Picture: Still Life. Willi Böhme
Today, everyone seems to be a photographer. Thanks to the advances in digital technology, people can and do easily share photos of their pets, food, cars, and friends and loved ones. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are full of pictures of everyday life that are shot and uploaded in an instant with mobile phones. Sure, I do so too. Yet, I would not call myself a photographer if I only took pictures with my phone. To me, being a photographer, to love and practice the art of photography, is more than simply taking out my camera when our cat has fallen asleep on the television set and is blocking the view with its tail dangling in front of the screen. Sure, having my camera at the ready is part of the deal, but most of all it means that I don't just wait for a picture to present itself in front of me, but that I go out and look for it and plan what, when and how I want to take pictures of.
The first camera I had was a pretty simple analogue one. I used it mainly to take a few pictures when I went on vacation. When I was 16, I got my first digital camera, but even though I took more pictures with this one, I still wasn't very interested in photography itself. After I finished high school and suddenly found myself with a sheer abundance of spare time at my hands, though, I decided to learn more about photography. Luckily, a friend of mine had started studying cinematography, which meant that I could learn from him. Soon, I knew about the basic technical aspects of photography, such as how and why to adjust shutter speed and aperture size, and I was ready to take photography to the next level. What I still lacked, however, was passion. But this would soon change when I went to Northern Ireland for my semester abroad.
The island is so picturesque that I was overwhelmed by its sublime beauty. I simply knew that I had to capture every scenery that came before me, even if it meant to take a picture of every single grain of sand on the beaches of the North Coast. And it felt as if I had done so. Never before had I taken so many photographs as I did during my first week on the island. Most of the time, I took pictures of Portstewart Strand because it was the beach closest to where I lived, and I went there as often as I could. Although I also took pictures of the people who accompanied me, I usually stuck to capturing the beauty of Northern Ireland's nature. Since I had
24
The Joy of Photography - Or How Studying Abroad Changed my Life
by Willi Böhme