I was on the road. I tell you, it was pretty wild at times.
Were you in the wilderness somewhere?
Not quite, but I was often surrounded by beasts.
Hmmm... I'm not sure what you are talking about, but I sense that you were not in the pristine woods, on an unspoiled savanna, or anything of that sort.
The beasts all had cameras in their hands.
Are you talking about tourists?
Locals usually don't go around taking photographs, you know.
What's so beastly about tourists' picture taking? That's a natural part of sightseeing. Besides, you were one of them, weren't you?
Gone are the days when we had to take into account how many shots could be taken with the roll of film in the camera, and be careful about each shot. With the advent of digital cameras at affordable prices for the masses, people have been transformed into self-professed photographers. Mobile phones with camera function has made the situation even worse.
We should welcome such developments. It's democratization of photography.
I was in a town known for beautiful architecture. It was packed with tourists, and if I took a shot, it would be just an image of the crowd. Then, I noticed one guy walking through the crowd, turning his head to the right, raising his hand up with the camera, taking a few steps forward, turning his head and raised hand to the left, and repeating the whole process.
You mean, turn right, click, march forward, turn left, click, march forward?
He didn't even stop for each shot. He simply kept on walking. It looked particularly bad, because with digital cameras, we do not put our faces close to the viewfinder. That gives an impression that you are not serious about the shot.
I knew that you had some prehistoric opinions...
Later, I was in another even more crowded place, where tourists were taking turns to see the interior of an historical building through glass panels of a door.
How large was the door?
It was a regular sized one, about 80 centimeters wide and 2 meters high. I waited for some time, being jostled this way and that. Finally, my turn came and I took a peek. Immediately, someone tapped on my forearm. When I turned around, it was an old lady looking very frustrated. She said, "I'm trying to take a picture," as if I had been intentionally obstructing her doing so for hours.
What did you do?
I stepped aside by shoving myself into the crowd. She took a picture, and left without thanking me! That was the first time in my life when someone told me to get out of her way so that she can shoot.
You were annoyed because you take pride in being circumspect. Correct?
In another popular spot for tourists in another town, a group was occupying a small room with a guide. They were there for a long time. When the guide led the herd out of the room, three people lingered on to take pictures. I waited for a while, but stepped into the room before they evacuated because it was taking too long.
Did you get yelled at?
I didn't, but again, I was tapped on my forearm. When I turned around, a guy indicated by way of swinging his chin to the side that I should get lost.
Was it that bad?
He looked awfully frustrated and angry.
You may have become too self-absorbed to take notice of people around you. Have you thought about that?
I tried to make sure that I did not interfere with their obsessive photo taking, but clearly, I failed. What can you do when you are admiring something and someone arrives afterward to take a photo from behind you?
Are you sure that is what happened?
I swear... What I don't understand most is the zeal with which people go about photographing literally everything.
Do they take pictures of rubbish bins, though?
Don't you agree that most of them are probably not professional photographers?
Yes, but that doesn't mean that they do not have the right to take photos.
But what do you think they are going to do with all the pictures?
Show them to friends and family.
I dread seeing vacation pictures. It is purely out of courtesy that I say 'yes' when my parents ask me if I want to see their photos.
Not everybody's vacation pictures are boring or bad, mind you.
You think so? I can enjoy them more if the vacationers are there to comment on them. They serve as visual cues for curious or funny things that happened, but could not be captured as an image.
Sure, comments like, "You know, when I was trying to take this picture, there was a tourist who stood right in front of me and wouldn't budge. Absolutely oblivious. Talking about manners..."
How many times do you look at your own pictures?
Not so often.
I bet after a good round of showing, you never go back to them.
True... But some of us enjoy seeing other people's vacation shots.
It is beyond my comprehension that some ask for mine.
It certainly is! But there's nothing wrong with that. They are being polite with you. Plus, some people are genuinely interested in seeing images from faraway places, even if they were taken by you.
That may be so, but that poses a problem as well.
I knew it... Everything is a problem with you.
When I show my pictures on request, people get tired pretty quickly.
