Lookin to expand

[langinator]

Hello everyone!
Im looking for advice and general direction. Ive been shooting on and off for 5 years and consider my self a amateur with hopeful potential and a solid outlook.
To attend school or build skills other ways?
A good book or two?
How do you maintain a thorough passion and interest?
Thanks much, any advice and general whitty comments appreciated!
cheers!

[NathanFranke]

Originally Posted by langinator

Hello everyone!
Im looking for advice and general direction. Ive been shooting on and off for 5 years and consider my self a amateur with hopeful potential and a solid outlook.
To attend school or build skills other ways?

School is overrated, but solid groups are not (and those are often found in schools...)--nothing beats being surrounded with like-minded people in a similar skill-level with differing ideas but the same passion for photography. Having that kind of environment is wonderful, and I wish I still had that after graduating. sigh.

Having gone to a 4 year photography program, here's my experience:
Two types of photography lessons: 1-technique, and 2-creativity

You can have one or both of these, but having both is better. If you read Ansel Adams' guides, you'll know everything there is to know about technique. Go out and apply it, and regardless of the subject your photos will look good. They may be boring as all-git-out, but they'll look good.

Creativity is harder to teach. You can apply all sorts of rules, like the rule of thirds, active space, negative space, etc--but you have to develop an eye that can see the photographic opportunities everywhere. A lot of my early work in school suffered because of a lack of creativity. The photos were correctly exposed, printed well in the darkroom, but they didn't tell a story. There was nothing there to draw the viewer in. They were boring. They say "a picture is worth a thousand words," but not every photograph is. Make sure there's a story for the viewer.

A good book or two?

Ansel Adams' books, "An Ansel Adams Guide to Photography" by John Schaefer--all the technique you'll ever need to know about natural light photography are in here. Everything you need to know about artificial light is on strobist.blogspot.com.

How do you maintain a thorough passion and interest?

Surround yourself with other photographers. Join clubs. Look at photographs online or in books (I prefer the latter--too much lcd can't be good for the brain). Always carry a camera around, and regardless of the cool stuff that modern photographers put out, look back at an old master every so often. I find Beaumont Newhall's "History of Photography" useful for this.

Thanks much, any advice and general whitty comments appreciated!
cheers!

You're welcome

[Jim Bryant]

Learn the business side of photography and your costs of doing business.