You are a Photographer if you Take Good Photos of People

Okay Andy, if you really want to catch the essence of the moment, find a camera which has a view finder that can be "redacted" to the redacted in relationship with the lense ... in practice, you're redacted redacted, and capturing images in redacted, works every time.

Gadget from has written 916 comments

I am not sure whether you are promoting a youtube.com video or explaining somethings. The term "redacted" is not defined, therefore not very helpful.

If you are ready to spend in regions of 5000 bucks for a camera and traveling the world you have completely wasted your money by looking at common digi SLRs.
In this case is there only one camera what deserves to be looked at: Leica M. With a set of lenses for all ranges, with unbelievable quality, with 1.0 aperture, and a warranty till end of your life.
And: That all weights only 30 of what you have now and fits in your pockets. This camera is so small that you cannot hide behind it like your biggy now. No noise (no mirror), and the people like it more when they can see you.

There is a tiny fre program called Irfan view. Perfect for adjusting the gamma of a pic. That is no manipulating of pics, that's just an adjustment in the technical sense. You will be surprised what you can see in the shades by sliding the gamma button. Your camera is better than your eyes.

Pato from has written 56 comments

You have big balls when it comes to photographing people, you step up to the plate and shoot -- no questions asked, no hesitation. This is the intuitive action that makes a photographer. Setting up photos and bla, blah, blah are nonsense skills that anybody can learn, but the intuition of when to take a photo and not hesitating before doing so -- and the ability to see a story in photographs -- are the true talents of photography.

I have known many people who have studied photography in university, and so much of what they learn is based in setting up pictures, having models, making sure the lighting is right, and tons of other nonsense that the cultural, travel, or documentary photographer is not at liberty to do.

If you look at all the great looking photographs of people in the travel mags, it is obvious that most of them were from set up photo shoots -- the "photographer" comes into a town and hires models, dresses them up in funny clothes, reveals a breast or two, and then shoots. This is only one aspect of photography, and, in my opinion does not mean too much (but this is not really the goal, I suppose).

It is my impression that you are a documentary photographer -- you document a place and a point in time with photographs -- and your photos tell a real story, or help to tell a story.

These are different arts of photography.

Andy, sorry about the "redacted" post last night, had a few glasses of wine in me.


Generally, West Africans DO NOT like having their pictures taken without permission. We found that it is much easier to capture the true essence of the moment with a camera that has a view finder that can be swiveled to an adjacent angle in relationship with the lense.

In practice, you appear to be looking in another direction while capturing images to your left, right, behind...you get the idea.

You will capture the eyes that are upon you.