Oh boy oh boy oh boy.
Oh boy!
I never thought I would be writing a post for this blog out of a haphazard short of sheer reluctance to waste any more hours on Facebook. Much less the very first post for this blog!
Because see, I feel for this new baby blog of mine much more passionately than it's birth is letting on. The moment of conception for this little thing was all love, inspiration, vision, passion, and just like any moment of conception, it was a gift!
My gift to all those of you, the ones that make me feel I haven't wasted my time (my YEARS lol!) with my point & shoot camera, with Picnik, with Photoshop, with a second take--a third, fourth, fifty sixth, (you'd be surprised...), with lighting, with reading the manual, with...
everything that I will now attempt to divulge to you.
"What the heck is she talking about..." you're probably asking still haha. Well alright let me just cut to the chase.
In case you didn't know,
I'm Samiah.
(toning it down a notch...)
I like to take pictures.
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(I like to think I have some credentials because sometimes a photo or two of mine are featured in certain publications-- my scanner isn't working so we'll get to those later.. ;p )
Ok so What's - the - point?
Point is, contrary to what many might think-- every single one of those photos was taken with a point and shoot camera.
Not a Lomo, not a Holga, and no-- definitely not a Digital SLR.
After a few albums, a lazily maintained flickr, (and a million facebook profile pictures), I started getting approached by a few people saying they wanted to get into photography-- (BREAK! Insert: you know who you are and can I say that any body that has ever come to me with that has seriously made my life. It is so uplifting and encouraging to know that I was inspiring. Ok Break done. ;p)
After a while I noticed a pattern... Pretty much the the first question someone always asked me was regarding the camera I used-- or a variation, such as, what camera they should get.
I could be wrong, but it usually sounded to me as if the type of camera they bought held the key to the magic they now wished to produce with it. You can imagine the surprise when I explained I used a point and shoot. (Sony T200 to be exact, and I've also had quite a good run with a $100 Vivitar that looked like a box.)
I've got nothing against DSLRs and nothing against the people that use them. How could I? That would be actually, absolutely ridiculous. So this blog is not to start promoting the use of point and shoots over DSLRs or whatever sort of duality partisanship seems to be haunting our political system to an extreme these days (but that's for another blog and another time. Point Shoot Popular is zero Politics.)
I started Point Shoot Popular, because I appreciate how I feel I have been able to develop as an "artist" (I have to put that in quotes because I will always feel somewhat pretentious if I don't) with the technological "constraints" that come from using a point and shoot. I like the challenge. I like the way it makes me think. I feel I have been able to go a ways way in appreciating light, composition, READING THE MANUAL, and making the most of what I do have-- and that can be a lot, both in terms of my environment, my camera, and my own vision. Oh, and photo editing software, for sure.
That's not to say DSLR shooters don't do the same thing...
I guess, my point is that if nothing, this is a diary of my adventure. My adventure with myself and my point and shoot camera, and a journey of discovering what photography really means to me. This is a log of how I squeeze my camera like an orange-- juicing it until the last drop to see what sweetness I can produce with it.
But more than anything-- It's really not just about the camera. I've already starting writing a few of my next posts and you will find that its usually about everything else but-- for example, light is always a huge deal.
After all, its PHOTO-graphy. (Interesting fact, my middle name means "light.")
And this isn't all me either. I've been lucky to meet a few great individuals that have taken their point and shoots and run with them in ways unimaginable as well-- and yes you'll get to see their results!
So some things I have planned besides posting photos:
- explanations, inspirations, my how-to's
- photo editing software reviews
- compare and contrast different edits of the same photo by different photographers who are all AWESOME
- random things I love about Point Shoot Photography
- etc etc etc sky is the limit =)
And off we go, thank you in advance to anybody who is down for the ride