Well, that speaks volumes about the quality of your photos, doesn't it?
Not entirely. They are expecting an interesting story woven together by the images. That means I have to select a good sequence to entertain the viewers.
I see, you are complaining about the work that their request entails.
I am also asked to do some explaining about my black and white photographs.
Why black and white when color is possible, that one?
I often hear dissenting noises.
Through their noses?
Because I am weary of explaining that bit, I started taking pictures in color, too.
Just for people who want to see pictures in color?
When I think a certain angle may have popular appeal, yes. Other times I think colors are important in a certain scheme, and switch to color.
You know that you couldn't have done it, if it were not for a digital camera.
There is no denying that we owe enormously to digitization, and hence, to Nicola Tesla. But the zealousness for pictures at tourist spots, it's almost frightening, and that's all because of the enhanced accessibility of photo taking. What's the point of tourists' using a flash when it is forbidden so as not to damage the art work?
That would apply to animals in captivity and on exhibit, too.
It's not that they admire the art or the animal first, and then, decide to record it. They start taking pictures as soon as they see the object, take pictures, and leave.
Well, let's hear how different you are from them...
I have also noticed that increasingly more amateur photographers are ready to wait for a good shot, although it used to happen only, I think, among the professionals. If there is just one hovering around nervously near an ornate gate, that's perhaps tolerable. But what if there are several of them, all wishing that other tourists-turned-photographers would leave and getting more irritated by each second?
May I ask how you know that people in fact wait, ahem?
Going back to the quality of laymen photography, in the past, there were a handful of very good amateur photographers and most of us took bad photos. Now there are many more good amateur photographers, because if you find a good composition, the 'auto' function of the camera would do the rest for you. If not, you can twinkle quite a bit with Photoshop.
You are contradicting yourself, have you noticed? You implied earlier that vacation pictures are bad and boring, but now you are saying that many pictures by amateur photographers are of good quality.
I think vacation images are not interesting to others as much as they are to the vacationers themselves, unless they are taken with artistic consideration. While there are a lot of mediocre photographs on the Internet, I am often surprised how many of them are good.
What sets the pros apart from the rest of us, then?
In the old times, they were the ones who carried cameras everywhere. But nowadays, many more non-professionals do so. Opportunities to show work to the public were available mostly to pros. Digital technology and the Internet have changed all that.
Doesn't that mean that there are numerous wanna-be-professionals? And if many of their pictures are good, doesn't it further mean that it is reasonable for them to harbor such aspirations?
It is. But then, I am certain that most wanna-be's will never be paid for their work, because too many of them are around.
We need a baker for every neighborhood, though.
How many people can bake good croissants at home, compared to the number of people who can take nice shots of Taj Mahal? If amateurs are capable of taking near professional quality photographs, photographer as a profession is almost dead.
Now think hard, comrade, because if we leave it at that, we will get not-so-pleasant letters from the professional photographers' associations, even with your 'near' and 'almost.' You are saying that the art of photography is much more banal than that of bakery.
I thought we were talking about how absurd vacation photo taking has become, weren't we?
Let me ask you once again. What are the skills that professional photographers possess, but are hard to come by among amateurs?
Perhaps it is the skills required in shooting animate objects, things that sense and react to the fact that you are focusing on them. Taking a good photograph of the Eiffel Tower, for example, is not that demanding. Plus, any good angle of immovable objects has been already photographed. I would find a particularly good composition only to discover later that the postcards or travel-guide photographers thought the same. I had that experience several times during the past trip.
What about moving, inanimate objects?
For that, we have consecutive-shooting function on selected cameras. As a child, I thought those were available exclusively to professional journalists, but now it is just another feature on the cameras for the masses.
I'd think taking photos with limited light also requires skills.
I agree. With auto-flash function, we often get terrible results, but simply turning off the flash doesn't help either.
Dusk, dawn, as well as under rain, fog, hail, snow... What about certain texture or shine, for instance, chiffon and silver? I think we are saved from angry protests!
The professionals will become more specialized in terms of objects than they used to be. Doesn't it say that, too?
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