flip
良かったね！
I find that it helps to cover my white face with a silver nicca.
TWoK
Well-known
I'm 195cm tall. It doesn't matter.
SimonSawSunlight
Simon Fabel
a friend of mine is 208cm or something. he tried shooting some street in indonesia. I would have loved to be there and see him fold.
rxmd
May contain traces of nut
I find that blending in is not a question of looking like everybody else, more a question of looking like one belongs where one is. I stand out in Central Asia a lot, being 6'2", blond and with a distinctly non-Asian physiognomy. But wearing either a suit with a small attaché case or sportive clothing with a plastic bag made me blend in completely. Everybody took me for a Russian or someone else who just happened to work there, clearly not a local, but also not quite a foreigner. As soon as people had a place where to categorize me, I would blend in. You notice when taxi drivers stop asking you where you're from and instead start to discuss tomato prices and football results.
TWoK
Well-known
I still manage to blend in and get good shots as much as possible; however, I try to stay off the beaten path. I recently was the ONLY anglo in all of Yala, and Pattani, Thailand. There is no way not to stick out in situations like that.
TheHub
Well-known
Switching to film and experimenting with different equipment: TLRs, folders and rangefinders.
-doomed-
film is exciting
I picked trial and error and participating in this forum. Reading the posts of people who have been doing this for a good long while. Al Kaplan's posts come to mind , guys like him really gave out a great wealth of information.
With the insight from people here and trial and error as well as becoming familiar with your gear , one can progress.
With the insight from people here and trial and error as well as becoming familiar with your gear , one can progress.
ErnestoJL
Well-known
Guess that trial and error was the most important as well as belonging to a photography group devoted to film photo only. Magazines, books and exhibitions also had significance in reassuring myself I was in the right way.
Ernesto
Ernesto
barnwulf
Well-known
Taking classes was a great start. I also taught photography. I think the two most important things were looking at photographs of others and shooting as much as I could and editing my work. I sometimes buy photo books and I look for portfolios on-line several times a week.
I love the following quote.
"Basically, I no longer work for anything but the sensation I have while working."
- Albert Giacometti (sculptor)
This mostly explains my feelings about photographing however, I do still think some about what others might think when they look at my photographs. This is pure vanity and not very productive. It depends if you are trying to please your self or trying to please a certain audience.
My mentor was my photography professor. Without meeting him and taking classes and later individual study with him I might not be part of this forum. I was already interested in photography but he opened it all up and made me think and learn to see. He was amazing.
I love the following quote.
"Basically, I no longer work for anything but the sensation I have while working."
- Albert Giacometti (sculptor)
This mostly explains my feelings about photographing however, I do still think some about what others might think when they look at my photographs. This is pure vanity and not very productive. It depends if you are trying to please your self or trying to please a certain audience.
My mentor was my photography professor. Without meeting him and taking classes and later individual study with him I might not be part of this forum. I was already interested in photography but he opened it all up and made me think and learn to see. He was amazing.
Last edited:
Gregoryniss
Well-known
getting my Leica M3. No joke. When I got it, something just clicked inside my head and now i can't go anywhere without it. When i'm using my leica i swear something else comes over me, because whenever i use my d200, all my pictures are garbage! Something about mechanical rangefinders and black and white film just work for me.
T
tedwhite
Guest
When I was 11 and mentioned to my father one day that i was bored, he came home the next day with an old box Brownie and a film developing and printing kit, told me to shut up and take pictures. Which I did and made countless long rectangular contact prints (kit did not contain an enlarger).
But then I reached puberty, my attention turned to girls, college, jobs. When I was 38 I met a couple of photographers and went with them one day while they photographed rock musicians in the bay area. The next day I bought an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic with a 50/1.4 lens. I learned to develop film, bouight an enlarger, set up a darkroom in a basement, and wandered around San Francisco every day shooting rolls and rolls of film.
I guess I had an epiphany hanging around international photographers during the 1968 San Francisco State College student strike, free-lancing and getting roughed up by the police. A British photographer, shooting for Black Star or Reuters said, referring to a 36 exposure roll he'd just removed from his Leica M2 and handed to a courier, "All you need laddy, is a good one in each roll and yer makin' a living."
Later I would sit with some of these guys in a pub and look at their contact sheets and see the frames they'd circled. And the ones they didn't circle.
I also spent hundreds of hours over the years looking at the photographs of landscape photographers like Ansel Adams and David and Josef Meunch, but it was Danny Lyons, HCB, and W. Eugene Smith that I ended up loving.
Landscapes defeated me. I'll stick to people.
One poster said he learned more from teaching photography than he did from taking photography classes. It wasn't until I read this that I realized that I, too, had the same experience (several years teaching college-level black and white photography). You're wasting a student's time using vague terms when you tell him or her why you think a photograph is good or bad.
I've never taken a photography class. Once, when I was in my mid-twenties, I applied to Brooks in Santa Barbara. They wanted to see my portfolio. I didn't have one. I told them I didn't have a portfolio and that that was the whole point: I wanted to go there so i could learn photography and that then I'd have a portfolio. And my application, of course, was summarily rejected. In retrospect, probably a good thing.
But then I reached puberty, my attention turned to girls, college, jobs. When I was 38 I met a couple of photographers and went with them one day while they photographed rock musicians in the bay area. The next day I bought an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic with a 50/1.4 lens. I learned to develop film, bouight an enlarger, set up a darkroom in a basement, and wandered around San Francisco every day shooting rolls and rolls of film.
