At some point photography does get easier

[imagemaker46]

You win, I lose. You rule.

 

[Derrel]

It's more of a statement than anything else and it's directed to the amateurs and camera owners new to photography. I read a lot of the posts on the forum and many I don't respond to because they are being written by the magazine readers, the ones that read an article on photography and spew out the information so they can sound like they know "how" to take pictures. I have to say that there are a lot of people that can tell people what is wrong with the photos that have been posted and yet they have no clue what they are talking about. I don't read magazines or books, never have, certainly not anything related to photography, but I do know that the more information you can aquire the better. I grew up in the business, it's been a lot of years. I can also say that I don't find photography hard or difficult, I understand light, I can walk into any room/venue and know where the best pictures will come from, it takes only a few minutes to figure everything out. Like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets. Don't give up because you've had a bad shoot, don't give up because you find it too much of a challenge. Every professional has gone through the same things.

Most camera owners will never make a living doing this, many will try and many will fail, but just enjoy it. When you start to doubt yourself, you add stress and that's not what the hobby is all about. Always remember to be ready for a picture, when you are walking around, keep the camera turned on, throw the lens cap in your pocket, have your settings all set, if the light changes, change the setting, don't wait for the picture to disappear because you weren't ready.

Photography doesn't have rules, you don't need to know or try to understand half of what is said on this forum, just learn what you need to know, some great pictures just happen, be ready. Have fun. It does get easier.

You were born frickin' awesome!

 

[imagemaker46]

Anyone else? Take a free shot.

I wasn't born frickin' awsome, I grew up learning from frickin' awesome.

 

[Derrel]

But you never studied anything. It all came naturally. Like, through osmosis or something. You rock dude! And your dad did too!

Oh, wait..you said,

"I don't read magazines or books, never have, certainly not anything related to photography, but I do know that the more information you can aquire the better. I grew up in the business, it's been a lot of years. I can also say that I don't find photography hard or difficult, I understand light, I can walk into any room/venue and know where the best pictures will come from, it takes only a few minutes to figure everything out. Like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets. Don't give up because you've had a bad shoot, don't give up because you find it too much of a challenge. Every professional has gone through the same things.

Most camera owners will never make a living doing this, many will try and many will fail, but just enjoy it. When you start to doubt yourself, you add stress and that's not what the hobby is all about. Always remember to be ready for a picture, when you are walking around, keep the camera turned on, throw the lens cap in your pocket, have your settings all set, if the light changes, change the setting, don't wait for the picture to disappear because you weren't ready.

Photography doesn't have rules, you don't need to know or try to understand half of what is said on this forum, just learn what you need to know, some great pictures just happen, be ready. Have fun. It does get easier."

I LOVE how you say the more information you can acquire the better. Know what imagemaster??? There is MORE INFORMATION in one, single BOOK than in the heads of ten average shooters. Wow! You must therefore be INCREDIBLY gifted! You can shoot anything, anywhere, and turn in INCREDIBLE CHIT, day after day after day! Good deal! We should all be as talented as you! MY GUESS is tonight, you're posting drunk....it sure sounds like it, from all your boasting and bashing of others.

 

[tirediron]

... MY GUESS is tonight, you're posting drunk....it sure sounds like it...

You mean some people post sober?????

 

[imagemaker46]

But you never studied anything. It all came naturally. Like, through osmosis or something. You rock dude! And your dad did too!

Oh, wait..you said,

"I don't read magazines or books, never have, certainly not anything related to photography, but I do know that the more information you can aquire the better. I grew up in the business, it's been a lot of years. I can also say that I don't find photography hard or difficult, I understand light, I can walk into any room/venue and know where the best pictures will come from, it takes only a few minutes to figure everything out. Like anything, the more you do it the easier it gets. Don't give up because you've had a bad shoot, don't give up because you find it too much of a challenge. Every professional has gone through the same things.

Most camera owners will never make a living doing this, many will try and many will fail, but just enjoy it. When you start to doubt yourself, you add stress and that's not what the hobby is all about. Always remember to be ready for a picture, when you are walking around, keep the camera turned on, throw the lens cap in your pocket, have your settings all set, if the light changes, change the setting, don't wait for the picture to disappear because you weren't ready.

Photography doesn't have rules, you don't need to know or try to understand half of what is said on this forum, just learn what you need to know, some great pictures just happen, be ready. Have fun. It does get easier."

I LOVE how you say the more information you can acquire the better. Know what imagemaster??? There is MORE INFORMATION in one, single BOOK than in the heads of ten average shooters. Wow! You must therefore be INCREDIBLY gifted! You can shoot anything, anywhere, and turn in INCREDIBLE CHIT, day after day after day! Good deal! We should all be as talented as you! MY GUESS is tonight, you're posting drunk....it sure sounds like it, from all your boasting and bashing of others.

Well I'm not drunk. I will add that there is more information on photography in my Dad's head than in any books you can find. Oh and I do turn out consistantly well above average images every time I shoot, any day and anywhere. I have the guts to know what my skill level is and say it. I have shot with the best sports photographers in the world, and can hold my own against any of them. It's been a long time since I was personally being attacked, can't say that I really care anymore.


