How to be an Active Photographer - Advancing Your Photography

What are the benefits to being an active photographer?

You are a photographer. How do you approach your photos? Do you insert yourself with your subject to get the shot you want? Do you want for the “right photo” to come to you?

Our good friend, Bob Holmes joined Marc Silber and had the exact discussion recently. They discussed the importance of being an active photographer.

Photography isn’t a spectator sport; you won’t get much by sitting in the bleachers. You need to be on the field, in the action to get the type of photographs you want.

Being Active

A personal story from Marc’s own life is from when I was a teenager. He was on a class trip and directed his friends to jump from the sand dunes.

He went to the bottom and yelled action, just like a director. The picture below is a result of being an active photographer.

The first step in photography is vision. You visualize the photograph you want. After that, it is your responsibility to direct your subject or your friends in order to get the photograph that compliments your vision. That’s how you become an active photographer.

Furthermore, on Marc’s most recent outing with Bob Holmes, they were able to get the shot they wanted by Bob being assertive.

Their goal was to take a photograph of people walking up a set of stairs. First, there was an ugly, yellow stand in the way so they moved it.

Then, Bob arranged the people to walk up the stairs on his count so it wasn’t random. Bob was active and he directed the people to do exactly what he needed. This resulted in the photograph he had pictured.

Results of being Active

You may be surprised by your final product could turn into by being physically assertive.

For example, Marc took pictures in Medina and was fascinated by people just walking by a doorway.

He wasn’t entirely certain what he was going to do with it; however, he ended up taking about thirty photos.

Then, *click*. It donned on him, he could make a contact sheet. (Seen below)

A sequence of people walking by that doorway. It became an interesting series, as well as a story itself.

Silber actively knew what he wanted. He acted upon his vision and was able to create an interesting contact sheet.

Moral of the Story

Being a photographer is more than just snapping the photo. Don’t just take your camera and hope for the best, hope that something will just happen in front of you.