The Challenge

[Battou]

01:24 PM
02:27 PM

In a single hour you not only found a wildbird but shot it as well?
with a 50mm???
Your quick!

Know your target, the sparrows love the rhododendron bush right out side the door.

To be honest with you I expected it to take longer too.

 

[Chiller]

My biggest challenge is shooting people. I hate it. Im much more comfortable out alone, just wandering with the camera shooting what I see. But to overcome it, I have promised myself that I would attempt things out of my league this summer, and see how I do. I started with shooting a band in a small club, and then shot some images of my daughter for her wedding.
My other challenge is my editing. I suck at it. Im self taught, and basically pieced together my workflow from a bunch of other photographers I know. I dont know if Im editing properly, and feel Im losing a lot in my images cause of it.
To over come that, Im going to take the time to learn more about RAW conversion, and working with images to get the best quality.

 

[Hooligan Dan]

So far my biggest challenge has been trying to break out of the small market newspaper I work for a move on to larger publications. I haven't overcome it yet, but I'm working on it.

 

[dEARlEADER]

My biggest challenge is shooting people. I hate it. Im much more comfortable out alone, just wandering with the camera shooting what I see. But to overcome it, I have promised myself that I would attempt things out of my league this summer, and see how I do. I started with shooting a band in a small club

That's funny... given your avatar I would think you take great pleasure shooting people... and even greater pleasure at using a small club....

 

[Chiller]

That's funny... given your avatar I would think you take great pleasure shooting people... and even greater pleasure at using a small club....

:lmao::lmao:

 

[Bifurcator]

My only challenge in the past 20 years or so has been finding affordable products that either aren't made of cheesy plastic or aren't made by a company I refuse to have anything to do with. 20 years ago and before it was ALLOT easier than now for sure! And it seems to be getting more difficult on a logarithmic scale.

I guess I'm overcoming it by buying less toys and just saving for the more quality ones but that isn't an overcoming solution as much as it is a forced defensive posture.

 

[Overread]

I know the feeling Bifurcator!
It seems the manufacturing maxim these days is to design and make cheap products with the cheapest materials with an eye that they break about a month after warrenty expires - so you have to buy another.
As for repairing - not worth it half the time

 

[bigalbest]

At first the challenge was learning the technical side of photography (shutter speed, aperture, iso, lighting, and printing). And while I feel like I'm finally getting a pretty good grasp on those subjects, my pictures still lack the intangible qualities I've really been looking for all along. To figure these problems out I continue to read books, attend seminars, night school, collaborate with other photographers and reverse engineer the photos I think are great. And I will never give up, I truly love taking pictures.

 

[icassell]

Wow ... biggest challenge? ... everytime I think I've hit that and get a handle on it, a new challenge comes along ... I guess that's what makes it fun.

My current problem is with lighting ... I usually shoot with available light, but I am learning how to use fill appropriately. I learned how bad I am at this when I started shooting Macro of butterflies. How am I dealing with it? Books and practice. Additionally I bought an off-camera flash.

 

[plentygood]

at the moment getting enough money to buy all the stuff i need hahah
still haven't overcome that one yet
the job market sucks for a 16 year old hahah

This.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Finding the time - the lack of time prevents me from growing creatively, and pursuing a creative vision consistently. I can't focus on a long-term project because I don't have enough time to let it evolve. The problem is that it becomes discouraging, and I find myself lacking the energy to go out and shoot.

 

[icassell]

Finding the time - the lack of time prevents me from growing creatively, and pursuing a creative vision consistently. I can't focus on a long-term project because I don't have enough time to let it evolve. The problem is that it becomes discouraging, and I find myself lacking the energy to go out and shoot.

Ditto!

 

[flygning]

My biggest challenge has been forcing myself out of my comfort zone.

I've been forcing myself to spend a good amount of time out and about each week shooting-- I set specific goals for each shoot and I strive to achieve them, because if I don't set the goals I end up wandering uselessly and not learning anything from the day.

I've been forcing myself to sit down and work on post processing each time-- at least one or two of my best keepers, or at least the ones with the most potential.

I've been forcing myself to shoot new subjects. Landscapes are easy enough to shoot. I find a lot more challenge photographing urban subjects and people. So, I do my best and I learn a bit each time, and I get more and more comfortable with them.

 

[abraxas]

Fairly varied set of challenges from a varied group. I think mine is being objective about my work. However, if I were objective and dissatisfied, I'd just quit. As I go on, I'm finding less and less of my earlier work makes me cringe when I look back on it. My solution is pretty much the same as Helen's- Just keep at it and persist in my direction.

Preventing the burden of purpose from weighing the photograph down.

Avoiding pictorialism while also avoiding impenetrable obscurity.

Solution: Keep working on it, don't dwell on it.

This was the one I found most interesting. I'd ask for elaboration because I'm not too swift at figuring certain concepts out, but that would be asking you to dwell on it a bit and counter-productive to your solution. Maybe another thread?

My biggest challenge has been forcing myself out of my comfort zone.

I've been forcing myself to spend a good amount of time out and about each week shooting-- I set specific goals for each shoot and I strive to achieve them, because if I don't set the goals I end up wandering uselessly and not learning anything from the day.

I've been forcing myself to sit down and work on post processing each time-- at least one or two of my best keepers, or at least the ones with the most potential.

I've been forcing myself to shoot new subjects. Landscapes are easy enough to shoot. I find a lot more challenge photographing urban subjects and people. So, I do my best and I learn a bit each time, and I get more and more comfortable with them.

I feel I have so far to go with landscapes. I could never agree that they are easy enough. Some of the work I've seen... Of course landscapes are my comfort zone. There's just something I feel when I'm out there. While I think of it, here's a contemporary I was turned on to last night.

http://markmetternich.smugmug.com/

Now, a week or so ago I did try some people shots. There wasn't much for landscapes so I got out of my comfort zone and shot some humanage. I had some fun and did pretty good too, but since I'm not objective, and positive feedback has been less than generous, I figure in the future I'll stick with landscapes where possible. Getting older as I am, I want to develop what feels good to me all the time. The street scene was fun, but I'm no prodigy

Of course I could be misunderstanding comfort zone.

 

[flygning]

I feel I have so far to go with landscapes. I could never agree that they are easy enough. Some of the work I've seen... Of course landscapes are my comfort zone. There's just something I feel when I'm out there. While I think of it, here's a contemporary I was turned on to last night.

http://markmetternich.smugmug.com/

Now, a week or so ago I did try some people shots. There wasn't much for landscapes so I got out of my comfort zone and shot some humanage. I had some fun and did pretty good too, but since I'm not objective, and positive feedback has been less than generous, I figure in the future I'll stick with landscapes where possible. Getting older as I am, I want to develop what feels good to me all the time. The street scene was fun, but I'm no prodigy

Of course I could be misunderstanding comfort zone.

Don't get me wrong, I know I have so much to learn with landscapes. Even when I'm "great" (tee-hee) I'll still have more to learn--it is always a process to improve. By saying landscapes are easy enough, I guess I mean relative to people/urban photography. You say I have an eye for landscapes, and maybe there's a glimmer of hope for me there, but I don't feel it when I'm out photographing people. I have to try so much harder than with landscapes, and that is saying something

I'll try anything at least once, and I figure if I don't force myself out of my comfort zone, I might miss something that I'm truly talented at just because I never tried it. So far, I've pretty much figured out I'm no genius at photographing people :raisedbrow: