I would by no means call myself a professional photographer. I am amateur at best, but that doesn’t stop me from capturing moments in stills, and framing the world around me.
For me, photography is a hobby, one that has admittedly been on the back-burner lately. The times I find myself carrying my camera around for extended periods of time are on vacations, nature hikes or special events. I also capture life’s moments on my cell phone camera, but those moments are typically less monumental, consisting more of day-to-day images and silly-faced Snapchats.
My “professional” camera, a Fujifilm Finepix point-and-shoot digital camera is what I use when I truly want to capture the moment for future reflection. I place quotes around “professional” because professional photographers have much higher quality (and much more expensive) cameras than I, but this is the camera I use when I want a more formal shooting experience. I’ve had the thing for almost four years — gifted by my boyfriend who knew I was missing a nice camera in my life — and I love it. It takes really clear photos, has a great zoom capacity and performs well in low light settings. I tend to assign this higher caliber camera to the more important moments in my life.
I use my everyday camera, the camera that is attached to my phone — and therefore my body — at most times, for common, everyday things. It’s an all-in-one device that meets my photography needs but is by no means specialized. The irony here is that the quality of the camera on my phone is better…quite a bit better…than my “professional” camera, weighing in at 21 megapixels.
The reason I prefer using my Fujifilm over my phone is because using a camera that’s just a camera allows you to fully submerge into the task at hand. Of course, as relaxing as photography can be for some, it is still a task: a task to get the right shot. If using a viewfinder, which I recommend, you actually block out everything that isn’t in your frame. It is one of the rare moments you get to focus on just one task. And what a rejuvenating experience that can be.
There’s a ubiquitous yet unclaimed quote that goes, “If you want to learn what someone fears losing, watch what they photograph.” I can’t much argue that point, but would like to point out that many times it’s an experience a photo is capturing, not merely a subject.
With that being said, I pulled some recent photos from my phone. The results (below) speak for themselves.
What do you find yourself photographing most?
Samantha Wulff 