What is your End Game?

Vtec44 · Jan 16, 2012

There's no end for me and this sh*t is getting expensive....

momo3boys · Jan 16, 2012

I'm glad bitter bumped the thread. I guess I haven't really thought of the 'end' game. I don't have any 'art' specifically, but I do consider myself artistic in many other mediums and my goal is to see this in photography.
My goal for this year is to finish the picture a day project and see how I can improve over a year.
I would love to do more Wedding photography and really develop a style, rather than just copying my boss' style. (I love him but he really doesn't have one...).
I want to get better at Sports, specifically wrestling because I know that I'm gong to be taking pictures of it for quite a few years.
I want to learn more and more from this Forum about what makes a good picture great!

The_Traveler · Jan 16, 2012

I have reached my photographic goal; if I see a picture I want to take, I pretty much have the skills to take it.
Of course my interests have narrowed considerably if not completely. I take only street pictures seriously, anything else is just a snapshot AFAIK.

I have spent soooooo much time looking at pictures critically (on 3 different sites and several different clubs) that I've evolved my own ideas on composition and my goal now is to get these down and illustrated. I've been working on an outline and am just about ready to start writing.

Bitter Jeweler · Jan 16, 2012

Sm4him, I was always encouraged to be creative, but discouraged to pursue it as a career. So thus the grasping careers occured.

I loved biology, and took two marine biology classes and that was my career goal. Until I learned how many yucky math classes I would have to take for that degree. Well that, and finally being freaked out by barracuda circling me, quite literally. Then I was a psychology major, then a teaching major, then advertising/graphic design, and it all settled back into art. And much to my parents surprise, I am NOT a ditch digger.

If only my mom was here to see me now!

I think it's sad that you didn't pursue art further, and that you felt intimidated by your family.

Bitter Jeweler · Jan 16, 2012

momo3boys said:
... rather than just copying my boss' style. (I love him but he really doesn't have one...).

Sean1965 · Jan 16, 2012

I just want to learn how do take great shots and see what comes of it. I would say mostly just for me but I love to learn

mishele · Jan 16, 2012

Sean1965 said:
I just want to learn how do take great shots and see what comes of it. I would say mostly just for me but I love to learn

You are in the right place!! :sexywink:

sm4him · Jan 16, 2012

Bitter Jeweler said:
Sm4him, I was always encouraged to be creative, but discouraged to pursue it as a career. So thus the grasping careers occured.

I loved biology, and took two marine biology classes and that was my career goal. Until I learned how many yucky math classes I would have to take for that degree. Well that, and finally being freaked out by barracuda circling me, quite literally. Then I was a psychology major, then a teaching major, then advertising/graphic design, and it all settled back into art. And much to my parents surprise, I am NOT a ditch digger.

If only my mom was here to see me now!

I think it's sad that you didn't pursue art further, and that you felt intimidated by your family.

Ha, I can just see the barracuda circling! That would definitely do it for me!

I've really never understood WHY I was so intimidated by my family; I guess just being the youngest of 5 kids, and all of my siblings as well as my parents were incredibly intelligent, well-spoken and good at the things they'd chosen to do--I just always felt like the slow, stupid one. :lol:

It didn't help that they all seemed to have self-confidence in abundance, and me, not so much.

But I never got ANY of that opinion FROM my family; they were encouraging and supporting. My dad, who worked in a job he pretty much hated all his life, just to support his family, always encouraged each of us to find what we loved and DO it, even if that meant struggling to make ends meet sometimes.

These days, I have my own kids who are now in college, making those choices that will affect the rest of their lives, without really the skills or insight needed to make those decisions. My oldest wants to be a rocket scientist, and definitely has the brains for it. But he has a creative side to, and I've always tried to encourage it.

My youngest is an artist. I've seen it in him since he was four years old. He went through periods where he decided to be a geologist (actually, quite a LONG period), and several other things, but he always comes back to art. He's brilliant, just as much as his older brother--he could easily be a rocket scientist himself, if he wanted. But he doesn't. He IS an artist; it's what he loves, and it's always been clear to me that he is gifted. So, much as some small part of me wants to encourage him into a more "secure" career...I have never discouraged him from going for it. The one thing I did do is insist he go to a four-year college/university, not just art school. He can major in art, but get a more rounded education as well. His art teacher in high school knew he was gifted, and really encouraged him. That was a huge help to him.
His first semester at school was this fall, and evidently his art teacher there was pretty impressed as well. He not only made an A on his semester portfolio, he made an A on every single piece in it.

I'm probably more proud of HIS art accomplishments than I could ever be of my own, anyway.

t_hayat · Jan 16, 2012

A dream job involving photography for me would be a photojournalist, especially a war photographer... But I'm already on a set career path to working in the foreign service/diplomacy field, so I'm still hoping I'll be able to keep taking photos on my postings and travels, and maybe capture a bit of that foreign correspondent photojournalist feel.

photog4life · Jan 16, 2012

hockey photography!! i love hocke.. i love photography.... kind of a natural progression!
'
BTW GO BLUES!!!!! suck it dallas!!

EIngerson · Jan 16, 2012

I'm not sure I have a finite goal with photography. I'm a hobbiest so I try to learn all different types of photography. I know it's a pretty lame answer, but it's true I gues.

mishele · Jan 16, 2012

photog4life said:
hockey photography!! i love hocke.. i love photography.... kind of a natural progression!
'
BTW GO BLUES!!!!! suck it dallas!!

Yeah.....suck it Dallas!!

jedirunner · Jan 16, 2012

End game? Lol, I've not even suited up properly to enter the game yet. ;-)

Actually, my background is 20+ years of computer programming (self-taught, no college for it), currently hobby programming iPhones and iPads, with a constant throughout-it-all desire to get into arts. The last few years I've taken several art history, drawing, painting, photoshop, etc., classes at the local college, and thoroughly fallen in love with it. I've been doing plenty of drawing/painting on the iPad, and some poor-quality raw photo processing on the iPad.

I have a desire one day to try wildlife photography (birds especially), and the type of controlled macro photography (intentional studio setups) that amazes me when I see pics on the web. That day is far off and I'm happy and comfortable spending time learning my 7D and photography in general.

Kevin

Proteus617 · Jan 16, 2012

Bitter Jeweler said:
No. It is still a goal. But honestly, I don't think it will ever be realized. That will take a lot of time and effort, that I don't have to spare.

Life is so short, and the craft so long to learn. 20 years ago my goal was to build a fine chair from a tree. I never did. Photography was a sidetrack. For me, tinkering with an old camera is like sharpening a chisel or tuning a plane. I like the smell of my chemistry. I tend to get confused when I make something without getting my hands dirty. I live in a town with a long tradition of craftsmanship. 200 years ago a craftsman would spend decades at his bench before he would dream of taking a commission for the best families on Charles St. I sell some stuff locally and give it studies to my friends that show interest. Iḿ not sure that there should be an endgame. The process should be an end in itself.

Underdeveloped · Jan 17, 2012

Great thread, bitter. I was starting to think that everyone on here was shooting at making this a career but me! Like others, I'm taking this as a hobby to maybe hang a couple 8X10 s on the walls and have some great family photo's at xmas time without having to hire a photographer every year (you guys are expensive! ha).