A "learning thread." What was your "A-Ha!" moment in photography?

[Derrel]

Bitter "liked" one of my comment before.....huh huh huh....

That was cool....

Huh huh huh...:thumbup:

Is this a Beavis homage??? huh huh huh huh huh huh....

 

[pgriz]

I've had a few...

When I understook just how much work and preparation goes into making good images.

When I began to understand that flash and ambient were two separate but combined exposures.

When I began to see the discrete light sources in any scene, each with their own characteristics.

When I began to understand that blur, movement, out-of-focus elements, and other "imperfect" parts actually work to create mood and emotion.

And that was yesterday.

Who knows what today will bring?

 

[Mike_E]

I had an uncle once that told me to shoot a white egg against a white background and to use as many rolls of film as it took until I learned how to make the photo of the egg look like a real egg.

Aha, good light is useless with out good shadow.

 

[Ashlee_Duh]

Probably one of the major "A-Ha" moments I've had was when I first got a DSLR. It was worlds different from shooting on a little point and shoot. It blew my mind in a very good way! Like others have said though, I also have a bunch of "A-Ha" moments daily.

I think another "A-Ha" moment was teaching myself how to just have fun with photography. I used to over think shots or scenes and now I'm letting loose and gaining confidence. Probably my best "A-Ha" moment.

 

[JacaRanda]

"A-Ha" Moment

#1 Finding out how expensive and addicting the hobby can be (freakin is)!

#2 Understanding every noob that breaks written and unwritten rules in regards to watermarks, hdr, facebook, making a little cash, and having friends and family
praise our pictures. That is the short list and I have done most of them.

#3 Reading TPF enough to somewhat figure out the unofficial pecking order of members: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly!

#4 The best for last. My wife and I can walk miles around a lake, a wildlife preserve, a zoo, or our neighborhood for hours on end, just to get a picture of a hummingbird, bee, bug, cloud............... and arthritis takes a backseat through it all. THAT IS FREAKIN AWESOME "A-HAAAAAAAAAAAA"

 

[christop]

Most of my "aha" moments involved aperture (it seems to me that most people have more difficulty understanding aperture than shutter speed or ISO).

- Realizing that how much light gets through an aperture depends on its area, not its diameter.

- Figuring out how a lens produces, and how aperture affects, (from a physics standpoint) the out-of-focus areas of a photo.

- After pixel-peeping for too long and always striving for no noise in all my shots, coming to the realization that high-ISO noise is far preferable to motion blur (in low-light scenarios when my aperture is already as wide as it can go).

- Realizing how useful the Sunny 16 rule can be when using a completely manual lens.

- Somewhat recently Realizing how depth of field, sensor size, and circle of confusion play together.

 

[Benco]

When I got back the developed film that had shots taken with my ancient, all manual SLR toting a 50mm prime with homemade macro extension (manufactured with insulating tape and a carefully calculated length of toilet roll tube)...and they had worked.

 

[dbvirago]

For me it was the first time I actually saw the scene before I pressed the shutter, walked around to get the composition I had envisioned, carefully metered and then took the shot. When I opened the image on my laptop, that was the aha moment and the first time I looked at something I shot and said wow.

Unfortunately, for me, those moments are still rarer than they should be.

 

[kundalini]

External lighting.

 

[ratssass]

....when i learned how to spell epipheny

 

[rexbobcat]

My a-ha moment has yet to come.

It's kind of like that solution that feels like it's right on the tip of my brain, but it's not quite there.

I'll probably end up as one of those depressed crazy people who never quite get a stable identity of themselves. Hahahaha...heh...

*sigh*

 

[flow]

I have little ones all the time ... less "AHA!" and more "Ohhh".
But 1 big one was - I tried a few times (still do it now & then) shooting the exact same thing on Auto, and with "my" settings. Shoot once, spin the dial, shoot again. Compare results right away on the LCD - not great for image review, but I'm still standing there with the actual situation in front of me, & before I forget what I was aiming for. The camera & I, it turns out, often disagree about what the best choice is ... so this helped me learn to trust my own thoughts a little more, rather than relying on the camera's processor. And, even when both results come out acceptable, it helped me see more clearly what was going on.

 

[christop]

....when i learned how to spell epipheny

Epiphany?

 

[kundalini]

....when i learned how to spell epipheny

Epiphany?

Epitome?

 

[thetrue]

Last night, when I discovered I have NO EFFING CLUE how to properly use flash to my advantage.