[Ash]

Good contributions here.
Learning to see has the greatest benefits in improving results from first principles. Having a well composed, well thought out image with an interesting perspective to begin with makes all the difference in creating photographic art.

Sometimes it takes a little inspiration, sometimes a little more knowledge and practice (thematic assignments on the properties of light, new artistic methods to photograph subjects and using different tools) to get to the next level of skill and characteristic flair in the vocation.

Learning from other well seasoned photographers with great results is certainly a way to broaden our horizons, though we break through in our own learning when we incorporate this knowledge into producing a unique 'signature' style of photography for ourselves.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/photography-articles/131259-photography-tutorials-pros.html

[Fontan]

A wonderful thread.

I didn't realize that there are this many "photographers" here!

To me, it is not about getting "better" per se. The reason for this nonsense is that I just don't know what it means to get "better." Photography is one of those things where recognitions by others don't necessarily mean that I am getting better.

I am not sure if I am at all worried about getting better. I am more concerned about the act of shooting becoming more of a second nature act, much like inhaling and exhaling. I want that to be so ingrained in me that I hardly want to notice myself shooting at all. Therefore it is more important to me that I shoot everyday, and with more or less a purpose of some kind. It is vital that I pay close attention to what is happening around me, and I just don't want to miss it. I need to see the scene reveal itself before it actually happens. It is more about being so in tune with my surroundings, and feelings and sentiments that go with it.

If anything, the camera and its lens get in the way of things . . .

[tim60]

Some wisdom from Mike Cash, above. I like many of the pictures he puts on the Takumar Club. I think the best way to improve photography is to engage with life in general, taking interst in everything around oneself. Then one can see intersting slants on what happens in front, and then I try to capture images of things that somehow seem interesting. Then, when I get them home I find some do not do convey to me what I thought I saw at the time. Then time to think - and the answer is often blindingly obvious.
On of my nieces asked me why I take pictures of so many differnet things in Taiwan - "because it helps me to see what is there". The pictures help me to engage with what I see, too.
A few friends, long ago, asked me to do their weddings, as a 'second' photographer - my role was to capture the atmosphere and get interesting pictures, not to get the formal lines of the official party. The one I was proudest of actually did not excite the couple that much - a reflection of the groom off the surface of the brides eye, with 80-200 zoom and bellows - I only saw the reflection when the prints arrived. I was intending just to capture the look in the bride's eye when she looks at the groom - which was a look I noticed at another wedding a few months before, but did not have the kit to do with me.
My goal is to make a pleasing image of anything. One time at the Leigh Creek coal mine (I was working there) I was asked to get a picture of some roller bearings for a door so that someone could order the right things to buy. I set up the bearings with black card background and light through the window etc, and got the two polaroid images from difernt views (tech drawing style) and the person who asked for them said "I asked for pictures, not a work of art". After he got the parts he gave me the pictures. Soon after Ronald Reagan got inaugurated the first time. (Does this post now qualify for 'political'?)

[Mike Cash]

Some wisdom from Mike Cash, above. I like many of the pictures he puts on the Takumar Club.

If you had said you like all of them, I would have been worried about you.

On of my nieces asked me why I take pictures of so many different things in Taiwan - "because it helps me to see what is there". The pictures help me to engage with what I see, too.

I recently gave a little thought to that. A good many years ago I used to go fishing just about every week with a coworker. It wasn't unusual to come home without any fish, and my wife was puzzled how I could be so complacent about having spent the entire day fishing, only to come home empty-handed. Though it seemed obvious enough to me, she had to be told that the purpose of going fishing was not to catch fish. Actually catching something was just an added bonus.

Having a camera along with you causes you to look for stuff to take pictures of. Looking for stuff makes you see stuff. Seeing stuff makes you think about stuff. If you come home at the end of the day pissed off that you don't have a "trophy" photo, you're missing the whole point of hauling a camera around, as far as I'm concerned. I once spent a very pleasant day shooting with an old Yashica Electro 35 and it wasn't until the day was over I noticed there was no film in the camera. The discovery didn't spoil the day for me in the least. Had a grand old time of it. So what that that no photos came of it?

My goal is to make a pleasing image of anything.

I take a whole lot of pictures of some very boring and very mundane crap here in Japan, mainly because when I was first over here as a youngster in President Reagan's Navy I neglected to take very many photos at all. My most gratifying comments are those from people who previously lived here for a short while and tell me "I wish I had taken pictures of that mundane crap when I was there, instead of the touristy crap that I did". humdrum everyday objects and scenes that at the time were too insignificant to bother photographing that provide meaningful touchstones for people, and humdrum everyday crap is my niche. I don't shoot the touristy crap, because the net is already overflowing with that stuff. (I dread meetings of my local camera club every May because I know it will be a bazillion nearly identical photos of cherry blossoms. I dread every August because I know it will be a bazillion nearly identical photos of the local festival. The dread isn't over the prospect of looking at the photos, by the way, it is over the potential of being asked to stand and provide a meaningful individual critique of them all).

