Sometimes You Might Be Better Off With A "JPH" Camera

I set every control on the Fuji X-T1 on automatic
when I went out for a neighborhood walk.  As I
saw interesting subjects, I just aimed and pushed
the shutter button.  Most images were as good as
if I had spent a lot of thought making them.
(click to enlarge)

I don't know about you, but sometimes I think I would just like to have a "JPH" camera hanging around my neck when going out to enjoy the day. I'm not talking about going out to photograph but just going out and going about my business while keeping my eyes open. (You do keep you eyes open at all times, don't you?)

What is a "JPH" camera?  "JPH" stands for "Just Push Here."  Sometimes referred to as a "PHD" camera, or "Push Here Dummy," I believe sometimes it is nice, when going out for a day and taking a camera (as I'm sure many of us routinely do) that we would be better off just setting the camera completely to automatic so as to not have to get into the serious photographer mode and worry about all sorts of camera settings, depth of field, shutter speed, etc.  I think the psychological switch from casual, ancillary photography to serious photographic effort can lessen the enjoyment of your non-photographic activities.

The cameras of today are so sophisticated and capable that probably for most of our needs, we could actually set it on "P" (doesn't that stand for Professional?  LOL), make our exposures and end up with images of equal quality as the ones where we carefully consider every setting, go into menus, turn knobs, ponder the outcome and get everything just right.  There are many instances when we need to get very serious and think, and actually enjoy doing that, mind you, but when just going out for a stroll, going to town to pick some things up at a store, driving over to visit friends, etc., when the object of the trip is not photography, set the camera to P and enjoy.  No worries.  If you see something interesting, take a snapshot!  Nothing wrong with the occasional snapshot.

I have done just this in the past with my X-T1 and I was surprised at how well the camera chose the same settings, or very close to the same settings,  that I would have chosen for many of the images in similar circumstances.  That is a long way from my early days in photography where everything was manual as there wasn't any setting available that was automatic.  Aperture priority hadn't even been introduced at that point!  One had to think, practice, think, etc., in order to have correctly exposed film.  If you didn't think every time you pressed the shutter, you were either lucky or your film was ruined.

My point is that photography doesn't have to be complicated or require intensity ALL of the time.  There are times when you can place all of your controls on automatic while engaging in other activities and still come home with some memorable images.  Try it. Experiment.  Explore.  JPH!  Most of all, enjoy!

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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