How to break your "Plateau", tips on getting from great intermediate to "professional"?

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Sep 19, 2014

Ok so I have seen a VAST improvement to my work in the past year, heck sometimes I see it from shoot to shoot in a matter of weeks. BUT again, I have hit what I would like to call a plateau. Usually I fuel my muse in these times with new equipment, I know, I know, better gear does not make me a better photographer. Now I'm at the point where upgrading lenses is around $3000, not a measly $300-$600 like in the beginning. So unless my husband decides to go clinically insane, I doubt I'll be getting a new toy in the next couple weeks.

Does anyone know of a resource to learn more, not the basics, not beginner to intermediate, but a good amount of intermediate to pro. In the past it has been learning here as a beginner, youtube tutorials and some books. I am a stay at home mother/wife and work my business part-time when I'm not in front of the oven or toddler crafts. So I can't commit to an actual walk in class. Sites, books to purchase and your own experiences are appreciated!! If you're unfamiliar with my skill set you can view my website: L&I Home

or my Facebook (a few more updated pics) : Love & Ink Photography | Facebook

Thanks!

sm4him · Sep 19, 2014

What about workshops? Would you be able to do a more limited classroom type deal, a one-day or weekend workshop?

If online or books are your only option, I don't know, but I'm sure there are some excellent resources out there. I'd say pick a couple of things you know you need to work on and start searching for advanced online tutorials on those subjects.

paigew · Sep 19, 2014

I love taking on line workshops. There are so many great ones I can recommend. Is there a specific subject you want to focus on?

ronlane · Sep 19, 2014

check out creative live. They have workshops all the time that are free or you can purchase the specific ones that you'd like to see. I've learned a lot from the times I get to watch the free ones.

Forkie · Sep 19, 2014

I enjoy watching this guy's videos. He does some free taster stuff on his YouTube channel, but does a full DVD course. Very likeable guy - excellent photographer: Take Better Photographs Quickly - Better Photography Tips by Karl Taylor Photography Courses.

KmH · Sep 19, 2014

Visit your public library.

Look at books about all of the visual arts in general as well as photography books.

tirediron · Sep 19, 2014

I think you're pretty much done with the "learning" stage. Looking at your work, every image is.... identical. Yes, you have different poses, but at the end of the day, they're all nicely exposed, sharply focused, well composed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. You've got two choices at this point, IMO. You can either accept that this is your 'look' and be satisfied with it, after all, just the fact that you're putting out correctly exposed, sharply focused images puts you MILES ahead of most of your "competition", OR... you can develop new looks, styles... etc. This is hard. Very, very hard (at least for someline like me with a non-artistic turn of mind, and based on your work, I suspect you and I are rather similar).

What I would suggest is going to 'sites such as Pintrest, Google Image, and looking for images that you think are really cool, and then challenging yourself to recreate that image, but one notch better. It might take ten, twenty, or fifty attempts, but this is where you will learn the subtle nuances of posing, lighting and directing that wil separate you from your facebook kin, and put you in the realm of the people who TEACH workshops rather than those who attend them!

Oh.. and WTF are with those print prices?????????????

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Sep 19, 2014

tirediron said:
I think you're pretty much done with the "learning" stage. Looking at your work, every image is.... identical. Yes, you have different poses, but at the end of the day, they're all nicely exposed, sharply focused, well composed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. You've got two choices at this point, IMO. You can either accept that this is your 'look' and be satisfied with it, after all, just the fact that you're putting out correctly exposed, sharply focused images puts you MILES ahead of most of your "competition", OR... you can develop new looks, styles... etc. This is hard. Very, very hard (at least for someline like me with a non-artistic turn of mind, and based on your work, I suspect you and I are rather similar).

What I would suggest is going to 'sites such as Pintrest, Google Image, and looking for images that you think are really cool, and then challenging yourself to recreate that image, but one notch better. It might take ten, twenty, or fifty attempts, but this is where you will learn the subtle nuances of posing, lighting and directing that wil separate you from your facebook kin, and put you in the realm of the people who TEACH workshops rather than those who attend them!

