philmurfin Loc: Bakewell, Derbyshire UK

A very interesting post - Thanks

We go out walking almost every day just from our back door,
each day I take my camera and each day I see something interesting.

I enjoy getting involved with my hobby each day
however, occasionally I get back home and wished that I'd just enjoyed the walk instead.
Best.... Phil

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

One sinks into it without leaving a trace - maybe this is happening with his photographs?

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

Mine are shown daily in a screensaver which changes the pic randomly every 15 seconds - rarely see the same one twice in a week as I have absolute thousands - no-one usually sees them otherwise.

philmurfin Loc: Bakewell, Derbyshire UK

A great idea,
I'm just wondering, can this be done for desktop wallpaper,
to enable that to change randomly and regularly as well?

cedymock Loc: Irmo, South Carolina

Most photographs I saw as a child were in B&W of family. Then I picked up a National Geographic in first grade class and looked at this beautiful world in detail color and that started my journey in photography and lead me here today.

jcave Loc: Cecilia, Kentucky

[quote=Curmudgeon]Have you ever seriously thought about why you take pictures instead of say collecting stamps? No seriously, have you?

As one who has kept journals for the past 60 years and who enjoys emailing, pictures enhance the written narrative. Other than that, photos bring back memories . . . for better or worse. They enable me to share in a way that enhances my relationship and communication with others. I’ve enjoyed reading the responses others have given for we seem to me motivated differently, yet share similar pleasure in the process.

JohnR Loc: The Gates of Hell

There's a free app - Johns Background Switcher which does this. Available for both Windows and Mac. No its not me - I wonder sometimes how many Johns there are in the world. No toilet humour thanks.

sumo Loc: Houston suburb

I didn’t have a box but did have 35 to 45 picture albums. There were a few thousand photos. From box cameras, polaroids, multiple film cameras, to 4 different digital cameras. I have stopped buying camera but do look at different lens. Some photos I wanted to keep others not so much. So i scanned them all a few at a time. Uploaded them all in Smug Mug. Took about 3 years to do it all. Threw away all the albums created 20+ feet of empty shelf space that has now been filled with stuff. I have over 70,000 photos in smug mug, all categorized into many albums & galleries etc. I enjoy doing reshuffling photos around and i can find most any photo i want within seconds.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

If you put a lot of thought and effort into improving your photography skills, your successes will be evidence of that improvement, and if they're genuinely good they will be rewarding to look at even long after the event itself has faded from your memory. We should all be trying to improve and we should all be willing to make an effort to get good stuff when effort is required.

FreddB Loc: PA - Delaware County

Wallpaper is a "feature" that I just don't get. It only runs when your computer has been idle for a specified time, and stops when you go back to working. So, who sees the wallpaper - random passersby? If I'm not "on" the computer, it's sleeping, and I'm gone.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I tried using a stamp to take a photo of a nude model and quickly found that a camera worked much better so I gave up the stamps.😜

WJB Loc: Salisbury, MD

I take pictures because it makes me focus on what I'm finding interesting. In other words, taking pictures help me see the world a little better. Plus its fun!

Bill

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I mainly take pictures so I can edit them, and I enjoy that aspect. My first camera my wife bought me in 1975, a Pentax SLR. I used it to take slides, and bore friends and relatives with slideshows. Went digital in the late 90's and discovered photo editing. What a treat.

Mostly just catalogued all my pics in computer files using ACDSee catalogue software. I would display my favorites on my desktop, using some slide show software, and later using the slideshow software that comes with Windows, and I still use that.

Now, I also use Amazon Drive with unlimited photo storage, which comes FREE with Amazon Prime. If you have Amazon FireStick then you can display all the photo's on Amazon Drive on your big screen TV's with the FireStick PHOTO app that comes with the Firestick. I resize all my good photos to 1920x1080 and display & enjoy them on my TV's whenever I want. I don't use Amazon Drive as back up, solely for use with Firestick PHOTO slideshow on my TV's. I have about 40,000 photo's on my PC and about 3300 on Amazon Drive. With this setup it's as easy to watch my photos as YouTube, or Pluto or anything else on my TV's and it's very easy to do.

On Amazon I have folders based on subject, like Xmas photos, Vacations, Cats, Birds and so on. You can create whatever folders you wish to view from your TV. You can can view all or individual folders, one at a time or in slideshows. You can mark any you want as favorites, and view just those. You can mark and unmark favorites from your TV, so that works great to vary your favorite selections.

benjayman1937 Loc: VaCaTXArizona

Curmudgeon wrote:
Have you ever seriously thought about why you take pictures instead of say collecting stamps?

I could spend hours answering this post-- I won't. I used to be a skilled drawer (not "artist") and drew as much as parents, teachers, wives would allow/tolerate. Kept this up 'til age 30 when I was captured by the photo bug: could get an image so much faster, better than drawing. Something captivating about working with my hands and the feel of the camera-- I was soon possessed by photography. Shot thousands mainly b&w in the late 1960s and 1970s, especially after my two kids came. Am street photo nut.
Have many photos taken by family which I treasure; they fill-in the gaps from my soon to be 84-year-old brain's memories that form a big part of who I AM. In France, during my Army tour the bug bite deeper.
Did some pro work in LA & Dallas in the 1970s and '80s. (I was at a low skill level of professional competence but my clients accepted it.)
Anyway, now I have entry-levels Canons and Nikons but I still turn to my iPhone Pro for 90% of photo taking.
The WHY behind most of today's photos is recording my life, record keeping or capturing something that is visually arresting as cars, the Grand Canyon or Australia, Europe and Alaska. Wish I could travel more, stopped by health and money. Sorry this comment (my first on this forum) rambles or misses its point.
I work on collecting photos to pass along to a family member with the interest and ability to further develop it. It would be best to develop a web page to get it out there, if only I'm up to it.

Retired CPO Loc: Travel full time in an RV

I never thought about it before, Jack. The first time I held a camera in my hands I felt the magic. I've been doing it since I was about 16 years old so more than 50 years. With extended breaks through the years when I decided I was never going to be a good photographer. But thinking about it now, due to your question I think I needed an artistic outlet. Can't sing, paint, sculpture, draw, carve, dance...