Photo Skills

[sbug_adam]

maybe my lack of motivation to continue my photography is my slow progress of skills.. I dont think I'm good enough to start charging 500 for a senior session or whatever.. Whats the best way to get out of this funk and really start improving?

Should I attend workshops? Do TFP for the time being? Find a muse? Walk around and shoot? All of the above?

[venchka]

Send me $500.

[BeccaJ]

walking around and shoot sounds about the best option to me. Forget about charging and go shoot something FOR yourself. Find your motivation again.

[Sonny]

Best advice I ever received is to "Practice, practice, and practice some more".

It doesn't matter if you practice on friends, hired models of a mannequin...just go out and practice.

[venchka]

Originally Posted by Sonny

Best advice I ever received is to "Practice, practice, and practice some more".

It doesn't matter if you practice on friends, hired models of a mannequin...just go out and practice.

Send me another $500 and I'll tag along saying "Practice. Practice some more. Practice again."

I will even give you a hot tip on a place to practice for FREE! Town & Country Village. Get there an hour or two before dark and practice until well after dark. Be careful. The sprinklers come on around 8pm. Bonus style points: Don't use a tripod.

[zachary]

Take pictures for yourself. Dont bother with TFD stuff unless you like dealing with whiney moms and cheap teens.

Shooting weddings almost made me quit photography.

Shooting film for myself has given new life to my hobby. Now im considering wet plate but I dont really want to die at the age of 35.

[SJHester]

i have a bargin, dont send Wayne $500. send me $450 and i will tell you to pratice.

[venchka]

Originally Posted by SJHester

i have a bargin, dont send Wayne $500. send me $450 and i will tell you to pratice.

Another reason why I quit shooting for pay. Everybody with a camera was undercutting everybody else with a camera.

Are you practicing?

[Tom]

Originally Posted by zachary

Take pictures for yourself. Dont bother with TFD stuff unless you like dealing with whiney moms and cheap teens.

Shooting weddings almost made me quit photography.

Shooting film for myself has given new life to my hobby. Now im considering wet plate but I dont really want to die at the age of 35.

I agree with this. Shoot for yourself. Many people have been driven out of photography completely by the business side of things.

I know Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. How many hours are you devoting.

Ultimately, it should be fun. If you aren't enjoying it, try shooting something different. But shoot what you love.

[texxter]

Originally Posted by sbug_adam

maybe my lack of motivation to continue my photography is my slow progress of skills.. I dont think I'm good enough to start charging 500 for a senior session or whatever.. Whats the best way to get out of this funk and really start improving?

Should I attend workshops? Do TFP for the time being? Find a muse? Walk around and shoot? All of the above?

I agree with the suggestion to forget about creating for money. It's simpler to photograph for the simple pleasure of creating.

One of the things that motivate me when I go thru a creative block period is to work on a self-assignment. While random practice is not bad and it will help you get back into the swing of shooting, it's sometimes not enough to get the passion for creating images back. For me, being able to anticipate creating 8-12 images around a topic really gets me going, I start making plans, contacting people, taking risks. A self-assignment is a set of images linked together by a theme - it could be as simple as exploring the color "blue" and as complex as documenting saddle makers in Texas.

Another important point is that practicing doing the same thing a hundred times is not going to help you get better. What helps is doing different things, challenging yourself to create new images - using a camera and lighting is pretty simple, as the principles of photography fit in one book - what's hard is being able to apply those principles to create images that push the boundaries, make you proud and motivate you to go do more. So practice with a goal in mind, or practice by trying new things, not doing the same shoot you did yesterday with a different model.

Other suggestions:

• Listen to what your life is telling you - accomodate your photographic world to the flow of your life. Don't wait to be in the right place to create images, start creating them now where you are.
• Dont lock yourself into a specific genre - be open and commit to creating one significant picture every week, regardless of the circumstances.
• Enroll in a photography course at your community college, connect with others, get input from others. Let creativity flow from those with more experience to those who are newer than you - through you.
• Stop complaining and make a plan to get more creative with your photography - you cant be creative if you're surrounded by negativity. Allocate time to connect with yourself and start looking for the unusual in the familiar - gotta learn to see things differently everyday. Daily stress and creativity cannot co-exist, you need to find time to be stress-free.
• Leave your familiar surroundings and go shoot where you've never been before.