[Wheatfield]

Look at pictures. Look at the light, the way it shapes things. Don't be afraid to try to mimic something that you like.
People like to use music analogies and the like, so here's one:
You will learn to play a lot of music written by others before you compose your first masterpiece.

[Coeurdechene]

ASh that graph is hilarious..."the HDR hole" XD...it lacks the "medium format will enhance my creativity and deplete my bank account" phase :P.
Pictures may suck..mines do most of the time..there are some i'm fond of but nothing really special, anyone could do them...but it doesn't really matter i enjoy shooting and dreaming about gear and places where i'll use it....Its fun even if i would never make a living out of it..it's heaps of fun....so the question is do you enjoy shooting?and if you enjoy shooting why do you care if it's good or not?

[RioRico]

Sturgeon's Law: 95% of everything is crap.
(Especially my pictures.)

Sturgeon's Creed: In the winter I'm a Buddhist; in the summer I'm a nudist.
(Please, no photos.)

Berenice Abbott Dorothea Lange said something like:
"The camera is a tool for learning to see without a camera."
More accurately, it's a tool for learning to see LIKE a camera.

A dSLR may be the wrong place to start learning photography. ANY camera may be the wrong place to start. More than a few noted photographers began by studying and working in visual arts, and only took up photography later. They had already trained their vision. (My training: early immersion in my father's photography, which turned my sisters into graphics artists.)

But art school isn't the only starting point. Various projects have given simple P&S cameras to shit-shack kids in the poorest places, like those surviving by scavenging the waste dumps of Guatemala City and Soweto and the favelas of Rio. They produce powerful images of life and death and immediate reality. A place to start: not with abstractly artistic ambitions, but by documenting what's around you, what's in your face, what you know intimately.

I've been shooting for 55-odd years. It was once my job. Some of my best work has been with simpler cameras, casually used. I'm still not as happy with what I get from my K20D + 170-odd lenses, as what I got from a Canon Dial-35 and my Sony DSC-V1 5mpx P&S. Maybe you should get a Holga.

[Deiberson]

Maybe this post came off the wrong way. It wasn't meant to be a rant. I love the hobby and trying to learn something new that is difficult. I just thought it was funny that every time I think I'm starting to figure something out, I realize that there is something else that needs to be dialed in.

[altopiet]

I thought I'd buy a camera that looked like it was good and then just walk around taking pics that deserved some type of award. I was thrown a curve ball not expecting that I'd be required to know something about exposure.

Spent a few months playing around with that and reading whatever came my way.

Pictures still suck.

Realized there is this thing called composition. More reading, practice, and patience. Another year invested.

Pictures still suck.

Found this thread on Post Processing. Invested more money, time, learning, tutorials, books, videos.....felt like I was starting back at step 1 again. Started to figure out enough with PP that I could save a few pictures and even be a little creative. But in the end...My pictures still sucked.

Strobes! That's what I need. That's what my pictures are missing! More books, tutorials, strobist.blogspot, flickr groups, frowknows etc.....
More hours spent reading about this new technique and what do I get...a compilation of deplorable pictures.

Its almost a typical "jack of all trades, master of none" scenario taking place.

What's more, is that I've spent so much time and money learning about these things that I've practically forgotten everything about exposure.

How do you guys do it? As I'm typing I'm reading about this thing called RAW. Awesome.

This is what it is all about for me, and why I enjoy photography so much as a hobby, and the good company of the people on this forum. It is the learning of all the new things about DSLR from all the knowledgeable people around, and going out and trying out what they suggest, and practicing, until, one day, after how many shots, it all of a sudden comes together, and you get a few nice shots, and even if they are not the greatest, you are proud to have taken them.

[Ash]

Maybe this post came off the wrong way. It wasn't meant to be a rant. I love the hobby and trying to learn something new that is difficult. I just thought it was funny that every time I think I'm starting to figure something out, I realize that there is something else that needs to be dialed in.

Perfection is elusive, and just like most arts and professions: the more you learn, the more you find out how much you don't know. But you learn anyway, because it's indeed an enjoyable vocation.

[Deiberson]

altopiet...
it looks like you fall into the "cat and flower" group on the chart that ash posted.

[altopiet]

it looks like you fall into the "cat and flower" group on the chart that ash posted.

You've got an "A" for that one!LOL But most of the time life is like a roller coaster!

[RichardS]

Maybe this post came off the wrong way. It wasn't meant to be a rant. I love the hobby and trying to learn something new that is difficult. I just thought it was funny that every time I think I'm starting to figure something out, I realize that there is something else that needs to be dialed in.

I got it

Richard.

[alohadave]

Maybe this post came off the wrong way. It wasn't meant to be a rant. I love the hobby and trying to learn something new that is difficult. I just thought it was funny that every time I think I'm starting to figure something out, I realize that there is something else that needs to be dialed in.

Sometimes it helps to just step back and use a much simpler camera and focus on simply taking pictures rather than deal with 30 variables all the time. Camera phones are great for this, and sometimes, you just need to take some happy-snaps.

[Mike Cash]

Dave is right on the money. I have always said that sometimes the best thing you can do is take a break from photography and take pictures instead.

You can do photography and end up with no pictures, oddly enough. Take pictures and you'll find that the photography takes care of itself.

This is why I don't say that photography is my hobby... I say my hobby is taking pictures...and it is why I don't say I am a photographer...I am a guy who takes pictures. Every now and then one of them turns out to be a photograph. It is perhaps an artificial and overly-fine distinction, but it sure does prevent a lot of angst.

[creampuff]

I know a photographer who has money to buy any camera, yet is content to shoot only in jpeg, isn't bothered to do even the most basic post production like cropping or straightening his photos, what more tweaking general exposure, brightness or contrast, who never junks his "cannot make it" images. He can't be bothered to improve his composition or overall photographic ability (in other words he can't shoot for nuts) yet he is a contented photographer, in other words, he is content in his mediocrity. He knows his photos suck but it doesn't bother him and he sees no inclination to improve.

Unfortunately if you want to excel, you've got to adopt a diametrically different approach, always finding ways to improve. This applies to just about everything in life... photography included. Give a accomplished shooter even a basic camera and he or she will deliver great images. Bottomline it's about mastery of the craft.

[Deiberson]

dave,
thanks for the help on the strobist discussion. i just got some gear to play around with (umbrella, stands 2 flashes and the cactus 4's). looking forward to messing around with it.

[TaoMaas]

I know a photographer who has money to buy any camera, yet is content to shoot only in jpeg, isn't bothered to do even the most basic post production like cropping or straightening his photos, what more tweaking general exposure, brightness or contrast, who never junks his "cannot make it" images. He can't be bothered to improve his composition or overall photographic ability (in other words he can't shoot for nuts) yet he is a contented photographer, in other words, he is content in his mediocrity.

I thought I knew the person you were talking about until you got to this line:

He knows his photos suck but it doesn't bother him and he sees no inclination to improve.

The guy I know has no idea how bad his pics are...he thinks every one of his shots is pure gold. In fact, he often says, "You know I'm one of the best photographers on the planet..." I always want to tell him, "Dude, you're not even the best photographer in this conversation....and I'm pretty average." lol

[rparmar]

Sounds like you might be complaining about the ongoing process of learning an art form. If you don't find this process exciting then I'd suggest you find a new passion.

That is it exactly. It is fine to have some specific goal as a marker. But if the process itself is not fun then what's the point?

Me, I have no specific photographic goals, other than a vague need to "be better" (not a goal). But every day stepping out with my camera and looking at the world through that mechanism entices and delights me. Otherwise I wouldn't bother.