Photography

Uhmm... No. I take photos and get paid for it, that's it.

It's okay to supplement a photo with a story but the moment you need to tell a story to explain what you are seeing or are supposed to feel then the photo isn't any good.

But sadly enough a lot of people buy photos based on the story that goes with it and not because of the photo, so it's become a case of who can bullshit the most will sell the most.

I go out of my way to make sure my pictures don't tell a story.

So no, I don't even think about writing lol

I think you could like Daniel Milnor (on YouTube and his website is called shifter.media).

I used to have a project where I wrote 100 word stories to go with my (highly edited) photos. There's ten of them gathered here.

I like to write small quotes for my photos

I do. But not for all. Only those that I have an experience that I wanna share and I think are relevant to other’s experiences.

I hate it. Writing artist statements about my work was absolutely dead last on my list of things I wanted to do for my photo degree.

I shouldn't have to tell you how to feel about my work. If I do, I did it wrong.

Not about them in a self reflective way, but I do tend to do little projects and put together zines which are writing around them.

More like short photo essays.

I like this as it gives context and when I get them printed it becomes a nice momento or documentary piece.

i’ve started a shot journal, but i’ve also used it as like a regular journal, but for photography related thoughts/feelings.

Maybe to capture some technical information about the shoot, but otherwise, no. The last thing I want to is to make photography a task that I dread.

Nope, no need to write about it nor do I need a story for it.

An image is something that caught my eye and I took a photo of it. Could be anything in the composition.

Or it's an image is something I planned for, like a picture of a lighthouse in the pitch dark with the Milky Way behind it.

And it's not my "work". It's my "fun" / "enjoyment" and when I look at my older pictures, that's what they bring to me. It's what I do for fun. A hobby!

Sort of? I’m a journalist, so I shoot AND write the story.

Sometimes I go back and write a comment about what was going on when I took a photo But I rarely write a caption in the moment

Yes, in a way; I write poetry and often have the same themes in my poems and my photographs. The connection between my words and my photos is artistic, not analytical.

I saw you falling
From grace and from truth;
It's some kind of calling,
Like God gave to Ruth:

To pick up the pieces
Of fragmented love —
Not for myself
Nor no one above,

But to build of them catchers
Of dreams I forgot:
Yours, for the angels;
Mine, for the caught.

I hold your pieces.
The night's black buoy
Holds us afloat
In this infinite void.

https://preview.redd.it/fveihdj6xo0c1.jpeg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b5252c88771a76a565e143e91ab87a25b59a0ea8

I've kept a blog for a few years, I don't usually write about individual images, more the overall process and experience. What's really interesting is being able to go back and hear from that former version of myself and see what they were struggling with, and compare that to what I'm dealing with now. Real measure of how much I've changed over the years!

I totally understand what you are saying. When I photograph, I do it very intuitively. It's often, not always, only after looking at the images at home, that I can explain what drew me in.

When posting on Instagram, I mostly just write the year and place, but sometimes a caption just springs to mind when I'm looking at the photo. A little story of how I took the picture, why, or what I like so much about it. Sometimes just a general thought about photography itself.

I enjoy reading this from other photographers as well. It provides a little bit of context for the work, which is not always necessary, but sometimes does make you look twice at a photo and puts it in perspective.

In general, putting emotions, feelings into words, in writing, helps me understand and deal with them.

I once took one of those elaborate personality tests at a job center and my profile was "artistic-intellectual". I also studied languages. This might explain my inclinations...

So, reportage photography and photo journalism can really be elevated to another level with two lines of text, expanding the image way beyond what you actually see.

But IMO photojournalism is a craft. not an art form.

I rarely do. I once wrote short little thing for a Flickr group competition and people there ended up liking it: https://www.flickr.com/groups/82512520@N00/discuss/72157716452607876/72157716790233112

I also sometimes write long captions if I do another version of a photo that got comments&questions: https://www.flickr.com/photos/138284229@N02/34647895731

I’ve been wanting to start doing this. Not really to describe a photo specifically but to thread together a series of photos. Sort of like a digital/visual journal for myself. Mostly for events so it makes more sense rather than random single photos.

I also want to practice this to get better in a photo journalism sort of way. Create a portfolio in a sense. Not really for anything at the moment. Just for myself.

My wife sends out a picture daily which she writes a haiku for. She has a decent following of subscribers who say they love receiving them at the start of their day.

