I really want a mentor...

[elementgs]

I've been at this now full time for nearly two years and I really feel like my photography growth has stalled. I feel like I take a few great photos here and there and I win a lot of the local contests I enter, I just don't feel like I'm moving at the pace I want to move at. I'm just not growing as much as I want to grow no matter how many YouTube videos I watch or articles I read. Inevitably I'm just not growing fast enough and it's really bumming me out.

I would really like to find someone I can bounce my thoughts off of, my photos (both good and bad) and grow from.

I'm posting here because I truly do respect a large number of you and would hope that someone here could either offer their guidance on a personal level or perhaps recommend some people I could talk with to see if they would be interested in helping.

I know with direct guidance and support I can take my chosen profession to the next level.

Thank you, as always, for your guidance.

 

[Overread]

You might want to check this list out www.thephotoforum.com/forum/beyond-basics/125099-official-mentors-bio-list.html

 

[Raj_55555]

This might be worth a read for you. Hope it helps, and best of luck

_EDIT_
Overread, you beat me to it..

 

[rexbobcat]

I'll mentor you for four easy installments of $19.95. jk Look at what Overread posted.

 

[keyseddie]

What you should do instead of going public, which is too late, is to PM someone or more who's is a working professional or in your mind an artistic photographer and try communicating with them.
The fact that you know your work is not progressing is a giant step in the right direction. And it is also uncommon. Too many beginners and beyond the basics shooters think they may be improving because someone will "really like" what they have done. Or someone else will pick apart what they have done when that person may or may not have the ability to do so.
Being an average photographer is quite easy. It's proven every day on this forum and others. Becoming a competent photographer takes time, dedication and drive. Becoming a photographic artist takes all that along with a knowledge and appreciation of the arts. Making a living in photography takes a whole different skill set. The question is, where do you want to be and what will you do to get there?

 

[spacefuzz]

First ask yourself where you want to go with your photography. Then find someone who is there already and strike up a conversation. A mentorship doesnt have to be official in order for you to benefit from it. You could perhaps talk with them about their inspiration or have them look at a photo or two of yours from time to time. Good luck.

 

[Ilovemycam]

You got some pretty pix. Your an 'art fair' photog. That is pretty much where you will fit in. I don't know what you have in mind, but pretty scenics only go so far in the photo world...there is no shortage of them. They are not something museums want unless Ansel Adams or Minor White did them. (In general)

I'd tell you to do it for love and not for $. Then your never disappointed. If you don't love it with all your heart, then find another pastime.

Good luck!

 

[pgriz]

If you have a photo club close to you, it may be worth joining. I'm kinda spoiled in where I live, with many active photo clubs in weekly operation, and joining such a club has enormously opened up my horizons of what is possible. We have about 140 members, and about half are very good amateur photographers, and about a quarter of these are professionals (the real kind, not the weekend warriors), and having one's images critiqued by these people is a real eye-opener (in a very good way, as long as one keeps the ego in check). I've had several mentors who contributed their time to critique and suggest ways of improving my images, and they pushed me to learn much more than I could on my own. Plus, the club members give workshops in their specialty or field of interest, organize shooting trips, run competitions, and generally, make you want to do much more. Through the club, I got into judging, and also became a mentor for some newer members. Being a mentor turns out to be as much of a learning exercise (for the mentor) as it does for the "recipient" of the advice.

 

[manaheim]

You know, a lot of your work is really stunning. It makes me look at my own pictures and just feel embarrassed.

The one thing I noticed is sometimes you show us a few different interpretations on the same scene, and that often leads me to think the person isn't confident enough in their own convictions on what the image should be. You clearly have the skills to have that confidence. I wonder if part of your problem is just not knowing how good you really are.

Not that a mentor isn't useful, no matter how experienced you may be... it is. Go for it. But at the same time, know thyself.

 

[table1349]

Rentamentor

 

[The_Traveler]

Let me project a bit and say that perhaps you feel that you have a good many skills and you can produce pretty pictures but that skill set is becoming less important to you and perhaps feels a bit empty.
Well, you've come to a point where the future is really undefined.
Are you content to go on making pretty, skillfully done, but empty pictures?
If not, you need to come to grips with what you want to say artistically - and that may be very, very difficult.
And, quite possibly, if you start to explore what is interesting personally, others may not like it because your pictures may indeed be less 'pretty', less obvious and only satisfying to you.

TBH, most people here and in other communities are pretty happy to essentially copy what has been done before and do it skilfully.
They want to be really only good craftsmen.
If you want more than that, if you want to create rather than copy, then the going gets tough.

Creating is hard and it is very, very easy not to be successful, even in one's own eyes.



(imo, of the pictures you have on your site, only New York - Portfolio for John Gannon is interesting to me, shows thought and intent and bears up under more than a look. The rest, no matter how well and carefully done, are essentially copies of what we all have seen before.)

 

[keyseddie]

Mr Lew, that is a powerful statement there. Well thought out, well said, and 100% true.

 

[elementgs]

Thank you all for your responses. Lots to take in.

I believe Lew has hit the nail on the head and I definitely feel that has something to do with it. I've slowed down on my photography a lot recently primarily because I want to find myself and further, define myself artistically. As mentioned, my photos have been lacking purpose and have been overall fairly empty. It's unfortunate and while I am struggling a bit, believe I am up for the challenge. I just need to find some meaning to it all and figure out what message I want to convey.

Thanks again for all the assistance and kind words, much appreciated.

 

[The_Traveler]

John,


I didn't include this material when I first responded because, at the time, I wasn't certain what your response might be.

I am sort-of in your position, you can judge how close or not. Two or three years ago, I was shooting just about anything and my goal was a 'nice' picture with great image quality. I used a D700 with Nikon gold ring lenses and cared a great deal how others liked my pictures.

Gradually I came to realize two things; first that only street photography appealed to me for my own work, and a certain type of street photography at that. Second, that while I liked it when people liked my pictures, it was irrelevant to me if they didn't. I was shooting for myself and had the confidence that what I was doing was good.

The inevitable consequences were that, to do street photography better, I needed to use a different kind of equipment and so had to sacrifice some Image Quality (IQ) for ease of handling and the quality of being inconspicuous. (While I still love the IQ of bigger sensors, other qualities must come first.)

I am at the point now where I need and want to progress from just finding, recognizing and capturing things that I see. But where I want to go is still undetermined. I want a 'project' that will allow me to say what I think photographically over an extended period of work.

My future does seem ambiguous - and it is - but the way I am trying to pare down some potential avenues from an infinite set of possibilities is to look at the work of as many 'modern' photographers as I am able, to find inspiration from how others have tackled the issue of personal expression.
I am looking for inspiration, for something sparked in me, not for something to copy.

And that's what I suggest as a possible mechanism for you also.
Keep on shooting to keep your technical skills up but look at other photographers' work. Try to understand what points they are making and how their technique works to help them 'say' something. Eventually your own ideas will come bubbling up to your consciousness and you will have some ideas on how best to express them.

Is this easy? Absolutely not! Will you be successful? Maybe not - and that will be the most painful part of all. But the chance of failing at something that is very important to you is the price you pay for wanting to be an artist. If the good possibility of failure is too much, keep on shooting just pretty pictures.

While this may be an unsettling, even upsetting, time for you in your growth as an artist, it should also be encouraging in that you have progressed to this point where you have developed the technical skills to actually work at a higher level and now you are ready to go on - and you recognize that.

Best wishes,

Lew
(also ex-military)