Now that everyone is carrying a camera around, kindly spare a thought for the friends who have to endure your poor photography skills…
I mean nobody wants to look at your poorly framed snaps; where the subject’s face is indistinguishable because you left too much headroom, and the picture is more of the white events tent and clouds than people.
There is a skill to good photography (and i confess in spite of several professional courses i still cannot take a photo that can pass muster to save my life!). A good photographer is an artist, drawing with light…he must be able to quickly balance the elements at the right moment to get that good photo that is worth a thousand words…
When we go for lunch, or coffee, or an evening drink, please let’s talk about other things and not about the funeral you attended over the weekend. You see, as a hot-blooded man i will appreciate the yellow yellow thigh of your rich cousin from “States” who rummaged her wardrobe to find her small black dress to wear to the funeral. But you see you put me in an awkward situation because i cannot voice my appreciation without offending you…
I also don’t want to see how your younger sister’s 8-month old bastard baby has grown…nor that the babyshower had more alcohol than presents for the baby…it only exposes the fact that you and your friends have your priorities wrong…
So please, kindly resist the urge to crowd the funeral, or graduation, or babyshower, or ruracio space brandishing your humongous china phone or iPad, to take photos of strangers that you will only delete when your phone memory is full…
Alongside the socialite wannabe amateur photographer is the gawker amateur photographer who will take pictures of blood and goo from disaster scenes and tweet, watsapp/share them to all and sundry. such photography and circulation exposes your lack of taste (and good sense)…
I could go on but let’s have some quality time by ourselves. i don’t want to spend our lunch date looking at poor images of strangers, however good your narrative…we are not in 1995 anymore when hospitality included a showing of the family photo albums or a poorly shot, 2-hr long video of grandpa’s funeral…
If i like the narrative of how good your trip to Mt Longonot was i will ask if you took some pictures(:D).
but before i do, please do not push them into my face…
([SIZE=1]psssst- this is a rough draft of njoki chege’s column fr coming sat[/SIZE])
Mara ngapi tumeona watu wakisema, engaged, checking in JKIA, posting your kids first steps and all that nonsense. Watu wanafaa kujua internet never forgets. Personally niko na shida na watu wanafungua instragam pages for new borns. Was impressed na family fulani that takes a photo every year. U could see a kid growin up. Na haziko online! Kwendeni uko na hizo likes zenu, that was a challenge!!
I hate people who use tablets to take pictures. You look like an idiot holding up a 8 - 10 inch screen…use your phone. Its camera is always way better…
You still go on dates @gashwin? Even if you did, I suspect we date different generations. I haven’t been to dates where they don’t ask me if I am on Instagram, and if I took photos of where I was over the weekend.
I cannot consider anyone an amateur photographer if they don’t own a DSLR camera
Someone who understands zilch about photography cannot be considered an amateur photographer…If they did, they wouldn’t be so proud of their tablet and phone cameras.
Nope…not at all…amateurism is about being passionate about something…Now how do you consider yourself an amateur photographer if you know zilch about shutter speeds, ISOs, aperture & shutter priority, exposure compensation, focusing etc etc etc which are really basic photography stuff?? If nothing else, at least get yourself a compact camera which offers some basic functions. But a phone?? No
