Hi and welcome to Episode 147 of the Photography Explained podcast. I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic to you in plain English, in less than 27 minutes (ish), without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.

In this episode, What Is Photography? My 2023 Update On What Photography Is. And also some more thoughts on the last episode, erm oh no sorry no need for that.

First – here is the answery bit

What is photography?

Photography in 2023 is a thriving thing. Mobile phones have exploded photography to a completely new level. Tech in phones and cameras has closed the gap between pro and non pro photographers. Photography in 2023 is at the core of many social media platforms. But photography in 2023 is still what it ever was – drawing with light. Photography in 2023 is still all about composition, what is in a photo. Well it should be anyway.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

OK – that is the answery bit – whatever am I going to talk about in this episode?

Well I will start with what I spoke about in episode 1 first, and pick up on a few things from that. I started with what is photography and expanded it to what is photography to me.

So let’s start with what I talked about in episode 1, which I republished last week. These are the headlines.

This is what I wrote about in episode 1

“Let me tell you about some things that photography has given me.

1. A business I really enjoy
2. Imposter Syndrome
3. Creating great work
4. Broadening my base
5. My business website
6. My weekly blog
7. You Tube
8. Podcasting
9. Affiliate marketing
10. The images I create
11. A lifetimes study
12. Sharing my expertise
13. Sunrises
14. The photos I have taken
15. Unique locations
16. Still an imposter

Right, that is what I talked about in episode 1. But I did not answer the key question did I? What is photography.

Let’s start with this.

What is photography?

Photography is drawing with light. Photo means light, graphé means drawing. Now I know there are some variations on this interpretation, but this is the best one for me, the best way to describe photography.

So photography is drawing with light. That is the base, fundamental point of photography.

Light

Point number one – light is very, very important in photography. Light has always been important in photography, and always will be. You can have all the fancy gear in the world, all the best techniques, all the good stuff we have in 2023. But if you do not use the light in a composition your photos will be average.

Do you know what – I might just talk about this in the next episode.

Photography is the process of capturing the light and how it interacts with the content of a composition. No light, no photo right. So it is important. Yes the more I think about this the more I want to do an episode on why light is important in photography. There, I might have just come up with a title too.

But until I publish this, when you are taking a photo think about the light, where it is coming from, how it lights up what you are photographing. Move around and se how it changes. Start to think about the light before you take a photo.

Composition

If photography is drawing with light, what we draw is the other half of things. Composition. What we include, and indeed what we do not include in a photo.

Composition is king people.

Me

A rubbish composition = a rubbish photo. A great composition = a potentially great photo. The better the composition, the better the photo you might create.

This is so important, such a fundamental thing. So important that this is on my list for a future episode as well.

And this has been the case since before photography was invented. Yes the great paintings all have one thing in common, great composition. And great light of course!

This is not a new thing, but this is a very human thing. Learn composition, learn how humans perceive composition.

I will come back to this one for sure, writing just this short bit has got me started on another pet subject of mine! But I will stop here. For now.

Gear

You need gear to draw with light. That is a given. But, we should think about gear like this.

Photography gear is simply the tools that we use to take photos, the tools that we use to create new stuff. Of course gear is important, but it is possibly not as important as we might think.

You need gear to take photos. That of course can include a phone. And if you take photos with a phone that is fine. That is your gear. And if that is all you use in some ways I am jealous.

But there is gear that we need, and there is gear that we want. And there is gear that we get that we really do not need.

Again, this will be another episode where I will explain why gear is not as important as we might think.

And now for the even more talky bit

I want to pick up on a few things from episode 1. Not all of them don’t worry. Just the ones that could apply to any one of us. Remember, episode 1 was titled “What Is Photography To Me?”. It was always going to be what is photography, but I could have answered that in one short sentence.

So here are a few things that I want to talk about

Imposter syndrome

Yes, I suffer from imposter syndrome. Even now. I have been doing this photography thing for over 40 years but I still suffer from imposter syndrome.

What is imposter syndrome? Well imposter syndrome is the inability to believe that you have done something using your own skills and abilities. Well that is my take on it.

And on certain shoots, when I look back at what I have created I cannot believe that I have created those images. They look like they were created by a real photographer.

Yes I really think that. I really do. And I am fine with that, actually in some ways it is a healthy thing.

If you feel like this then don’t worry, just go with it. I have been doing so for years and years.

I guess I am at an age where I am comfortable with my insecurities. Yes it’s an age thing…

A lifetimes study

I started photography in my early teens. Now I am mid-50s. So 40 years for sure I have been doing this photography thing. 40 years. I know. Now there was a period in the middle when I only took photos on holiday, but I have always been interested in photography.

And I am still studying and learning now. Sorry dear listener, if you thought that you would get to a point where you knew everything then that is not the case.

And this is a good thing to know. Never aim to know everything, learn what you need to learn to get started, to get to a level, but keep on learning, keep on practising, keep on trying things.

Every time I write an episode of my podcast I learn something, a new thought, a new way of looking at things. There is always more.

And I love learning about photography – I really do.

Sunrises

I love my sunrises. More than my sunsets. And photography has taken me to many, many amazing sunrises that I would have never seen without it.

And when I am photographing a sunrise it is normally just me, there is never anyone else there. I am thinking back now and I can only remember a couple of times when I was not alone.

One was when I was photographing an amazing sunrise on the wonderful Greek Island Santorini. A coach pulled up next to me, when I say next to me I had to get the driver to move his coach out of my way – I was there first, I had priority. Anyway, the coach party got off the coach, everyone took the same photo then they all got back on the coach and were off.

