Why should you capture?
“The fool, with all his other faults, has this also. He is always getting ready to live.”
-Epicurus
We like to think that our lives progress through the past, the present, and the future.
We don't realize that our past is a memory, our present is endless, and our future– a prediction of the moment's potential that's fluid and almost impossible to predict.
The only way to bend these rules of time in today's world is with imagery. By taking a photo or video, you are capturing light (or photons) within your camera that are printed or digitized into existence and perfectly let you capture a moment; letting generations and potentially ages, revisit that exact moment.
Capturing Time
-Kate Backdrop
The ever- present moment
Sure, we can conceptualize it and plan for it, but we never truly know what will happen until we are living in it. And by the time we have lived it and processed what has happened, the moment is gone—leaving behind only a memory– a chemically stored fragment of information that is never completely accurate.
When you read my statement above, you might of thought something along the lines of: “Well, the future actually does exist,” you would be correct—it does exist, just not in our experience of the world.
The true reality is that we never live in the moment, our awareness lags behind–every thought is a process of the past no matter how long ago is was– 10 seconds or 5 years ago we use our past experiences of the world to navigate our reality. But this leaves the one point I'm trying to make: A camera is the only true way to capture existence in a sharp, precise moment, or a series of exposed moments, capturing multiple points of light and creating something that will never be perfectly copied.
In its baseline function, a camera manipulates time and light to capture reality. Shutter speed controls how long the camera's sensor (or film) is exposed to the world—a fraction of a second or up to hours can be stretched, compressed, or frozen in many ways. F-stop settings adjust the aperture, changing how much light enters the lens at any moment, changing both exposure and depth. Looking at photography from this angle brings a whole new outlook on its meaning. Photos bend time itself, deciding which exposure of reality is preserved and which is lost forever. A photographer plays with existence on a frame, selecting moments that our minds barely grasp before they are gone.
Photography beats the nature of memory itself. Where our minds store blurred, shifting impressions of moments and events throughout our lives. A photograph captures and frames a perspective of existence with precision—still even then, the lens shapes the story from one perspective.
The Art of Long exposure
Behind the Lens
A long exposure can reveal the ghost of movement, the blurred trails of light left behind as time slips forward, just as a memory distorts the truth, the longer we hold onto it. A shallow depth of field isolates a subject from its surroundings, much like our minds, focusing on fragments and emotions while the rest fades into background noise. Every composition is a choice—stemming from every moment in your life leading up to this point.
So, what do you include? What do you leave in the shadow?
That choice is up to you; share your unique moment, not someone else's. Just as no memory is complete or perfect, no photograph captures the entire reality, but it freezes an angle of it, letting us revisit a world that would otherwise dissolve without a trace.
A Great place to learn further is: Palmer, Jane. “When and How to Use Long Exposure Photography.
"Regardless of what you think it is, photography is a deeply meaningful pursuit because it challenges our worldview. It raises questions about the nature of reality and how it is represented through images. Is reality objective, or is it subjective?
These are some of the fundamental questions that photography raises, and it is this aspect that makes it such a fascinating art form!"
Through the Lens: Exploring the Philosophy of Photography
Perspective
Photography is also a great way to gain perspective of the world and what you're shooting. A shared moment captured from a unique-unreplicable perspective. As the photographer, seeing your photo brings back the life of that moment, days, weeks, or years after you have taken it.
I was taking a walk by the lake with my friends, and I saw this man riding his bicycle and knew I had to capture the moment. His outfit and character reflect parts of his life and fit the scene. When I look at this photo, it brings me back to the moment and into the perspective of this man, whom we know nothing more about other than the visual character of his style and expression.
You Create Your Moment
Photography isn't just about remembering moments; its about shaping them, finding beauty in the ordinary, and constantly discovering new ways to express your creativity.
"Everyone, no matter who they are or where they come from, has seen a side of life you could never imagine, everyone holds some aspect of wisdom you have never heard. And despite our vast differences, we all end up at the same location, death's door. Our energy leaves us and continues its natural cycle of entropy across the universe. And as our bodies rot and the memory of who we were fades, all that's left is the potential and energy our consciences created, altering the course of time forever. Dust that will make its way across the universe for the rest of existence."
–A quote by me from a short film named DUST
