During these tumultuous times, those of us interested in photography can use inspirational quotes. Although about photography, they can inform our lives in positive ways. You’ll be able to see why as someone who does night photography and long exposure, I might gravitate toward some of these quotes. However, all of us can be inspired from these quotes. They can make our holidays more joyful. Perhaps if we embrace them, they can make our lives more joyful.

“You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.”
– Joan Miro

“I think of photography like therapy.”
– Harry Gruyaert

“Getting photographs is not the most important thing. For me it’s the act of photographing. It’s enlightening, therapeutic and satisfying, because the very process forces me to connect with the world. When you make four-hour exposures in the middle of the night, you inevitably slow down and begin to observe and appreciate more what’s going on around you. In our fast-paced, modern world, it’s a luxury to be able to watch the stars move across the sky.”
– Michael Kenna

Comet NEOWISE, Owens Valley, CA. Nikon D750 with a 50mm f/1.4 prime lens. Earth: 90 second exposure at f/2.5, ISO 250. Sky: 19 photos taken in succession and “stacked,” with each photo 8 seconds, f/2.5, ISO 2500.

“Photography means painting with light. And that’s what you do. You paint a picture only by adding light to the things you see.”
– Katja Michael

“In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”
– Alfred Stieglitz

“Photography is a love affair with life.”
– Burk Uzzle

Big Bear Lake, CA. Pentax K-1 with a 15-30mm f/2.8 lens. This is a stack of 23 photos in succession; each photo is 15 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 1600.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
– Ansel Adams

“I gravitate towards places where humans have been and are no more, to the edge of man’s influence, where the elements are taking over or covering man’s traces.”
– Michael Kenna

“One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and on. It’s on all the time.”
– Annie Leibovitz

“There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”
– Abraham Lincoln