so, where ya goin' with all this?

shadowfox said:
"...it takes my whole effort to get my butt off to continue trying even when I am not comfortable."
Ditto. Did I mention I'm a lazy oaf? :cool: If I *just let it happen* - nothing happens. For me, I've got to aim for something or I'll miss everything, get bored, drop the gun and go fishin'.

When I take a look at my photos and say, "Good enough. That's all I want." -- I'm done. A large part of the hobby enjoyment for me is challenging myself to grow/change, "What else can I do here? What other story can I tell? And how can I best tell it?"

Hope you have a great weekend too!
FrankS said:
Ya gotta get those bad shots out of your system. It's like paying your dues.
So, the millipede should plan to keep walking until it learns not to stumble with all those legs... maybe even dance! ... as opposed to "Kay Sarah" ... "Phyllis Navydad" or whatever. ;)
 
RayPA said:
jeez! no wonder you two have the highest post counts! :) :)
:)

Yep Ray, I figure if I post often enough, some of it is bound to be worthwhile. Think of an infinite number of monkeys at keyboards....
:)
 
shadowfox said:
- I'd like to be more patient. Most of the time I'm in a hurry, even when I have time. I'm so conscious of what people may do or say to me, I just can't take my time to frame a good picture. I think this is one of the secret weapon of great photographers, is that they can just tune out the world and be alone in their photography.

I'm with you on this one. I would benefit greatly from being able to ignore the people that aren't in my photos.
 
I'd love to get better at my photography, especially at composition but with all the other things I *have* to get better at (better father, better engineer, better friend, better.... you name it) I am just kind of letting this photography thing happen on its own. So far, just by playing when I have the time, I've learned to get the correct exposure most of the time and have figured out which camera and lenses work best for me. But the hardest thing for me to learn was to stop stressing out about blowing the shot or upgrading my gear . Learning to relax and just take pictures has been the best part of this ride.
 
Lots of truth in many of these posts. And akptc/Andy, great sig line under your avatar ("got hardware, need skills") - sure seems to fit the tone of this thread.

-Randy
 
I'm a shy guy.

I'm a shy guy.

I'd like to thank CZLB4 for posting the link to ColinH's photos. I think I haven't been spending enough time looking at other people photographs. Yet it both makes me wonder, and at the same time answers the question, why am I so lousy at street photography? Probably I don't do it enough, I'm nervous taking photographs of people in public places, and of course I don't have all those sexy European women to photograph.
But in the end what I learned from viewing Colin's photographs is that I would like to learn how to frame more carefully in order to tell the story that's there. I'd like to be in less of a hurry and less worried about what others might think if I raise the camera to my eye, and of course quick enough to avoid the "observer effect". As soon as people see you taking a picture of them everything changes. One needs to be quick I think, and have the exposure, focus and composition all planned out before lifting the camera to the eye and I'd like to be better at that thought process. I'm not bad at the exposure and focus but I need the framelines in order to see the composition well.
This is what I'd like to improve on, whether its street photography (which I've so far been too chicken **** to do much of) or photographing my climbs, I'd like to learn to be better at seeing the composition and the story it has to tell. That's what interests me in photography.
 
Hey Steve, in the shy dept., I'd say you're pretty normal, especially among the brethren here. Start getting some people shots at places like parades, fairs, farmer's markets, anyplace where having a camera is quite common. People don't think much about someone grabbing a quick candid when lots of folks are taking pictures.
"...to be better at seeing the composition and the story"
Me too. That seems to be a common theme here in this thread and I suspect something we'll work on improving as long as we can hold an old squeaky RF to our faces. Thanks for the input, Steve.


Oh, P.S. ~ You don't have any "sexy European girls" in Bend, OR? Where'd they all go?
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Riiiiiight... colin's house. :cool:
 
Oh, P.S. ~ You don't have any "sexy European girls" in Bend, OR? Where'd they all go?
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Riiiiiight... colin's house. :cool:[/QUOTE]

He does seem to have a fair monopoly doesn't he? I think my favorite is "Get up". Its just so loaded with innuendo, especially with the old man with the bicycle looking on with such interest and she looking like she's just pulling her pants up. I'm sure its a perfectly innocent street scene but that's one loaded photograph.
 
Where am I going...? That's a good question but I'm not really pondering it.

I have set myself some real goals for my photography. Some realistic (one day an exhibition and/or a real book; documenting Mongolia), others more far-fetched (getting published in NatGeo). I'm not working very hard to achieve them, really, but I keep them in my mind always and they provide some guidance to what I'm doing. These goals have made me jump into some opportunities that I otherwise would have let slip (shooting for the Micro Finance department of the bank I work for; shooting a dear friend's wedding recently). The thing is that these new opportunities have giving my photography a boast in ways I had not predicted. For instance, shooting for the MF dept (and consequently seeing these photos published) made me realise that my compositional skills are quite OK and that I can rely on them. But I also realised that I must think harder about what I'm shooting (subjects) and how (composition-wise). It taught me to react quicker, take more changes, be less concerned with what people might think. I'm doing a/my job! Pushing my own limits also meant pushing the limits of my camera and my knowledge/experience with it. I'm loath to use my Eos 300D but I use it extensively when "on the job". Using it so much showed me its strong points (compared to the R-D1 with fix focal length lens) but also its weak points (low light auto focusing, for one). And then it taught me to circumvent such issues (manual focus, deliberately pre-setting shutter speed, scouting the location, using (off camera) flash, etc).

I'm learning so much more aspects of photography, aspects that as an amateur doing his own thing I would (hardly) never encounter and most likely not learn from. IMO all these new experiences are helping me mature so I can one achieve the goals I've set.
 
Where am I heading? I've become disengaged from the digital "Upgrade now, because this is better than yesterdays offerings" attitude. I've also found the rangefinders much more useable and enjoyable than I'd first imagined, even more than SLRs, both digital and film.

So... where am I heading? Sticking with digital? Returning to film? I'm not certain, though I suspect it'll be a 75/25 mix of film and digital.
 
Where am I going? In circles, mainly. My cameras go with me on daily walks around the harbour port where I live, recording small changes in the seasons and other things I see along the way. I've been walking the same beat for years now and still haven't run out of fresh things to photograph. Perhaps I'm easily amused :)

Gene
 
GeneW said:
I've been walking the same beat for years now and still haven't run out of fresh things to photograph.
Doesn't sound like going in circles to me. Sounds like you've found your path. Keep walkin'! ''''''''
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GeneW said:
Where am I going? In circles, mainly. My cameras go with me on daily walks around the harbour port where I live, recording small changes in the seasons and other things I see along the way. I've been walking the same beat for years now and still haven't run out of fresh things to photograph. Perhaps I'm easily amused :)

Gene

Gene, it was some of your shots that made me want to work on taking interesting shots of everyday things. As I said when we had breakfast together earlier this year, I wish I had your eye for seeing the shot in such things. So from my perspective I second the motion for you to continue going in circles since it seems to be working well for you and I, for one, learn from it.

-Randy
 
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