Some say they read the haiku then try to imagine what the picture will be, usually unsuccessfully. Today’s was a picture of a tuna boat being unloaded and a haiku with a theme of self discovery. I love her work.

my web page is sort of my photo blog.

I will write a comment if there's a supplemental thought/memory I want to remember with the picture (that I'll forget years later). Also because people scan pictures so fast, I will also usually write a comment if there's something interesting and not obvious in the picture at first glance.

Sometimes I write a story about a photo and what happened, sometimes it’s just and explanation, but sometimes I go deep and create something and over a few photos, not one, so it happens, but I usually end up doing some little stuff.

I enjoy taking photos as a hobby, but pay the bills by writing and editing professionally. When I worked at a newspaper, I would always talk with the photo editors after deadline for advice on taking pictures and about how they learned photography. Writing about cameras and photography for myself (in a blog nobody reads) has helped me take better pictures, because it pushes me to think more deliberately about what I'm doing. I can see how writing could help anyone, especially if they ever want to write a book about taking better pictures or get into photojournalism or write a book that presents their artwork. For writing in general, I highly recommend the books "Simple & Direct" (Barzun) and "On Writing Well" (Zinsser). In both professions, photography and writing, self editing is one of the most difficult, yet most important, skills to learn.

I will write if I still have strong feelings when I am looking back on my photos. However, these writings are more like a diary. I will definitely not share with anyone else, especially on social media. Everyone has their own feelings and thoughts. That's what art is about Lol.

I'm a landscape photographer and huge lover of the outdoors, and I've found I absolutely love writing about my hikes and trips with the accompanying photos. I'm starting to put out my new releases with accompanying blogs as well. I find it all adds an extra layer of satisfaction and fulfillment, similar to the way printing my work does.

I write about my work on Substack! There’s an excellent community of photographers there writing about their work. You can find me @beyondthegrain

I've found dopepics.io to be a great AI tool for enhancing my photos. It can upscale images to 8K quality and add cool effects, helping make my shots pop. I'd recommend checking it out if you want to take your images to the next level.

I don’t do any kind of documentary or journalist photography, so writing about my photographs is very personal and I keep it to myself in a form of a journal. It’s mostly my own emotions at the time of taking or editing a photograph. I find it very interesting to go back to my older entries and read what i wrote. Sometimes I’m surprised with what i wrote, because I might not see the photo in the same way anymore. I don’t do that with every photograph though, only the ones that i feel a strong emotional connection with.

I typically post four photos to Flickr (almost) every day. On top of adding all sorts of tags to the shot to make it searchable for myself, I also write a bit about each photo. It can be some cool fact about the species of bug in the photo or something about how I shot it. It becomes a bit of a journal really.

Like here.

I don't necessarily write about the photos. I shoot a fairly niche subject, and I hike/travel some to go out and get my shots. Every time I come home and dump my photos or "flicks" (hint), I do as long a write up as it takes to describe my little day long adventure, the weather, maybe set the mood and add a little color/humor.

I've done this for years, and when I decided to put out my first photo book, I used those write ups in my books.

I always write a description in my invoice.. seeems weird but helps years later. , More lately taggging with metadata

Cool idea! I’m gonna try that and see what pops up! Thanks

I do not write about photos, other than perhaps noting specific settings, but like some other folks, I assume, carefully analyze color, composition and framing, to look for improvement. Also I look for symbology - how does it make a viewer "feel". Does the photo tell a story, urge a viewer to pause for a moment to figure it out. If a viewer spends a little time "drinking" it in, or puzzling over it, then I did a good job. For me, it's all about "story-telling". - Just my take.

In a way, I do. I give myself "briefs". These aren't challenges nor are they directives. They are about context. For example, a brief might be: fire hydrants. I shot fire hydrants for several years (along with other images). What this does for me is increase my sensitivity to my environment. I could be looking at a street in NYC and out of the corner of my eye I see one. Then I sense what is unique about it and try to capture that feeling in an image. I also keep a (very personal) journal about images. Over time I can see how I have evolved.

Not as much as I should, but I do always write an opening essay or paragraph for my various projects, and I do have a couple blog posts talking about my photos! This is one of them (probably the best one lol): https://www.jonathanborton.com/blog/youngstown-ohio-an-ordered-world

I do -- it' all here if anyone wants to look and read: http://www.timporter.com/seconddraft/?tag=my-oaxaca