Oh.. and WTF are with those print prices?????????????

This ^ is what I was afraid of

is there really no "big mistake" I'm making that someone could enlighten me on to produce, I gues wow photos? I totally agree with you now that is has been said, my stuff looks all the same, I want to improve, not repeat! Gah!

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Sep 19, 2014

oh and the print prices are because well, I don't profit off of my prints, I honestly don't want the work of strictly selling prints, I do the digital files, they pay me for my time and in turn get a set amount on a cd, if they wish to use the printing company I use, I charge them a tiny bit more than cost to me and the cost of shipping. I know, I'm terribly lazy.

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Sep 19, 2014

paigew said:
I love taking on line workshops. There are so many great ones I can recommend. Is there a specific subject you want to focus on?

mainly just... Creativity. Posing and "what works" but I know I need a heavy handed indoor lighting lesson since I have limited information there, I mean I always seem to shoot outdoors and under conditions where I only "need" my basic lighting knowledge. Where as indoors I'm just bouncing the sh** out of my hot flash.

tirediron · Sep 19, 2014

AmberAtLoveAndInk said:
tirediron said:

I think you're pretty much done with the "learning" stage. Looking at your work, every image is.... identical. Yes, you have different poses, but at the end of the day, they're all nicely exposed, sharply focused, well composed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. You've got two choices at this point, IMO. You can either accept that this is your 'look' and be satisfied with it, after all, just the fact that you're putting out correctly exposed, sharply focused images puts you MILES ahead of most of your "competition", OR... you can develop new looks, styles... etc. This is hard. Very, very hard (at least for someline like me with a non-artistic turn of mind, and based on your work, I suspect you and I are rather similar).
What I would suggest is going to 'sites such as Pintrest, Google Image, and looking for images that you think are really cool, and then challenging yourself to recreate that image, but one notch better. It might take ten, twenty, or fifty attempts, but this is where you will learn the subtle nuances of posing, lighting and directing that wil separate you from your facebook kin, and put you in the realm of the people who TEACH workshops rather than those who attend them!
Oh.. and WTF are with those print prices?????????????

Click to expand...

This ^ is what I was afraid of
is there really no "big mistake" I'm making that someone could enlighten me on to produce, I gues wow photos? I totally agree with you now that is has been said, my stuff looks all the same, I want to improve, not repeat! Gah!

Don't panic just yet... first off, no, there's no 'one big issue' I see with your work. When I look at it, I see, clean, basic work. The big advantage is that it's going to attract similar clients. For instance, for whatever reason, my work seems to resonate with an older crowd. My typical client ist 60+. What I like about that is, they're of a generally similar personality type, and it's one with which I work well. Of course you have to keep working at your craft, because eventually you're going to run out of clients if your appeal is to too narrow a segment, so here's my suggestion: Keep doing what you're doing, but along with that, at least once, maybe twice a week, work on a project - like I said, find a cool image on-line and not only replicate it, but improve on it. Keep working on it, 'til you get it where you want. This will add to your creativity arsenal, and allow you to become more imaginiative with your shoots.

AmberAtLoveAndInk said:
oh and the print prices are because well, I don't profit off of my prints, I honestly don't want the work of strictly selling prints, I do the digital files, they pay me for my time and in turn get a set amount on a cd, if they wish to use the printing company I use, I charge them a tiny bit more than cost to me and the cost of shipping. I know, I'm terribly lazy.

Sorry, but that's just silly! You're absolutely wasting a potentially lucrative revenue stream here, additionally, and far more importantly, you're cheapening your brand. I would strongly recommend that you either increase your prices. A LOT, or take them down altogether, and just leave it as, "I offer prints".

