*2  By: Andrey Starostin

You can put a price on anything worth buying.

– What else is new? Feel that twitch in your back pocket? That’s the holidays coming.  The fanboys haven’t entered their sixteen digit plastic money codes this quickly since … the last time an iPhone came out.  Go figure.

Leica just released their latest range of cameras including everything from a film rangefinder clinging to the return of the film era everyone wishes would officially happen to an “entry level” medium format body system.

And who could ignore the latest in apple innovation.  Who am I kidding, you better believe I had mine preordered a week in advance.  Call me a fanboy, but I know what I like.  I digress.

My point is that photography has been made available to everyone and their grandmothers.  The photography market is tailored to literally every type of audience.  Whether you carry a Leica strapped to yourself with a padlock or occasionally pull out your phone to shamelessly publish how bespoke your cat’s lifestyle is, you can photograph anywhere at any time.

However, at what point can you call your photo publish-worthy? Does it offer a mid-day laugh?  Would someone pay for it? How about taking a photo that changes someone’s life.  Let your photograph profit someone other than yourself.  Grab your polaroid camera hand a senior citizen one of the last photos of themselves they will ever gaze upon.  Go to your local animal shelter and take some photos of the animals up for adoption out of the goodness of your heart.  My girlfriend dragged me to the Champaign County Human Center last year and every cat and dog we photographed was adopted within the next couple weeks.  Out of my love for the furry once again, I digress.

   The Snapshot

    Everyone needs to take at least one of these daily.  The snapshot is the byproduct of a compulsive photographic mind.  It is the twitch that says, “hold on, I need to…”  It keeps things interesting.  There is no excuse to not document your life, but please leave these photos in your Facebook albums.  These are not for the unwarranted public eye.

The Photograph

    This is what got we in the business into the business.  This is what gets your heart racing as your frame lines up and that shutter fires, locking a perfect moment into your control.  Let the world see these.  Don’t watermark them and make us look at words.  Let the work of art shine for what it is.  Believe me, if someone wants to steal the photo, no watermark will prevail against photoshop.

   Take more photos people; they last longer than your memory.  As for the value of your photo, eventually snapshots turn into photographs, I promise.  If you can take a photo that benefits you none other than providing the joy of putting a smile on someone’s face, you’re a real photographer worthy of any camera you want.  Just have fun with it.

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