Progress From Being A Snapshot PhotographerWriten by Eric Hartwell
Most people allow their cameras to stay in the drawer for most of the year. They may see the light of day during a vacation or some celebration or festivity.
If that describes your camera, then its OK. You are a snapshot photographer and most images are taken by people like yourself. Thats great and if thats what you want, then carry on.
After all, cameras were designed to take images. There was no predefined usage pattern prescribed for any model of camera and there will be nobody checking up on you and for what purposes you use your camera for.
It is a little unfortunate, though, that you are not using your camera to its fullest potential. In fact, if you are a snapshot photographer, you are probably not using more than 10 or 20 percent of the functionality that was built in to the camera.
Modern digital cameras are not only easy to use but they come with a whole host of added functions. Things like shutter speed selection and aperture control. There are also ISO setting, fill flash and anti red eye features. Most cameras have the ability to vary focal length and to allow mounting on a tripod. Many will allow short videos to be taken and a great number allow additional add-on lenses. If you look in your instruction book, you might find that you camera has a self timer mechanism and full manual control options.
All of these features, and more if your camera has them, can enhance your photographs in many ways. If the functions are unfamiliar to you then you need to read around a bit and experiment.
But, utilising these functions in the correct way (and its easy to do) will bring added life and sparkle to your snapshots. Who knows what might follow after that?
Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com