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...😀
 
[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.
 
During my college years, I took a photography class to supplement my knowledge set (and to get some easy credits 😛). 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 😀
 
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.
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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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