Photographers -- Question For You

I’m self taught and I can’t draw for shit. :wink:

Here are some of my pictures if ya’ll are interested.

I got my basic training in a couple of college classes but mostly I’ve just been shooting** a lot **for the last 20 years. I read a lot and get to photo exhibits as often as I can.

Here is my online gallery if you want to see.

Those are both gorgeous - Loose Dog and Gears especially resonated with me.

Interesting, too, that looking at OTHER photographers’ work seems to be key for one’s growth.

How much of that, I wonder, is being too hard on yourself? I don’t like most of the stuff I create, whether that’s creative writing or guitar playing or photography. I’m just now getting back into these and if I capture something (photographically) worth posting, I’ll let you see it.

The other aspect is the discipline. When I was doing creative writing I had to produce a lot of crap before I got a feel for it and started producing some decent stuff. I imagine you can develop any artistic talent in a similar way, but many give up because they think it will never happen.

My God. That just proves some of it has to be innate talent. Your wife is brilliant.

I’ve noticed that with the increased ease of access to photograph-making tools, it is seeming to turn out that pretty much everybody can take a damn fine picture.

Except me dammit.

-FrL-

Thanks, I’ll tell her you said so.

Several of you mention reading books, any particular reccomendations?

At some point I want to look into taking a class, but I can’t, for various reasons, at the moment.

I enjoyed this one recently. It’s given me some new ideas but I haven’t had a chance to try any of them out yet.

I’ve got this one: http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Photography-Field-Guide/dp/079225676X/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207667347&sr=1-7 which I need to go reread now that my DSLR is on its way.

Actually, i think that, with a good modern camera (especially a DSLR), just about anyone can take a technically-competent and nicely detailed picture.

But there is still a difference between that and truly fine pictures. I’ve always considered myself a competent photographer, but of all the thousands of photos i’ve taken, there are only a few that really stand out to me as excellent photos.

I’m actually without a camera right now, for the first time in about 20 years. My digital camera (a Minolta Dimage 7Hi) died on me a couple of weeks ago, and i have no money right now for a replacement. It sucks, because for the money i paid for the Minolta 5 years ago, i could now get an infinitely better entry-level DSLR (Nikon D40, Canon 400XT) or even next level (Nikon D80) and a fairly nice lens, or a couple of kit lenses.

I’ll agree with that. You can’t just hand anyone a really good camera and expect photos like the ones "Aunt"Rojelio* takes.

*How’s that for a made-up Doper-spouse name? :stuck_out_tongue:

I asked the gentleman these questions, since he’s a very good amateur photographer (sorry, I don’t have a website for you). He hasn’t attended any formal classes in art, but he goes to a couple workshops on photography a year. He doesn’t have any training in drawing, and neither one of us can draw at all. He does have a good eye, though.

Actually, she has been AuntieShelly for much longer than I’ve been UncleRojelio. The same (favorite) niece christened us both. :wink:

That works, too. :smiley:

I must be blind, I can’t find where you say which camera you decided on. What are you getting?

I want to be jealous now… :stuck_out_tongue:

I recommend Understanding Exposure as well.

My reference when I was starting photography about 15 years ago was John Hedgecoe’s Photographer’s Handbook. But the real inspiration came from leafing through National Geographics, World Press Pictures of the Year, picking up collections of great photographers like Margaret Bourke-White, Capa, Kertesz, Selgado, Nachtwey, Bresson, etc…

The technical basics of photography are relatively simple. And these days, you can set the camera to automatic and take a technically decent photo without much problem. But technique doesn’t teach you to see. It doesn’t teach you how to frame a photo. Reading up on the basics of classic compositional principles and then critically looking through historically great photos helps internalize and understand these principles. Some people pick up really quickly and naturally. Others take a lot more time, so much so that some photographers or artists state unequivocally that composition cannot be taught. I’m not that extreme. I think a lot can be picked up from pattern recognition, but to do so, one must critically examine the wealth of visual culture and try to figure out why certain compositions are pleasing, and why other ones aren’t.

The two most common problems I see in casual photographers is 1) not framing tightly enough and 2) not paying attention to the light. In regards to 1), Robert Capa summed it up when he said, and I’m paraphrasing from memory, “if your photos aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” While it doesn’t apply to every situation, it’s a good general rule. There is often a lot of indecisiveness to the pictures of casual photographers. What am I supposed to be looking at? What is important? Why is there all this unimportant, dead space around the photograph? There’s still always a judgment call on what is important and what isn’t, but 90% of casual photographs can be improved with a much tighter framing.

The second point, light, is the basis of all photography. Light is our paint. “Photography” means “light writing.” Being aware of light, how it affects your pictures, how it creates mood, and how to control it, modify it, supplement it, is critical to becoming a good photographer.

(edit: And, thirdly and perhaps most importantly depending on what type of photography you’re doing, is capturing peak action, or “the decisive moment” as Bresson termed it, and having the combination of patience, confidence, and a sense of when something in going to happen, to be in the right place to take the picture.)

I’m such a dork, I loaded up some photographs to share. Of course they’re pictures of my kids. Actually the first one is a picture BY my kid - fisher-price has this great toddler camera, and my kids have a grandfather who LOVES photography. So my daughter took this one , unbeknownst to me, last summer when she was just 3 years old.

Why do some of them look so dark on flickr? A couple are OK, but that one of Zoe in a towel (which I think is the best photo I’ve ever taken) is waaaaay darker than it should be. That one was via a Kodak Easyshare.

I’ll look for that book on Understanding Exposure, our library has it. My dad has tried to explain f-stop and aperture to me about a zillion times and I just don’t get it.

This may be terminally out of date in today’s digital society, but it was an incredible book for film photography: http://www.amazon.com/Amateur-Photographers-Handbook-Aaron-Sussman/dp/0690057822/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1207766508&sr=8-5