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Sep 19, 2014

tirediron, your suggestion of just posting that I offer prints is probably a good one lol. Since I don't make any profit and its more of just a convenience to people (time suck for me) I might just put up an image on the bottom stating, ask me about my prints. I don't want to upcharge for something they could just do themselves. I feel like a crook. The new pricing sheet for 2015 will be a bit higher up and not include as many images, but I'm taking it in baby steps. I feel like if I was the one looking from afar I would be like, "Pff! Last week she was charging HALF that! What made her sooo special this week?"

paigew · Sep 19, 2014

tirediron said:
I think you're pretty much done with the "learning" stage. Looking at your work, every image is.... identical. Yes, you have different poses, but at the end of the day, they're all nicely exposed, sharply focused, well composed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. You've got two choices at this point, IMO. You can either accept that this is your 'look' and be satisfied with it, after all, just the fact that you're putting out correctly exposed, sharply focused images puts you MILES ahead of most of your "competition", OR... you can develop new looks, styles... etc. This is hard. Very, very hard (at least for someline like me with a non-artistic turn of mind, and based on your work, I suspect you and I are rather similar).

What I would suggest is going to 'sites such as Pintrest, Google Image, and looking for images that you think are really cool, and then challenging yourself to recreate that image, but one notch better. It might take ten, twenty, or fifty attempts, but this is where you will learn the subtle nuances of posing, lighting and directing that wil separate you from your facebook kin, and put you in the realm of the people who TEACH workshops rather than those who attend them!

Oh.. and WTF are with those print prices?????????????

I respectively disagree. I think she could use work in processing, posing, composition, lighting etc. These types of classes are available online!

AmberAtLoveAndInk said:
mainly just... Creativity. Posing and "what works" but I know I need a heavy handed indoor lighting lesson since I have limited information there, I mean I always seem to shoot outdoors and under conditions where I only "need" my basic lighting knowledge. Where as indoors I'm just bouncing the sh** out of my hot flash.

There are SO many classes out there. I have taken quite a few and without them I would not be where I am today. Most of my classes were taken on the forum clickinmoms, some on creative live. There are technical classes and creativity classes, the hardest part will be choosing the class! The clickinmoms classes are amazing as far as pushing and creativity goes....some of the more advanced creativity/comp courses sell out within 5 minutes!

AmberAtLoveAndInk · Sep 19, 2014

paigew said:
tirediron said:

I think you're pretty much done with the "learning" stage. Looking at your work, every image is.... identical. Yes, you have different poses, but at the end of the day, they're all nicely exposed, sharply focused, well composed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. You've got two choices at this point, IMO. You can either accept that this is your 'look' and be satisfied with it, after all, just the fact that you're putting out correctly exposed, sharply focused images puts you MILES ahead of most of your "competition", OR... you can develop new looks, styles... etc. This is hard. Very, very hard (at least for someline like me with a non-artistic turn of mind, and based on your work, I suspect you and I are rather similar).

What I would suggest is going to 'sites such as Pintrest, Google Image, and looking for images that you think are really cool, and then challenging yourself to recreate that image, but one notch better. It might take ten, twenty, or fifty attempts, but this is where you will learn the subtle nuances of posing, lighting and directing that wil separate you from your facebook kin, and put you in the realm of the people who TEACH workshops rather than those who attend them!

Oh.. and WTF are with those print prices?????????????

Click to expand...

I respectively disagree. I think she could use work in processing, posing, composition, lighting etc. These types of classes are available online!

AmberAtLoveAndInk said:

mainly just... Creativity. Posing and "what works" but I know I need a heavy handed indoor lighting lesson since I have limited information there, I mean I always seem to shoot outdoors and under conditions where I only "need" my basic lighting knowledge. Where as indoors I'm just bouncing the sh** out of my hot flash.

Click to expand...

There are SO many classes out there. I have taken quite a few and without them I would not be where I am today. Most of my classes were taken on the forum clickinmoms, some on creative live. There are technical classes and creativity classes, the hardest part will be choosing the class! The clickinmoms classes are amazing as far as pushing and creativity goes....some of the more advanced creativity/comp courses sell out within 5 minutes!

you have no idea how grateful I am for your critic lol! I would love a link to some of the workshops you mentioned, or if the names are are same as their sites, I'll just google my heart out. Thank you!