Camera go click?

I do love this cartoon, What the Duck. It hits a lot of the points I see pop up in my experience in photography. This strip covers a point that was made to me even last night!

A buddy said to me, "Dude, I bought a Nikon D60... what do you think?"
Well, I can't tell them exactly what to do. I believe discovering what you enjoy with photography needs to be an effort. By that I mean, you need to discover the fun or the results of taking photos through education, trail, result, self discovery, and a combination of these factors.

I know personally I was inspirited by other people's photos. From Ansel Adams to some images in various magazines. I found that my photos were not getting any bit close, nor would I. The images we know and love are not something just shot and printed. Oh no, there is a ton of other work that has to go in to seeing that end image.

I was discouraged to find out that photography is not naturally born skill. (or for that matter most well honed and used skills) Though you can have an eye for these things, which helps. I still snapped, but I realized these amounts of effort and knowledge is why professional photographers make money. I kept at it- that was the key. I learned little bits at a time. If I enjoyed the results and kept curious, I could do more.

To those who want to know how to take better photos- stick with that idea. If you stay curious, want to learn, and learn the results can be amazing.

Examples of my progression:

September 2003:

I was doing basic stuff with a point and shoot. I got low, that was interesting. However the background was too busy. The image could be cropped, and the setting was very shooting from the hip.

March 2004:

A bit better in my opinion. Good lines, a little bit more editing after the fact... interesting subject.

Nov 2005:

I moved on to a Rebel XT. The colors are deeper, the subject is more along the lines of "this is interesting..." A bit cleaner lines and content. A bit of light editing in Picasa. Still, slowly getting better images.

August 2006:

Starting to take more action shots. I found that people are more interesting than just objects. I've started to edit some more, using Digital Photo Professional.

May 2007:

I moved on to the Canon 30D body. Great difference in controlling the elements of the image- shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Basically I went full Manual for all my shots. Things like Spot Metering are common place in my photography.

June 2008:

Figuring out various concepts when I have time- like getting lighting. A nice tripod has entered the line-up. Also using Adobe Lightroom for my editing and output.

April 2009:

Using off camera strobes for lighting help. Also making some of my own gear to assist with the shaping of light. Using a watermark for all my images that are uploaded to Flickr. The content is bland because it is a test shot, but still it is much more vibrant than the 2003 shot.


Over all you can see how my shots improved year by year. Little elements being added as I expand what I knew. New gear coming along after study and need.
So check out what others are doing. Try to duplicate what you- experiment. One of the best things about digital is that you can see the results right away and adjust as needed. But keep trying!