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Last edited by Mike Cash; 01-08-2012 at 03:27 AM.

[tim60]

I notice the same thing with my wife, she sees activity in an instrumental manner - 'to catch the fish', rather than in the experience of the doing and living.

The first time I went to Taiwan an American told me - always carry the camera, and if you see soemthing striking or unusual take a picture - you will probably never see it again. And even with multiple trips to Taiwan that advice holds true still. It also gives me a big collection of pictures the 'document' some aspects of the changes in Taiwan over the past 25 years.

On the first trip I took a walk down a street in which the industry was carving images for worship and making other religious paraphenalia. 1 use 10 rolls of Kodachrome 64 (36) on that trip. All a student could afford! When I got them back Kodak included a new roll of K64 to compensate for some damaged images. It turned out to be ther other half of that roll had been crinckled in processing and had little green half-moons on each image. The religious workshops ones which meant a lot to me survived. Sometime I need to convert the slides to digital format.

I take pictures of odd things too. A friend gave me a Rubinar 1000. I took a picture of somebody's firewood pile, with grass growing through it etc and sent it to him, just to show him I could get meaningful results from it. Later he decided to include it in a book he is writing - to illustrate a point about the nature of a random pile of stuff - and I got the publisher's release forms. I think I got the better side fo the deal - the lens and my first photo published in a book.

[RioRico]

Having a camera along with you causes you to look for stuff to take pictures of. Looking for stuff makes you see stuff. Seeing stuff makes you think about stuff. If you come home at the end of the day pissed off that you don't have a "trophy" photo, you're missing the whole point of hauling a camera around, as far as I'm concerned.

Photo experience leads me to look, and to see -- to look and see like a camera. Imaginary frames materialize before my eyes. I think, How can I crop what's around me into compositions? Where do I mark the edges of 'pictures'? So while pulling-in a scene with my two-eyed 90-degree (15mm on APS-C) UWA vision, I'm mentally overlaying rectangles based on the mounted lens. That's one reason to shoot extensively with certain focal lengths, to 'see' the picture before raising camera to eye.

I don't know if seeing like a camera is 'seeing' like any other specialty. I don't see my surrounding forest as a lumberer would. Because of some interest in botany and geology, I don't see deserts as a speeding Vegas-bound tourist would. I've worked as a bike messenger and a busker -- I see city streets from those vantages, not as a cop or burglar would. What varied experiences give us are a base of knowing WHAT we see. It really helps to have some idea what we're looking at!

Which is why it's good to have obsessions. We tend to try to learn about what obsesses us. Get all hot-n-bothered about anything, and we see it more clearly, or at least with more concentration, in more detail. Let us shoot our collections, our perversions, our enthusiasms. To see what's around you, cultivate some obsessions -- with doors or feet or mirrors or parakeets or cactaceae or whatever. The trick to seeing, is to be interested. No, not merely interested -- fascinated! Learn to care.

[derekkite]

I'm not an artist. My daughter is an artist and her photos show it. Mine are rather mechanical. I suppose that reflects who I am and my skills and interests.

My goal is to bring home images that capture the stunning things I see in my walks to share with those in my family who can't due to circumstances get out. Last week I went through all the images from last year, and found quite a few that did just that. And many many more that didn't because of some either technical glitch or bad technique. So there is my goal, be better with technique, learn to use to it's maximum the hardware that I have.

For instance, last fall we (dog and I) came off a trail onto a lane. The dog started jumping and running about with excitement and my curiosity was satisfied with the smell of a bear. I got some shots, not art by any stretch. But the bear was in focus. I took it home, showed my wife and she was horrified. That close? Were you not in danger? Frankly I didn't think of it at the time, just focussed on catching what I saw. So I suppose I was successful in sharing the experience through the camera.

So when I get a shot of some buffleheads and answer the question "what are they diving for" by a shot showing something in their mouth, or I see some movement in the brush and capture a Hermit Thrush hiding behind a branch in a tree watching me, or find a kestrel nest and get shots of adults bringing songbirds to their young, I am doing something that allows someone else to see and experience what I saw. Maybe they get the same feeling of awe at the beauty. I hope so.

[Raffwal]

I've thought about the art of photography too and how learn it. In the end I realized or decided that I just am not an artist or should not aim to become one. There's so much baggage and hype to that word. I just like playing with gadgets such as cameras and try to make pictures that I like. If somebody else does like them too, fine. If nobody else likes them, fine.