Although I enjoy photography, I got into it more as a necessity than a passion. The understanding of how light works with a camera and also reflects off your subjects though, is one that every creative individual should learn and try to eventually master. Its importance cannot be overstated. I love photos though that capture an emotion, like the fun photo of the group below. Many times, marketing and design are just as much psychological pursuits as they are visual ones. How do you create a feeling, manipulate a decision, or push the eye of the viewer in the direction you want it to go? Photography is an extension of all this and I'm happy to have learned the basics and hope to continue learning more into the future.
Editing is another great skill to have developed. It's not always about how crisp the image is or how it pops, but also the colors and tones. All of this helps when creating a design in photoshop as well. You start to understand that you can't just crop an object or a person in one area of light and color and throw them into another. Light literally creates your subject and his or her tones, so you need to be able to manipulate those tones to match their new environment.
Most of the time, I don't get the luxury either of shooting in manual. When you are running around trying to take photos of Members in different positions and different light settings, I find myself just staying on automatic for convenience sake. However, I dabble as much as I can in manual when not chasing after my subjects.