Hardly living the moment eh?

And yes they missed the actual sunrise, they missed the really good stuff, but I am glad that they got to experience just a little bit of this natural wonder.

And the other time that springs to mind is on the equally wonderful Greek Island, Rhodes. I was photographing the sunrise on top of a hill, a hill which is more like a massive rock. A few hundred feet high. I got there well before sunrise, climbed the 200 hundred or so steps to get to the top, and went about my business of taking photos.

Now I talk to myself when I am out doing this stuff, not sure what about but it’s fine cos it is just me there right? And I probably clatter about and moan and swear and generally make lots of noise. Like I say fine as there is no one else there.

But as the sun rose I saw a person sat on the very top facing the rising sun. How long had they been there? Had they been there all the time? Had I spoiled their pre-sunrise experience? They were sat in a meditative kind of position facing the sun.

So I stopped chuntering away, made less noise, felt a bit embarrassed to be honest. How could I be so selfish? I got over this quite quickly though and the person became the focal point one of my better sunrise photos!

I photograph more sunrises than I do sunsets for two reasons. It is the thing I love to do on holiday. Not every day of course, 3 or 4 times in a week is fine with me. And when I am done I can always go back to bed!

Firstly, there is nothing for me like witnessing the start of a new day, especially when it is just me there. There is something magical about this, such a special time and place and happening.

Secondly, I watch sunsets rather than photograph them. I watch them with Mrs M. Somewhere nice with a drink.

Unique locations

I have taken photographs in many unique locations. Now I photograph buildings. That is what I do. I have photographed homes of various famous people, including

A Hollywood film producer. I can’t say who, I have never been able to, which is a great shame as this person is a genuine A Lister. It would be great to brag about this but I can’t. And I won’t. But an amazing experience.

A great British inventor. Again, I can’t say who but I photographed this persons house and found him to be one of the nicest, most interesting people I have ever met. I could have spoken to him all day, in fact I am sure that I took many more photos than I needed to just so I could stay longer!

I have photographed many unique, special country residences. This has to be one of my favourite things to do.

And I have also been to some unique industrial locations, and had unique access within them, including a live rail siding gravel lading facility, as well as a working quarry.

There are many other places that my photography has got me.

The photos that I have taken

I have an amazing collection of photos. An amazing collection of memories. And that to me is priceless. My Lightroom Catalogue has photos that go back to 2005 (before Lightroom existed), and the photos on my phone go back to 2012.

This is work stuff, personal work and family stuff. I feel privileged to have such a collection of photos. In fact on my blog last week I wrote about a photo I took in 2008. Even more amazing is that Lightroom had the time and date and all the camera settings for a photo that I could not even remember taking.

This is what photography can give us, a lifetime of visual memories. Pretty much everywhere that I have been since 2005 has been photographed and is in my Lightroom Catalogue, so I have an amazing, unique record of those years instantly accessible to me. And a record of things that I can’t remember, things that I had forgotten about.

And you can’t put a price on this can you? And yes I have lots of prints from before then but I rarely look at them.

These are just a few examples of what photography is to me.

Right – talky bit over – what if I use a phone to take my photos?

• Light
• Composition
• Gear

All of the above apply. A phone is a device that you can use to take photos. A camera is another device that you can use to take photos.

But all of the above apply. Apart from the gear that is. And with that I will move on.

What do I do?

I am so glad that I have reminded myself of the fundamentals of photography. Drawing with light. It is so easy to get caught up in everything else and forget this fundamental point.

Photography in 2023 is drawing with light, just as it was 10, 20, 30 and onwards years ago.

I am in the fortunate position of having the gear that I need. And I mean the gear that I need. And also in the fortunate position of knowing how to use that gear.

But I am always learning and practising, trying to improve, trying to take better, more interesting photos.

Technical stuff I have sorted – that is fixed knowns. What goes into a photo and how the light interacts are the two endless variables that make or break any photo.

And the thing that I mentioned before, which your phone is spectacularly good at– capturing moments, capturing memories. And with a phone instantly sharing them. See this is such an integral part of our lives these days we don’t necessarily see this as photography, but it is of course.

I have recorded a significant amount of my life in photos. And I am so glad that I have done this.

Some thoughts from the last episode, “What Is Photography? Episode 1 Revisited. Well I Want To Get Back To Basics”

Well, that is what this episode was all about. Move on Rick.

About the last episode

Episode 146 was a different, shorter episode. I was not able to write and record a full episode due to personal circumstances, but now that is all resolved it is back to normal business for me and my podcast. So thank you for bearing with me.

Talking of which

Next episode

Photography Explained Podcast Episode 148 – 11 Actionable Things You And I Can Do To Improve Our Photography in 2023 (Part 1). This should have been episode 146, but I will get there. I didn’t want to get too far into 2023 either, or it would be too late!

This is good stuff too, I am looking forward to recording this one having written the script.

Ask me a question

If you want me to answer your photography question, whatever it might be, just head over to PhotographyExplainedPodcast.com/start.

This episode was brought to you by, erm, yesterdays left over chips warmed up in the microwave and placed in a buttered white roll, all washed down with a Diet Pepsi before I settled down in my home-made, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me between 20 and 30 (ish) minutes of your valuable time.

Take care, stay safe

Cheers from me Rick

OK – that was the podcast episode.

Want to know more?

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

Let me send you stuff

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.

And finally a little bit about me

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick