Caught in the Net! News Archive News

Thanks to technology, photography is becoming every man8217;s hobby, thanks to technology he is sharing it with the world.

Written by NavdeepSandhu

October 14, 2008 12:00 AM IST

4 min read

Faced with the 8216;intended-to-do-good8217; photo-sharing websites, photography searches for its true essence. Are we taking hobby for art?

Thanks to technology, photography is becoming every man8217;s hobby, thanks to technology he is sharing it with the world. Of course, no harm done till the comments and 8216;compliments8217; pour in. That8217;s all that an average shutterbug needs to feel like a pro. So what if he has just learnt to hold a camera, the web has declared it a good picture and his friends have encouraged him to click more. So what if the intention was just to store the memories without spending on an extra hard-drive, the moments spent with family and friends can never be judged, so why should the captures be?

The web world is flooded with options for amateur and professional photographers with flickr.com being arguably the most popular and widely used photo-sharing site these days. It offers free and unlimited Pro option with geotagging. One does not need to have an account to explore the 8216;works8217; of all the 8216;photographers8217; unless they are marked otherwise. Click any random picture at Flickr and you will see comments like 8216;well done8217;, 8216;great capture8217; showered like the monsoon rain. Snapfish, Shutterfly, Picassa among many others are popular photo-sharing destinations. No denying the fact that it8217;s great opportunity for all to share their captures but in many cases the message gets lost. Are we discouraging the trend? Not at all, it8217;s the finest way to share your work, find out what others are up to and learn new things. 8220;But what is happening is that it8217;s become more of a 8216;praise all8217; exercise. Members just end up praising each other8217;s photographs whether or not they are good, sometimes they also give wrong suggestions,8221; Subhash Sapru, a photography enthusiast, narrates,8221; there were some comments on a picture clicked by friend, saying that she should have used flash. But flash would have taken away the character of the photograph. I have seen many people going by set norms and not experimenting.8221; There is no check on what is uploaded, anybody can claim himself to be a pro.

8220;There are two aspects to it. One that the web has brought photography to the masses, but the question is whether real photography is being promoted,8221; Mohali based photographer Navneet Saxena argues. 8220;Technology is becoming so easy that nobody wants to focus. There are certain websites that monitor the content flowing in and rates them accordingly. It8217;s essential that members get the right guidance. As for the free flow of the comments, in the market the good, bad and ugly get segregated on their own. Those who are good will survive, the rest will be happy with the comments alone!8221; All said and done the websites are a platform for anybody who wants to start a career and remain connected. 8220;The web has made it a lot easier to see what is going on in the world circuit, but then it also ends up making imitators of those who may have the creativity to so something really good,8221; Raghu Rai advises upcoming photographers to keep trying new things and believe in their gut instinct. 8220;Early in the careers it is easy to get carried away, no matter what the comments keep your heads between the shoulder and keep on doing your work. Be you own judge and critic and never ever let the urge to learn fade away.8221; Keep surfing!

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