Learning From Other Photographers
Feb 5, 2010 Photography Discussion, Site News
I bet whatever skill level a photographer you consider yourself you probably didn’t start there. Right? How did you get to your level?
I am the first person to critique myself as a photographer and say that I am not the most technical. I studied marketing in college and not photography/fine art. My photo education has been one of taking pictures, asking for critique and trial and error. After that took me to an artistic plateau I needed something else – I wanted to get better. I wanted people to view my photos and consider them art rather than snapshots. (Every day I set out to take photos I keep that thought in mind – “Make ART!”)
The next level of growth happened when I started asking other photographers questions and started collaborating.
I learned to place high value on collaboration over competition in art and photography. It’s how I’ve been able to grow as a photographer and acquire new skills. Here are three ways I like to collaborate with other photographers:
PHOTO WALKS: Go out and make some photographs other people. Talk about what you see – discuss settings, technique, composition and anything else. Watch how the other photographers work and periodically view their images. (Just yesterday I went on a photo journey to Four Peaks with my brother. We talked about photography and whatever else came to mind.) Scott Kelby has initiated an annual photo walk which takes place in cities all ove the country – this is a great place to start.
DIGITAL PHOTO FORUMS: I subscribe to many photo blogs and photo newsletters. This is a great place to see what other photographers are doing and to hear about their photo adventures etc. My favorite website is Digital Photography School. DPS is broken into three sections – Tips & Tutorials, Cameras & Equipment and Post Production. I value this site as an important resource to interact with other photogs through comments and get critique of my work.
PHOTO PROPERTIES & EXIF SETTINGS: This is a great way to learn about making photographs. EXIF is a technical standard for storing information about each photo that you take with your digital camera. EXIF information is automatically captured in each photo file when you take each picture, and includes the date and time the photo was taken, the manufacturer and model name of the camera taking the picture, as well as a plethora of other useful information about your camera’s aperture setting, shutter speed, focal length, metering mode, and ISO speed. One of the brilliant things about FLICKR (and other photosharing sites) is that you can make your EXIF data public. (Click here to see the settings for the above photo.) Whenever I see a photo I really like I always see if the EXIF data is available. This level of transparency is a huge help to others and it’s why I share the data of every photo I post to Flickr.
This is just a short list of three ways to learn from other photographers. There are so many more ways but these three are the ones that helped me grow as a photographer and take things to the next level. When you help someone grow only good can come out of it.
How did you learn your photography skills? Do you have any favorite ways to collaborate with other photographers? How do you feel about transparency? Please leave a comment and let’s get a dialogue going. Thanks for reading.
Tags: arizona photography, collaboration, Greg Taylor, Gregory Taylor, GRT2, grtaylor2.com, learning photography, photo discussion, photo how to, Photography, photography schools, professional photography, teaching photography, tempe, tempe photographer
February 24th, 2010 at 2:54 am
How did you learn your photography skills?
Bought a digital camera for a trip to Vancouver, BC. It sucked (3X optical zoom)…found that out before I left. Bought a better one (12x optical). Bought 3 mem cards (1 Gig each? was pretty big at that time). Took camera everywhere. Watched AUTO settings and EXIF data. Moved from Auto to Aperture mode…pressed shutter button a lot. Took thousands of pix the camera and I weren’t capable of capturing…mostly low light and action. Mostly low light action. Yearned for better camera and more skill. Read a lot of internet stuff. Took better pix. Got better camera.
Do you have any favorite ways to collaborate with other photographers?
Social Media. Model Mayhem gatherings. Craigslist posts. Whatever it takes.
How do you feel about transparency? As in slide film? I have no idea. Im digital from day one. As for technique? Point – shoot. Spend hours on every photo in image editing program. Figure there has to be better way. Read more. Look more. Shoot more. Get 1 good shot for every 100. Get 1 great shot for every thousand. Post the decent ones. Make people on Flickr critique them by joining SCORE ME groups. Feel the bitterness as they suck your life out with their comments and learn from it. (that part is hard)
Ummm…is that transparent enough?
Please leave a comment and let’s get a dialogue going.
I just did.
Thanks for reading.
You are welcome.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Thanks for the comments Jim and I like the humor. When I mentioned transparency I meant more along the lines of being open to letting other know how/what techniques you are using to get your photographs. Your progression as a photographer and mine have a similar parallel – I shot photos, asked questions, hung out with other photographers until I thought I had a sense of what I was doing.