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
All of it.

My dad was a photographer. In the Sixties, he had a Mamiya c220 with three lenses, a spotmatic with the 50 1,4, and the full edition of the Famous Photographers School course book. Avedon and Eisenstaedt and Irving Penn were among the tutors.

Everything that happened since then has made me grow into the photographer I am : a completely unknown non-entity.

Cheers
 
Practice, practice, practice, including film developing and darkroom printing.

Also doing weddings as a test of your skills and abilities.
 
Pinterest

Seriously, once I got past the technical issues by working in a custom photo lab and developing thousands of rolls/sheets and printing hundreds and hundreds of color and b&w prints, the biggest change came when I realized that what I didn't put in my photos was just as important as what I did. Also realizing that life had to come before photography gave me perspective.
 
Taking a class helped.

Shooting a lot in the street helped.

Changing to different/larger formats helped. (Basically slowed me down).

Shooting projects helped.
 
Well I don't exactly know what has helped me grow more than anything but I do know this - Brian Sweeney helped birth me into the photography world! And I am proud and very grateful for that! I know you're out there somewhere sir...bless you! 🙂
 
Bob Michaels said:
1) forcing myself to edit very critically. Deciding which image to keep and which 99 to do away with causes me to really analyze what works (in my mind) and what does not.

2) learning to ignore the opinions of those I do not know any more than they posted to the same websites that I did. I think this did a lot to keep me from being subconsciously guided to the middle of the road.

3) seeking the honest opinion of a small handful of people whose talent I have great confidence in.
Click to expand...

Yes, and I'll add that getting out there and spending time (real time, not 30 minutes a few times a month) photographing helped the most.
 
No one thing, but a combination of things:
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Having a mentor early on.
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Reading a ton of photo magazines and books,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Studying Other's photos and trying to reproduce them to learn various techniques,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Photography classes,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Joining and participating actively in a photography club,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Entering club competitions and having my work judged by others,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum,
Becoming an accredited judge in my corner of the world and judging the work of others,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
Practice,
ad infinitum.
 
Assis't dark room tech printing B&W negs in a [chemical] darkroom for a professional
photographer in the 1960's. And developing & printing my own stuff for years afterward.

If there's better feedback than this, I don't know what it might be.
 
For me it was 4 years of college. (photo major, art minor) Several mentors. Reading. Looking at paintings and photographs and reading what the photographers and artists had to say about their work. I taught part time for a while at the college level some years back. Working for a couple top photographers in the area after college. I did custom color and B&W printing also and I always printed and still print my personal work. And shooting A LOT....

After going digital the world wide web of course. It was a great resources and friends.
 
I learned the most from figuring out why I have failed. It took me like a hundred sheets of film to get confident about metering for example.
 
Leaving my light meter at home. For the past ten years I've been carrying a Leica IIIc and the little 50 Elmar almost everyday. At first going without a meter was a bit worrisome and I did make mistakes. Now, my IIIc and me with no meter does better than me with an M6 and following its meter. It helps that all I use is asa 400. Joe
 
Livesteamer said:
Leaving my light meter at home. For the past ten years I've been carrying a Leica IIIc and the little 50 Elmar almost everyday. At first going without a meter was a bit worrisome and I did make mistakes. Now, my IIIc and me with no meter does better than me with an M6 and following its meter. It helps that all I use is asa 400. Joe
Click to expand...

I would love to get to this point. I have an M6 and I'm thinking about just taking the batteries out to force myself to learn proper exposure without a meter.

My question to you is: how did you start out? Did you just use Sunny 16 rule and learn from that basis? Thanks!
 
Sunny 16 is the start. Use your meter to check several common lightings that are not sunny 16. Your eyes are not doing all the work, part of it is memory and experience of past photos. It's like taking the training wheels off your first bike. Scary at first and you will fall down but soon you will get better. Note, I only take photos for myself and family. If I was doing an important job I might take a meter. Good Luck, Joe.
 
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