the film, 8x10 being an artificial and arbitrary standard in terms of 35mm photography. Note that if we are talking view cameras, it is a different story.

alx

That Micro Nikkor is a great lens. Incredibly sharp for walking around and you can move in on any subject down to 1:2. I've had mine forever - had it AI'd by Nikon way back when. Used it on a PB-4 bellows for making internegatives where you are focusing on the film grain, not a scene. It's a lens that can capitalize on every one of those D850 pixels.
For night work, I have an old 55mm 1.2 Nikkor SC. It has nowhere near the sharpness, but has a great nighttime feel.

So much of what we were told "back then" was pure bunk.
I guess things haven't changed much.
Except maybe today it's even bunkier?

Beautiful Island!

Landscapes, seascapes, waterfalls, flowers. Great skies at night if you have the equipment. Not a whole lot of animals. I strongly recommend a helicopter ride for beautiful aerials. Waimea Canyon is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Lens choice really depends on how you approach these subjects. Definitely have polarizers for any lens you take to really bring out the colors and the sky.