Micro Magic
There comes a time in the life of every photographer when they realize that the art of the hobby photograph has left them and that their habitual way of looking at images is part of a money earning, career growth concern. The path to riches is lined with…pixels! This is what makes the micro stock photographer a professional instead of an amateur.
There is nothing wrong with the habitual assessment of the image file as a commercially saleable item, or the constant revision of an image to make it more profitable. The world we live in, and the world we grew up in, was illustrated by hired images. The pictures we saw in our first books were commercially drawn or purchased in one manner or another.
The talent to review the potential of an image through the camera viewfinder and then capture that image in a manner to convey that idea is an artistic talent, one that often gets pushed to the back of cinematography or music recording because the finite end sum gain is a still two dimension object competing for attention in a three dimensional world.
A restoration of the world of photography has taken place with the advent of the World Wide Web. Since the computer screen on any size desktop or laptop is two dimensional, once again the most avidly used and sought medium of communication is two dimensional. the world of the television screen and the era of the motion picture has been replaced by the two dimensional framework which favors photography best.
When books were first made, only incredibly rare versions were made for the wealthiest of merchants and the most holy of learned priests. Little by little, over the centuries the book as a form of adventure and creative exploration has developed into something people take for granted. But once upon a time the decision to include an illustration was a momentous honor.
Today, there may be a website online for every human being that exists. there may be more than one, or dozens. but the decision as to what illustration to put on that one web site, or those dozens, is a privilege taken lightly. The honor of being able to determine what people experience online can be mastered, marshaled, and manufactured for those with the freedom and inclination to do so.
If somewhere in this mix of total commerciality of images for sale and low cost legal images some beauty and fire and spirit of the life we live can slip past, it’s all to the good. So keep working on your craft, in whatever field it happens to be in. Because the privilege of being able to deliver art, and personal vision, is a rae one to cherish and enjoy.
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