9 Good Reasons You Should Take Photographs
Take photographs, here are some good reasons that you should, if you feel you need reasons.
Perhaps you’ve just got a new smartphone, with a camera, and you want to use it.
Off course you don’t need a reason, you can just pick it up and start taking photographs.
You’re likely to always have your phone with you, so you never have to miss a photo opportunity.
If you prefer a standard camera
It can become a compelling habit to take photographs everyday and everywhere.
There are some affiliate links on this page. If you click one, and make a purchase, I will get a small payment. It wont cost you any more than if you went directly to the site.
If you get hooked you can learn photography and take even better photographs.
So here’s some reasons to do so.
1. Enjoy photography as a hobby
Taking photographs can be a great hobby, one that’s permanent and keeps building.
If you ever stop it, you can restart again, and add to collection you’ve already built.
You may need to get all new photographic equipment
be there.
Personally I think having a hobby is very important. It can be enjoyable and laid back, in the midst
of the slog that life can be.
Even if you have another hobby that you’re passionate about, photography can be an extra sub hobby.
With a compact camera or a cameraphone always to hand, you can record your main hobby.
If you like fishing, you can take selfies with fish in hand, before releasing it back to it’s watery
home.
You might prefer bird watching, take photographs of them if possible.
There are probably dozens of hobbies that can be enjoyed even more, if you record images of
them.
2. Take photographs to document your life
You can build up a pictorial history of your life, and what you do.
By taking photographs of them, you can record the important events of your life.
Photographs of occasions can help you remember them better than relying on your memory alone.
You can share the photographs you’ve taken with family and friends for as long as you live.
Shoot photos of your possessions as records for insurance purposes. They can be useful in case of theft or accidents.
You may have pets, most people do. They don’t live forever. Photographs of them are nice memories to have.
Over the course of your life you can build your personal history. This can pass on to future generations, and le your memory live on.
3. Contribute to social history
The difference between the history of the last 150 years or so, and before that, is photographs.
There are no photographs of President George Washington, but there are of President John F. Kennedy.
Similarly we have photographs of Queen Elizabeth 2 but not of Queen Elizabeth 1.
History from the later part of the Nineteenth Century is preserved photographically.
It’s not always easy to realise that everyday we live will be history in the future.
Every time we take a photograph, it’s possible it could make it’s way into a future history book, or website.
All history doesn’t have to focus on mesmerising Presidents or Prime Ministers, it can be a social record.
A green field you photograph could someday host a house, a hotel, or a hospital. Places change, but photographs live on, and can be records of what used to be there.
There must be many photographs in historical works that were taken as casual snapshots. The photographers who took them had no idea that would happen.
With the pace of change, photographs can become part of social history in a decade or two.
4. Practice street photography
Photographs that can end up as part of social history can be taken anywhere, and of almost anything.
However, Street Photography probably offers more opportunities for this than any other genre of photography.
Street Photography is basically recording social interaction, mainly, but not exclusively, in urban settings.
The pace of life and change, is greater in urban areas than in rural places.
You practice Street Photography simply by walking around and shooting photographs.
With practice you will probably learn how to spot a good photo opportunity.
5. Enjoy photography as an artistic outlet
Not everyone would agree that photography is art, but I think it is.
Pointing, shooting and leaving the photos as is can’t be regarded as very artistic.
Carefully selecting the angle, what’s included, and the lighting among other things brings photography into the world of art.
Capturing an image in a studio where everything is set up is definitely creating a work of art.
Many people have a need to be artistic, and creative photography can provide that outlet as well as any other.
Still Life, Portraiture, and Product Photography can be as artistic as any other form of art.
Landscapes can look totally different depending in the lighting, timing and weather conditions. Waiting for the right conditions, to get a desired look, is fulfilling an artistic impulse or need.
A photograph can be modified or changed radically by software in post production.
6. Document you travels
As and when you travel, you can make images to record and illustrate your wandering.
Essentially you’re building up a collection of photographs as with every other reason I’ve mentioned. This one can have more variety and cross other cultures.
Many people who travel extensively blog about where they go, and colour their writing with their photographs.
Travel blogs are among the most popular online.
Many people follow them for their photographs as much as the stories.
It’s unthinkable to travel much without taking photographs. You don’t have to blog about it to photograph it.
7. To make some money
Money is a necessity, and we all need it. Most of us like it as well.
It’s possible to make some extra money with the photographs you take.
It used to be possible to make money submitting photographs to Stock Libraries. Some people made a living out of it.
Now while it is still possible to make money that way, it’s not easy. That’s mainly because so many people take their own photographs now.
You will need massive persistence, and almost as much luck to make worthwhile money from your photographs.
Graphic artists still buy photographs from Stock Libraries. The problem is the huge number of photos those Stock Libraries have for sale.
What’s worse is that it’s getting harder every day as the number of photos the Libraries have increase rapidly.
This is best approached as a hobby, and if you make a little money, count it as a bonus.
8. To make it your career
After the last section this one might seem ridiculous.
And yes this is a more difficult career than it used to be.
More people are shooting photos than ever before, including ones that they would have hired a professional to take.
Media organisations that used to employ photographers, now often also buy from Stock Libraries. Sometimes they expect their journalists to provide the photographs they need, with their Smartphones.
That said, there are young professional photographers.
It’s not regarding yourself as a professional photographer that’s hard, it’s getting the work to make it a reality.
Some people do it though, and will continue to do so in the short term at least.
9. Just because you want to
Of all the reasons to capture images, this is probably the best.
Unless you want to do something, it’s not going to be easy to do it.
You can force yourself for some time, but it’s hard to keep doing something you don’t like.
However, if you like taking photographs, and want to, then it’s going to be easy.
Doing something you like, either as a hobby or a job, wont be a chore.
If you have a smartphone, and have never taken a photograph do take one. You may discover that you like it.
If you don’t, you wouldn’t have known until you tried it.
