What is Photography?

Sunday 27 May 2012
Photography is a unique and powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution. Basically the word "Photography" derives from two ancient Greek words: Photo for Light and Graph for Drawing. In other words Photography can be described by Drawing with Light. When you capture any photo through your lens, light or other form of beaming power is utilized to record an image of an object or scene on a light-sensitive surface. Previously, it was called Sun pictures by the photographs, as the sunlight was used to create the image. With the innovative experiments in the photography, a realistic image that would have taken a skilled artist hours or even days to draw could be recorded in exact detail within a fraction of a second.

Photography is all about creativity and art... You must have heard this line couple of times but not quite agree with it since I have learn from my short career of photography that it is not merely an art but it’s a science of perfect action of capturing the moment in order to achieve your desired shot with account of measures of light, wind, distance, speed, angle, etc. sounds lot like a physics class right ?

A definite action can be shot at first attempt or it may take years to capture in a way you opt to take in a frame. Apparently, I would say Photography is a process of learning with the new experiences and mistakes from the past events. Photography is an authentic medium for staging of the reality and for communication that expresses and to explain without any linguistic hurdle.

Which model of camera you are using, how many automatic features it may have, is really doesn’t matter as it would be still a lifeless piece of equipment until someone uses it wisely. Then it turns out to be a exceptionally receptive tool which is an extension of the photographer's thoughtful mind and eye sight. A photographer creates an image by the course of selection. The Photographers are looking through the camera's lens that should decide what to include and what to exclude from the scene. They select the distance from which to take the picture and the precise angle that best suits their purpose. They select the instant in which to trip the shutter. This decision may require hours of patient waiting until the light is exactly right or it may be a split-second decision, but the photographer's sense of timing is always crucial.

Photographers can expand or flatten perspective by the use of certain lenses. They can freeze motion or record it as a blur, depending on their choice of shutter speed. They can create an infinite number of lighting effects with flashes or floodlights. They can alter the tonal values or colors in a picture by their choice of film and filters. Later, at the time of post processing, numerous additional options are available to fortify the imagination of the photographer to bring it to the canvas.