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Home >> Learning >> e-Book on Photography Table of Contents Photography e-Book Chapter 14 - Seeing How to see the world and interpret it on film is going to be the most difficult aspect of photography, at least it is for me. Is the ability to "see" the world a gift or is it something that can be taught and trained into a person through hard work and perseverance? Most of us have heard of claims in which a novice photographer picks up a camera and creates images that are beautiful to behold while another photographer that is able to afford the latest and greatest equipment is unable to create anything memorable. Or how about the poor student using his manual Yashica FX-3 and 50mm f1.8 lens creating "art" while the rich dentist using his Nikon F5 and Silent Wave motorized lenses produces crap. I think both examples are canards and stereotypes that need not be propagated. I certainly do believe that there are gifted people who can "see" and capture wonderful images with a minimum of fuss towards the technical minutiae but I also believe that one can also be taught how to see too. This is a fence sitting, gray type of position to hold but life is all about the middle position and it is best to avoid extreme positions one way or the other. The student using the FX-3 may have some promise as an amateur photographer but not until receiving the discipline of a formal education in photography will the student be able to focus and channel the creativity within and show it externally in his or her art. The rich doctor using his state of the art system can similarly have promise and through books, courses, and workshops, be able to bring out his or her creativity too. What matters is the passion to learn and be the best that you can in your circumstances, not the system equipment at hand. Without the passion to be a great photographer, amateur or professional, it will matter little what type of low-level or high-level equipment the person uses, for the work will reveal themselves to be passionless. If a rich person truly did purchase a state of the art camera system for prestige factor and never bothered to it take the camera of Program Auto mode, do you really think the images will have any redeeming quality to them? Not likely but the rich person would probably still receive a high percentage of technically correct images but technically correct does not equate to artistically meritorious. So long as you have the passion for the craft, your photography will indeed improve and reward you with much personal satisfaction. Let us now look at some basic factors that will help us to see an image.
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