some thoughts about photography 2009

what is snap, I always ask myself.
to answer the question
may be I have to place a definition for photography (the big umbrella) first
well, in my understanding for sure...

photography is to capture a moment on a medium.
on creative level, you can put in concept into a photo.
on art level, you can measure the picture in color, color tint, texture, contrast, angle, perspective, layout and composition.
on technical level, you can control by aperture, shutter speed, lens, film, processing method, CMOS size and lighting.
these 3 levels will be the our rulers.

make sense? let's go down to each category.

for commercial photography, delivering the concept is very important, cause it serves a promotional / branding function. It has to be beautiful, or eye attractive. It has to be reproducible, that is being able to produce Big big print.
so creative, art and technical are all important in commercial photography.
that's why it is very costy. (no sample as I nevet got a chance to do it)

for portrait photography, the ranking will be art, technical and then creactive. as the objective is to take a person from the brilliant angle with right lighting; hide the cons and enhance the pros.

for landscape photography, it is similar to portrait, art and technical first, creative will be the last one. I never did any great landscape photos, but some sceneries.

for reporter photography, technically capture the moment, and keep the real fact forever is the key, *but nowadays news reporting will emphasize on something and ignore something else (= put in concept). **no good ?



for documentary photography, the key is to bring up the mood of the issue. art is very important, technical is next, concept comes last. coz you are recording the mood of the whole thing, so art comes first; and you are documenting in a changing environment, technical comes next; as the biggest concept is to bring up the mood, so other concept cant be bigger than this OTHERWISE it doesnt serve the purpose at all... that's why I rank them so.
I love doing documentary photography :)

wedding's documentary

wedding's documentary

daily life's documentary

city's documentary


for snap, as it is happening in the uncontrollable environment, art is hard to control and cannot be the biggest concern (for sure the prettier the better!); technically all we can control is getting a right exposure, lens and lighting, it is harder coz you are capturing a moment in a changing environment. so the one reminding is the concept, yes, the concept is the key.
snap is a hunting process happening in a changing environment, where you dig out what is meaningful, then press your shutter to capture that best moment to present the idea and mood - that's what snap means to me.

* to view more of my photography, please come to KitDaSnap