easier and harder at the same time

Photography has never been easier.

That statement is wrong actually, so let me put it another way.

Photography has never been harder.

This isn't going anywhere, so let me have one more go at this.

Taking a photograph has never been easier. 

There, that's fixed it.  But why am I making this seemingly garbled and utterly confusing statement in the first place?

I've been taking landscape photographs for many years.  More than I care to mention! When I started, it was with a film SLR camera, and to get the look I wanted in an image I had to carefully compose the scene, meter it for ambient or direct light, attach any necessary filters, calculate an exposure time and finally press the shutter release.

Then I was faced with a wait of several days or sometimes even longer to get my images back from the lab, usually with a sticker on to say what I'd done wrong!  But there'd be the odd gem; a real reward for the hard work that I'd put in.

And when I first started shooting digitally there was still a degree of skill and technique to get a picture.  But it was, and is, undeniably easier.  Instantaneous results mean I can fine-tune my composition or exposure to get it just so.  There's still knowing what to do to tell a story or craft an image though, but technically speaking, it's easier.

In fact, just the other day I shot this image at Mumbles:

It looks like a really well crafted and thought out shot, right?  A filter employed to achieve the perfect exposure time to tell the story of the tide lapping against the rocks, and the lighthouse protecting shipping from getting washed up on them.

Nope.

It was a "live" burst shot on my iPhone, and with the press of one virtual button in the photos app that burst was transformed into a long exposure shot.  There was zero thought involved other than pointing my phone in vaguely the right direction.  And if I didn't like the result, then just delete it and go again.

So why then do I claim photography is getting harder?

Well, the art of good photography is.  And it's because everyone now has a camera capable of excellent results, and giving everyone the ability to take a great picture with zero skill involved.  What then is going to make my image - carefully thought out and perfectly shot thanks to years of hard earned technical skill - stand out?

Nothing is the answer.

And that is why photography is getting harder - for photographers.  What was once a skilled profession is now just a simple process of "spraying and praying".

Even the image I consider the best I've ever taken could really have been shot by anyone. Here it is below, along with a phone snapshot I took at the same time.  

Of course, it's easy for me to tell which is which.  But would anyone else really care?  I doubt it, and with a bit more thought at time of taking and then some editing later I could get the phone image pretty close to the one shot with a really expensive camera and lens.

I can't even claim that getting the image was that hard.  I had seconds to get it so it was shot with little real planning or thought.  So anyone could have shot it.  And what is there to make my work stand out from the millions of similar images?

It's getting harder all the time.

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One thing that has remained hard is making a nice, accurate print form a digital file.  In my latest YouTube video I review some photo paper.  It really is a lot more exciting than it sounds.  OK, it isn't, but I'd be really happy if you were to click below, with it and who knows, subscribe for more useless video content in future weeks.  Just not straight away as this is my last video for a couple of weeks while I take a break.