What helped you?

[Christina]

Just hear me out and let me ramble for a minute, i need it and promise it will end with a question :thumbsup:


Ever feel like your reading books, googling the internet and feeling like your making good progress on learning photo skills, may it be learning rules, tips, composition, ect..

look at some pictures on here, think "hey i can do that", then other nights you look at photo's and think " WTF was i thinking, ill never get this down no matter how hard I want to."


what do you do to stay positive? I know wanting something isnt enough to make it happen. but in a time when your learning to do something that your really interested in, along with keeping on with you normal life, do you ever feel like you way below the learning curve? What helps you to keep going?

 

[LaFoto]

Yes, I feel that all the time.
More so again with the new flash I got a week ago, and which I still only "master" (cough-cough) in P-mode on the camera so camera and flash AUTOMATICALLY do what they are supposed to do, since all the tables and lists of times and ratios etc are all GREEK to me for the time being ... and I really have to MAKE myself read and try to get better. With the feeling that "I sure won't ever be able to work this right"!

And yes, I also feel that others are sooo much more creative in how they work, what they make their photos look like, what POVs and angles they choose or how freely they apply this or that or that ... while I am old-fashioned and homely in my approach and only know this while they all seem to know that, too.

Oh yes. I know the feeling.
And there have been moments when I considered no longer looking at other people's photos to diminish the frustration factor inside me, or not to pick up the camera any more myself - for the same reason.

When I feel I have to really FORCE myself to take photos, I leave it.
They will then invariably look it. Forced.

One thing that kind of "lifts me up" here and there is my screen saver.
Ha!
Yes, my screen saver.
For I set my computer to "slide show" and it will randomly pick out photos from my files and "present" them to me, and since I have many photos saved on my second harddrive (from where the screen saver pics), the variety is great and the saver also sometimes randomly picks photos that I have long, long, long forgotten.

And sometimes I get to see one about which I think: "Hey? THAT's one of my OWN? Really? I was able to take that photo??" And that helps ... occasionally.

It also helps to hear others say that my photos are good, but what I am mostly left with is a feeling of flattery and embarrassment. I still don't see myself as praise-worthy as some say I am I then always tell myself that this is the countryside, the middle of nowhere, and they just don't know any better and haven't ever seen the REALLY good photos.

So - back to square 1 and the feeling of "never getting this down". Shake hands on this, Christina.

 

[usayit]

what do you do to stay positive?

Photography is a hobby which tends to lend itself to taking a photo, do a little post processing, and just keep it.

Take it a step farther, purchase a nice portfolio, make the prints, and create the portfolio as if it were a "Real" assignment. I have portfolios lining a bookshelf at the moment... spanning from my days in college to more recent work. A portfolio that has photos/samples of portraits and family photos I have done. Another portfolio that presents a series of photographs of graveyard stones and a 1 liner to invoke a thought. Yet another portfolio that presents Maine and all of that state's beauty.

I guess what I'm try to say is that photography is series of steps in a process.... but in of itself is a tool to create an image. Don't let it just stop there... make a "project" out of it.

They also become a peice of me that people like to browse through when they come to my home for a visit. I get much more gratification from the final outcome of what I've created... MUCH more than just posting them here and gathering comments. This is the number one reason why I rarely post photos... it just does not fit in my whole goal of the projects I have created for myself. When I do post, it is because there is something about the photo I need an opinion on... or it is a photo out of my norm and comments do help guide a bit.

 

[Mike_E]

Ever feel like your reading books, googling the internet and feeling like your making good progress on learning photo skills, may it be learning rules, tips, composition, ect..

look at some pictures on here, think "hey i can do that", then other nights you look at photo's and think " WTF was i thinking, ill never get this down no matter how hard I want to.

No matter what you are trying to internalize, you need time to digest.

When you get to those times where nothing you do seems right, Get out some of your favorites and just enjoy them -don't study them, just enjoy them. After a while the circuit breakers in your brain will kick back in and you'll start thinking about how you could use this or that and all will be well again.