Have you ever tried explaining your camera settings to a non-photographer friend and watched their eyes glaze over like a donut in a bakery? You start off innocently enough – “So I was shooting wide open at f/1.4 to get that creamy bokeh…” – and suddenly their soul has left their body.
To us photographers, phrases like “dynamic range,” “high-speed sync,” or “I had to bump my ISO because my shutter speed couldn’t keep up” are totally normal. To everyone else, it sounds like we’re trying to summon spirits using a very specific combination of numbers and acronyms.
And don’t even get me started on when two photographers meet in the wild. You’ll overhear conversations like, “I switched to mirrorless but still miss the tactile response of my DSLR,” and someone nearby will assume we’re discussing advanced medical procedures.
So next time you find yourself passionately explaining the inverse square law to someone who just wanted a nice headshot, maybe pause, smile, and remember: to the uninitiated, you’re basically speaking Parseltongue.
But hey – at least we sound smart, right? Be sure to visit the archives for more photography related humor – or follow us on Instagram or TikTok and get memes and reals in your feed.