You can take all the cheap shots at me, but showing my dad any disrespect crosses the line. He's helped launch some of the best photographers in the world on very successful careers in photojournalism, he still shoots, lectures and does seminars at 83 years old.

 

[Fred Berg]

People, all people (including photographers of great skill and ability) are creatures of community and habit. We need customs and conventions to get along in life. Whether you choose to call these things rules or not isn't very important; but realising that you can't get away from them and recognising that they are the chains that allow you your individual freedom and creativity is. Touching on Manaheim's IT examples: we are programmed to receive and recycle.

 

[Skylab]

I haven't studied that much about photography. But I do know when I take a bad picture. And since I'm shooting for my satisfaction, that's all that matters when I push the shutter button.

Do you like what you see?

 

[Designer]

I was never really taught what was good and what was bad, I grew up seeing the best all the time, so yes advantage.

Your father never took a bad photo? Or did he discard the ones that were bad?

I think your early education was simply looking at good photos, and being told that they were good. Nobody had to formulate a "rule" for you because people in those days didn't think about photography in those terms. It was either good or not good.

 

[pgriz]

Watch a master at something, do his/her thing. You can’t help but learn. How to hold a tool, what is the sequence of actions, what grabs his/her attention. And if you grew up with that person, you cannot help but absorb the unspoken lessons about what is important, and what is not. The child of a master wood-carver, knows the tools, how they are used, what the start and end-points look like, what is “good”, and what is to be tossed into the firewood box.

There’s truth in the saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Whatever characteristics make the parent good at what they do, are often passed on to a lesser or greater degree to the children. It’s an unfair advantage, really, to be able to benefit both genetically, and through life-long exposure, to an art. Those who start in the same art without those benefits, have to learn the structure, the methods, the many things that make the art effective, without a role model, and certainly without a full-time mentor.

It is true, an art form like photography does get easier with time, IF one accumulates the experience, learns the formal and informal rules that determine “goodness” in an art, actively learns from his/her mistakes. One benefit of belonging to a photo club and going on outings/workshops, is to observe how accomplished artists/photographers go about the whole process. One can build up, through trial and error, a decent understanding of the mechanics of photography, and maybe even about composition, but it is very hard to set aside one’s own viewpoint and habits and see one’s work in an “objective” fashion. Which is why looking at other people’s work, at other images, helps calibrate the sense of what is “good” and “why”.

@ imagemaker – you’ve been priviledged to have a father who, if only by example, has given you many years of experience distilled to effective practice. This puts you far ahead of most other people in terms of internalizing the myriad rules (and yes, they are there, and they are many) that guide the practice of photography. I am pretty sure that your ability to “read” the light came from years of observation of your father doing just that. Your choice to pursue photography as a career, leveraged the gift of knowledge that your father has bequeated you with. I’m sure that was much that you had to learn on your own, but the foundation was already in place. Consider that many beginners entering this field have no foundation, and don’t even know where/how such a foundation should be built.

Your advice was, “just learn what you need to know”. The devil in the details is knowing “what you need to know”. How do you know? For some of us, that is “obvious”. For the majority, it’s hard, hard work putting together the concepts and structure and understanding to be able to produce decent images. And it does get easier, once we figure out how things are connected, and what the unspoken rules are.

 

[imagemaker46]

I got mentally sidetracked while I was typing my first post, for the most part all I was trying to do was encourage the camera owners not to give up simply because they find taking pictures difficult, because it does it easier.

 

[pgriz]

Yes, it does. We just have to keep remembering that it's not the destination, but the journey that counts.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Yup, it does get easier.
I gets easier when all those "rules" and guidelines become second nature and thoughtless.
Such as deciding unconsciously to use portrait orientation as you bring the camera to your eye.

 

[cgipson1]

I got mentally sidetracked while I was typing my first post, for the most part all I was trying to do was encourage the camera owners not to give up simply because they find taking pictures difficult, because it does it easier.

I agree... after a while, you "absorb" the "rules" or guidelines... and do them automatically, instead of having to think about them. Your perspective changes to a degree... so that when it looks right, it is! And as you develop more skill with your body, and understand what it does... it gets easier to use it to get the effects you want. Same for light... experience will tell you what light is good, what light needs modification... when you need to add light, etc.

All of this come from learning and application, and that leads to experience and knowledge... which does not come overnight.

(this may be a redundant post... but maybe not!)

 

[amolitor]

Whether you call them rules, guidelines, or donkeys, and whether you have them memorized or internalized or you just carry them around on an index card, when Wharhol comes on the scene and turns everything upside down, you pretty much look like a jerk if you get fussy about sticking to them.

Half the "rules" that get cited on TPF are relatively recent conventions that will die out as fast as they arose, and most of the other half are just familiar visual tropes that people are comfortable with.

Compliance with the first lot is necessary to make your work look contemporary, and compliance with the second lot is necessary to make your work comfortable to look at. These are not things to be tossed aside lightly, but you should be aware of what they are and why they work, and how they work.