Beginning Photography Tips – Don’t Underestimate Snapshots

I personally have two cameras. I have a DSLR which I use in my professional work, and I have a smaller point-and-shoot which basically serves as a knockaround camera, or one that I can easily take with me when I don’t have room for my pro rig.

I’ve got so much gear which I use with my DSLR that when I get the point-and-shoot in my hands, I feel like it’s not even worth taking out of the bag. On many occasions, such as holidays or family functions, I’ve neglected to take any pictures because the only camera I had was my measly little point-and-shoot.

Then something happened. You see, every December I’ll compile a photo album of stuff that’s happened the previous year. This is for personal use only; just to take around to family as we visit them for the holidays. The first few years I did this I crammed in mostly my serious photographs with only a handful of family snapshots. I did this mostly because the family snapshots were just that; snapshots. I took no time composing them, no time setting up lights or hauling my gear around. I just gathered the family together, set the auto-timer on my camera, and that was that. A monkey could’ve taken those pictures.

Then I began to notice that these snapshots were what my family was thriving on. Sure, they love to see what I’ve been up to professionally all year. But, to them, the important thing is family. It’s being able to see how children have grown or how hairstyles have changed over the year. To them, there’s not a seriously composed portrait that I could shoot that would replace that.

After I realized this, I started using my point-and-shoot more. I started taking more snapshots to capture a family moment instead of thinking how it was going to fit into my professional portfolio.

In a way it renewed the thrill of photography for me. Sometimes we have to stop taking ourselves so seriously and remember the real reasons we got into photography in the first place. This isn’t to say that you can’t be creative with family snapshots or put more thought into them. What better way to impress a family member than to give them the full-pro treatment? Just don’t be afraid to pull out that old point-and-shoot, turn on the on-camera flash, cast away all pretension, and take a snapshot.

In The Moment It Clicks, legendary magazine photographer Joe McNally pretty much sums it up when he says, “In my helter-skelter pursuit of big pictures, I ignored too many quieter, close-to-home moments. As I look back, I wish I had more of ’em.”