I guess I had an epiphany hanging around international photographers during the 1968 San Francisco State College student strike, free-lancing and getting roughed up by the police. A British photographer, shooting for Black Star or Reuters said, referring to a 36 exposure roll he'd just removed from his Leica M2 and handed to a courier, "All you need laddy, is a good one in each roll and yer makin' a living."
Later I would sit with some of these guys in a pub and look at their contact sheets and see the frames they'd circled. And the ones they didn't circle.
I also spent hundreds of hours over the years looking at the photographs of landscape photographers like Ansel Adams and David and Josef Meunch, but it was Danny Lyons, HCB, and W. Eugene Smith that I ended up loving.
Landscapes defeated me. I'll stick to people.
One poster said he learned more from teaching photography than he did from taking photography classes. It wasn't until I read this that I realized that I, too, had the same experience (several years teaching college-level black and white photography). You're wasting a student's time using vague terms when you tell him or her why you think a photograph is good or bad.
I've never taken a photography class. Once, when I was in my mid-twenties, I applied to Brooks in Santa Barbara. They wanted to see my portfolio. I didn't have one. I told them I didn't have a portfolio and that that was the whole point: I wanted to go there so i could learn photography and that then I'd have a portfolio. And my application, of course, was summarily rejected. In retrospect, probably a good thing.
fotomeow
name under my name
Trial and error---> for the most part, though the initial classes were valuable to see my work compared to others and discus fotos in general. However, Im finding the most valuable to be trial and error, not only from my mostly film days, but now with an Rd-1s, with imediate results in general and especially lens testing. THe digital allows me to drive my own learning bus, and taking myself through weekly/monthly exercises, and I can see the results .....
elmer3.5
Well-known
Trial and error + Viewing artwork.
Trial and error + Viewing artwork.
Hi, the main thing is to have clear what to shoot, what do you llike the most.
I always wanted to shoot the streets and the popular side of the place i live.
Even when i never saw a RF in my life i knew that kind of camera was THE ONE for me, so when finally got one it felt so familiar.
In my case have to say my rd1s tought me in months things could have lasted years in film!
Cheers!
Trial and error + Viewing artwork.
Hi, the main thing is to have clear what to shoot, what do you llike the most.
I always wanted to shoot the streets and the popular side of the place i live.
Even when i never saw a RF in my life i knew that kind of camera was THE ONE for me, so when finally got one it felt so familiar.
In my case have to say my rd1s tought me in months things could have lasted years in film!
Cheers!
totifoto
Well-known
Using only a 50mm lens for almost 2 years.
henri klein
Established
Honestly nothing really helps. You are what you are. :bang:
Brian Legge
Veteran
This is uselessly generic, but shifting how I shoot helps.
In high school, my film photography teacher was urging everyone to get familiar with Photoshop as he was convinced it was the future once the darkroom basics were established. I think the act of scanning a negative and cropping - and how slow it was at the time - made me focus more on getting the exposure and crop right in camera. I later went through a period where I did basically zero editing. I still can't bring myself to crop a 6x6 frame down to a 6x4.5 for example.
I moved from film to digital a few years ago. I still shot primarily in manual and only averaged about 70 shots per session, but I found the interactive review cycle helped me understand light a bit more, improved my holding technique, etc.
Moving from there to medium format made me more selective. I went from 3 keepers out of 36 on a 35mm to perhaps 4-6 of 12 when shooting a medium format camera.
Learning to use a TLR helped with composition.
Learning to use a rangefinder helped me improve at photographing people, street photography, get in closer, etc.
The biggest takeaway for me has been to keep diversifying and exposing myself to new things.
In high school, my film photography teacher was urging everyone to get familiar with Photoshop as he was convinced it was the future once the darkroom basics were established. I think the act of scanning a negative and cropping - and how slow it was at the time - made me focus more on getting the exposure and crop right in camera. I later went through a period where I did basically zero editing. I still can't bring myself to crop a 6x6 frame down to a 6x4.5 for example.
I moved from film to digital a few years ago. I still shot primarily in manual and only averaged about 70 shots per session, but I found the interactive review cycle helped me understand light a bit more, improved my holding technique, etc.
Moving from there to medium format made me more selective. I went from 3 keepers out of 36 on a 35mm to perhaps 4-6 of 12 when shooting a medium format camera.
Learning to use a TLR helped with composition.
Learning to use a rangefinder helped me improve at photographing people, street photography, get in closer, etc.
The biggest takeaway for me has been to keep diversifying and exposing myself to new things.
le vrai rdu
Well-known
since I am in Paris I can see some photobooks at the library, for free, and there is a lot of hight quality photo exhibitions, it helped me quite well 
Steve Karr
Film tank shaker
I went pro at 22 in Detroit as the youngest car shooter in '88. So my biggest tool for learning was "I had to" & 8x10 polaroid at $18.00 a sheet.
Alpacaman
keen bean
Trial and error FTW!
vfrazz
vincent
...at a photoclub meeting I had a eureka! moment when an old timer (even older than I was) showed me how cropping could change the strength of my composition, and I first realized that I actually had control of the image...that began the change from snapshooter to photographer...
http://vincentfrazzettaphotography.com
http://vincentfrazzettaphotography.com