Glossary entry

Russian term or phrase:

фоткать

English translation:

to snap (photographs)

Added to glossary by Susan Welsh
Dec 15, 2013 12:07
10 yrs ago
Russian term

фоткать

Russian to English Art/Literary Photography/Imaging (& Graphic Arts) slang
This is a museum curator complaining about people taking millions of photos with digital cameras rather than actually looking at the works of art in the museum.

"Пока что он научился фоткать…
Фоткать? Что за мерзкий глагол! Уже одним своим видом он вызывает массу отрицательных эмоций. Фоткать — это не то что фотографировать. Фотографировать — значит служить высокому искусству. Фоткать — механически и почти бездумно «щёлкать». Глагол «фотографировать» изначально предполагает, что у человека есть хотя бы элементарное представление о построении кадра. Для того чтобы фоткать, никакими искусствоведческими знаниями обладать не надо. Если фотканье — это процесс, то он противоположен смотрению и созерцанию."

After combing through the Internet, I came up with "spray and pray" -- http://digital-photography-school.com/deciphering-photo-jarg... -- which I thought conveyed what the author was trying to say. But the editor (Russian native speaker, good English) didn't like it, and wrote back:
"It's nice but too complicated. "Фоткать" in Russian doesn't mean anything special. It's just a shortened form of "фотографировать" widely used in Internet, especially by women, who like diminutive suffixes :). It's just quicker to write. And there's absolutely no negative emotions connected with it (generally speaking), the author speaks only about himself.
Is this term you suggest popular?"

Indeed, it is complicated, and the phrase is not widely used (at least I never heard of it before). Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Discussion

Alexandra Schneeuhr Dec 15, 2013:
Wow, that's an interesting one! What would you say of 'taking pics' vs. 'taking pictures/photos'?

Proposed translations

+12
9 mins
Selected

to snap (photographs)

could that possibly work for you?
Peer comment(s):

agree Alexandra Schneeuhr : to snapsho(o)t vs. to photograph sounds about right, IMHO
13 mins
Thank you, Sasha))) Спасибо!
agree Frank Szmulowicz, Ph. D. : works for me
45 mins
Thank you, MacroJanus
agree Rachel Douglas : How about "to snap pix"? Then "What a vile expression!" rather than "verb".
1 hr
Thank you, Rachel. Yeah, I think you are right. Your version sounds more relaxed and, thus, less formal))). Txs.
agree Paul Hirsh : or taken up happy snapping
1 hr
Thank you, Paul!
agree MariyaN (X)
5 hrs
Thank you, Mariya
agree Sarah McDowell
6 hrs
Thank you, Sarah!
agree Jack Doughty
10 hrs
Thank you, Jack!
agree cyhul
14 hrs
Thank you, Cyhul!
agree Maria Mizguireva
19 hrs
Thank you, Maria!
agree interprivate
20 hrs
Thank you, Interprivate)!
agree Oleksiy Markunin
1 day 5 hrs
agree Andrew Vdovin
1 day 14 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks!"
20 mins

he's picked up shooting so far

Just as a variant.
Peer comment(s):

neutral Rachel Douglas : Sorry, but a "variant" of what? As a noun, "variant" means something that varies from a norm. With respect to normally fluent English, that may be the case for this suggestion, but I don't think it's what you meant. "Another option"? "An alternative"?
1 hr
Something went wrong...
4 hrs

click away (with their digital cameras)

This makes it sound even more mindless.
Something went wrong...
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