Do You Take Photos or Make Photos?

Simple Idea Trick
Creative Commons License photo credit: vaXzine

In response to my previous post on “My Weakest Area of Photography“, one comment got me thinking about the topic of “taking photos” versus “making photos”. Travis Campbell said it well in his comment:

I’m getting to the point where I want to create scenes instead of just capturing ones already in play. And I’m realizing just how hard it is to come up with good ideas that look good on screen or in print. I’ve started writing some of these down and letting them percolate, adding new bits to each one when a brainstorm comes around. It’s a slow process, but I’m definitely getting a better feel for it.

So this made me curious as to how many of us “take photos” and how many “make photos”. Are you capturing the scene as you see it, possibly waiting for the right moment or best light? Or are you creating the scene, planning it, and executing the capture of a concept? Personally, I'm a “photo taker” — I work with what's already there and try to find interesting scenes that exist without my intervention. But what about you?

{democracy:49}

And check out the poll results from last week asking “Print From Home or Print On Demand?” It looks like we have a whole mixture of answers, but the POD services (online and offline) seem to be favored 2 to 1 with online POD services having a 3 to 1 favor over offline POD.