I had imagined what “real” photography would be like – what I would need to do to learn everything quickly.
But the more I learn, the less I seem to know about it. And the more pictures I’ve taken, the fewer are good enough for me! These are the three most important things I’ve learned during the years.
It Takes More Practice Than You Think
While you are at the learning phase, you probably thought that if you are talented enough you’ll master the basic concepts that you need to start off in a workshop or two. Well, not really. It will take a whole lot more. Photography, just as any other art form, requires practice. It requires probably the equal amount of practice as you would need in order to be able to draw a perfect portrait of anybody in the world. It is a tough process and you will never be at the point that you don’t have anything else to learn.
A photographer friend of mine, who has more than 20 years of experience in the field, once told me that I need to shoot at least 10,000 photos before I learn how to hold the camera properly. To be honest, he was spot on. Took me 20,000 photos in order to learn to use my body to stabilize myself, hand, arm, and hips position in order to avoid most of the handshake and so on.
Photography is About Consistency
You can’t have it as a weekend hobby. You either are a photographer 24/7 or you aren’t a photographer at all. I mean this literally. Even if I don’t have the camera in my hands, when I walk down the streets I look at the light and anticipate how it would fall upon a model by using the bystanders as reference.
Making Money From Photography Isn’t Easy
Fact is that most of us photographers aren’t good businessmen, nor we are good at marketing. You were focused in photography the whole time, what did you expect? Now you have two options: invest even more time and educate yourself into business and/or marketing, or ask for help in that matter.
The best advice comes from those who have already been there. We found a great video from professional photographer Karl Taylor with several tips on how you can take your photography to the next level.
GO TO THE NEXT PAGE FOR THE VIDEO
Read the full article over at Light Stalking.
Source: Light Stalking
I am so glad that I am doing this for personal pleasure at this stage of the game. I would hate to be under pressure to become good at it just because I needed the income. *sigh*
Same here Deedee, I really don’t consider myself a professional but a self taught amateur, I’ve been photographing for over 20 years on and off and still learning new stuff that my brain won’t or can’t retain ? as for doing it for an income that’s not me ! I enjoy the thanks from my friends & family when I hand them a disk of my photos ? I do it just because I love my hobby ? a free meal now and then or a gift card is good enough !
Exactly! 🙂 Been photographing for about 50 years, and still do not consider myself a Pro-pro, because I’m not out there All The Time. It’s a fun hobby, with high ‘enthusiast’ end equipment. People tell me I should do it for a living, but I don’t really want to, I have other hobbies, as well as photography. I’m retired now from my day job. I don’t want ‘restrictions’ in my life, there are enough of them without deliberately setting yourself up 😉
Write your books DeeDee!
Only have my dslr last November.. I fell in love with it… as of right now, I’m just a guy who loves to shoot on pretty much everything.