{"id":1438,"date":"2015-12-29T19:10:29","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T02:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/?p=1438"},"modified":"2015-12-29T19:10:29","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T02:10:29","slug":"12-29-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/2015\/12\/12-29-15\/","title":{"rendered":"12-29-15"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC09563_365_122915_DxOVP\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 363 –<\/p>\n

When I started this project, I wasn’t really being a photographer. \u00a0I was taking pictures, sure, but it wasn’t really being a photographer. \u00a0I was doing things I thought might look neat. \u00a0I was getting pictures that were fine. \u00a0There were things I was proud of, things I thought were nice photos, but I had so much to learn. \u00a0The first month of this site looks nothing like the last month.<\/p>\n

What I really learned was what my job is\u00a0as a photographer. \u00a0My job is to take the feeling about something I see or am around and create a photo that expresses that. \u00a0Sometimes it’s sadness, sometimes it’s wonder, occasionally it’s a story that’s interesting. \u00a0The best photos I’ve made are the ones where I felt something about what I was shooting, and then tried to refine that feeling into that image.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I succeeded. \u00a0Sometimes I did not. \u00a0Sometimes I didn’t even try. \u00a0Those are the worst photos on this site, the ones where I felt rushed, where I didn’t have time, where I didn’t go looking with any feeling involved. \u00a0I can tell those photos from the rest. \u00a0I bet\u00a0you can too. \u00a0Anyone can be a photographer, if they tune in to what they are feeling and work to translate that to the image. \u00a0To me, that’s the difference between a photographer and someone who just takes pictures. \u00a0It isn’t the gear, it’s what you do with it.<\/p>\n

What have I learned. \u00a0I learned things like composition. \u00a0I learned about light and contrast. \u00a0I learned what the settings on the camera do, and what will happen to the image when I change those settings. \u00a0I learned how to apply that knowledge to the image. \u00a0I learned how to manipulate the photo in software. \u00a0And I’m still learning more about all those things.<\/p>\n

But what I really learned was to go with what I feel. \u00a0If I feel anything about what I’m shooting, I am going to have a better shot at getting a good picture. \u00a0Even a bad picture driven by feeling is better than a decent picture that isn’t. \u00a0When I\u00a0think and feel about what I’m shooting, the results simply are better. \u00a0I had to learn to trust that.<\/p>\n

I learned how to be a photographer. \u00a0I wasn’t really comfortable calling myself a photographer until this week. \u00a0A few things I made and posted recently made me finally flip that switch. \u00a0It took a year, but I’m a photographer.<\/p>\n

I didn’t always do a good job, but I learned how to do a better job, and that was part of the point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 363 – When I started this project, I wasn’t really being a photographer. \u00a0I was taking pictures, sure, but it wasn’t really being a photographer. \u00a0I was doing things I thought might look neat. \u00a0I was getting pictures that were fine. \u00a0There were things I was proud of, things I thought were nice photos, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,93,94],"class_list":["post-1438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","tag-2","tag-chicago","tag-il","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jamesgralian.com\/365\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}