What helped you grow the most?

What helped you grow the most?

  • Class (taking or teaching)

    Votes: 68 13.9%

  • Having a mentor

    Votes: 51 10.4%

  • Belonging to a photography club

    Votes: 17 3.5%

  • Reading books/magazines

    Votes: 123 25.1%

  • The internet/Participating in a forum (RFF)

    Votes: 133 27.1%

  • Working on a project

    Votes: 77 15.7%

  • Trial & Error (& reflection)

    Votes: 286 58.4%

  • Viewing artwork

    Votes: 152 31.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 54 11.0%
  • Total voters
    490
Do really less than 20% of participants hear have some kind of photographic education? How many here have a formal education in photography? 10%?
 
Olsen said:
Do really less than 20% of participants hear have some kind of photographic education? How many here have a formal education in photography? 10%?
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I have a four year degree in the visual arts. Although I was primarily a painter, I became a very advanced B&W 35mm photographer.

I believe it was the intensity and volume of my early years in college that makes me shoot primarily B&W today. I'm not calling my degree a formal education in photography. Most of my learning was by myself, in the darkroom, but I had a great photography mentor/professor.

Calzone
 
Steve Karr said:
Polaroid. It was my best teacher. Nothing like pealing a 4x5 or 8x10 to find out the exposure is wrong. At $3 or $10 you learn really fast in those days ... I think digital has actually slowed the "craft" of photography. There's no commitment & loss for not thinking first, just Click, click, click ....
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These are the words I've been searching for...Thanks...:D
 
[FONT=&quot]Two equally important milestones.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Learned the technical fundamentals of the endeavor by reading; internet mostly.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]From a creative stand point, learning how a camera sees, via repetition and observance.[/FONT]
 
Food.



And btw, *teaching* a class will help you grow three times more than *taking* a class. You can't really put both on a single choice.
 
Steve Karr said:
... I think digital has actually slowed the "craft" of photography. There's no commitment & loss for not thinking first, just Click, click, click ....
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Can be like that for some (most) people. But, when you choose to learn photography, hardly anything beats digital. I started out sitting in my living room, just shooting the lamps, the TV, the plants, the cats, and fiddling my camera. Wide aperture, slow shutter, fast shutter, flash, low ISO/high ISO, etc. Took that outdoors and kept it up quite a while. Switched from Program mode to Aperture Priority to full Manual. Learned light and composition.

I think I shot >10,000 'useless' frames, but I learned a lot while doing that.
 
Having a darkroom. I miss it. When I really screwed up I would leave it in the darkroom and look at it often. No substitute for keep on shooting and trying. Joe
 
Going back to shooting film and making darkroom prints, while the people who care about me were very encouraging about it.
 
During my college years, I took a photography class to supplement my knowledge set (and to get some easy credits :p). This along with a 10 pack of Tri-X, D-76 and multigrade paper gave me the trial and error practice I needed to get the whole B&W experience. In the end, I received an A and my work was displayed in the hallway for a few weeks. My first exhibition if you will :).
 
For the younger members what made me grow the most was not taking enough photos when I was young. I took a lot but not enough. If you shoot and think and do it often you will grow. I wish I had done more of that.
 
Class (taking or teaching) ______________ No, never been in a photo class
Having a mentor ______________ Yes, a lot :)
Belonging to a photography club ____________ No, never been there
Reading books/magazines _____________ Books, books and books (with pictures, no technical books)
The internet/Participating in a forum ____________ yes
Working on a project __________ yes, maybe the stuff that helped me the most
Trial & Error (& reflection) ________________ of course :)
Viewing artwork _____________ yes :)
Other ___________ walking and drinking coffee ? yes :D
 
i think that a big part of my photography comes from internet influences. different photography "trends" from the forum skateperception got me into 6x6 then 67. then noticing what a find appealing and what i dislike and applying it to my own photographs.
 
Everything. And time.

Good photography of the sort I undertake often coincides with wisdom and an understanding of life and people. As I learn about the latter, I get better at the former. That will never end and I expect to be 'better' at 65 than I am now.
 
Turtle said:
Everything. And time.

Good photography of the sort I undertake often coincides with wisdom and an understanding of life and people. As I learn about the latter, I get better at the former. That will never end and I expect to be 'better' at 65 than I am now.
Click to expand...
Well, I've got a bit past 65, and don't know if I'm any better than when 35!. But I do know that my attitude to it has changed....like football - I don't worry about it!....'it's just a game!' :)
Dave.
 
Technically I would say just picking up all bits of information (before forums on the net!) and then trying it out, just working a lot.

Camera clubs? Learn a lot from starting one - namely that I really cannot stand most ´hobbyists´ , and also that 0.001% of them end up as great photographers... ;) No real learning that I could not have done together with the other guy I started it with...

Understanding the psychology of images, and being my own editor: for years I was carrying a slowly changing portfolio, showing it to anyone - and looking for their reaction(s).

What would make me better? I know for sure that would be a mentor/editor/major project or workshops... Hope to get some done, and in the meantime I have reverted back to doing anything like years before. I plan on narrowing down once more later on, but felt like going all over the place for a while! ;)
 
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