How did you learn?

12 months into the hobby and thus far I've tried to pick it up as I've gone along. Bought a couple of Tom Ang books in charity shops where I read about the rule of thirds and a 'couple' of other bits. Other than that I've taken about 25,000 pictures and just tried to learn from my mistakes. I've also looked at loads of other peoples work. Second year is likely to be more problematic as one thing I've realised is how much I don't know. Its the main reason why I joined the forum to be honest - I'm thinking of going down to my local photography club but would quite like to do a course or two as well.

Just wondered if there were any courses that folk would recommend or any other course of action. Its taken over as the number one hobby - golf has been more than slightly pushed to one side as I can combine the photography with getting out on the fells.

Well you couldn't have found better books to start with!

You learn more from your mistakes than successes.
Joining a club is a great way of improving by seeing what others produce and trying to better them!

Good luck

Regards, Mike

I have looked at the photos in your PU potfolio and think that they are excellent.

If I were you I would join a Photographic Society that is outward in its operation. IE They have regular competitions using outside judges. They have interclub competitions. They encourage entry into external exhibitions. They have lectures by outside guest speakers.

In my opinion the photos in your portfolio would compete well in club competitions.

It takes time to become accepted and established in a photographic society. Once you have settled in you will find it very rewarding.

Try to visit outside exhibitions and compare the displayed pictures with your own.

There are many different types of courses, ranging from one day to several years. A photographic holiday with a well known photographer guide could be very rewarding, but these don't come cheap.

I've done an A-level, its was fun and provided several longer challenges than just creating single images. Also you get the paper cert. The one I did was an Art subject not a technical one. So if you expect to be shown how to do things you might be disappointed, they facilitated the learning process. But there were some really creative people on the course and it was only one night a week.

Also the library was chock full of excellent photography books and led me to go into a university library for an even wider selection.

I'd consider doing it again just for fun.

(I've just enquired about my local club with a view to joining )

My first efforts at photography were disapointing. I was in highschool, yearbook photographer.
I seemed to be natural at it and got some very nice photos. Had trouble in the darkroom, as everything was scribbled in handwriting and not very organized. (I cannot read handwriting, nor fancy (think quil writing) fonts, need clean fonts on plain backgrounds, I have learning disabilities) So I wound up having to accost friends in the hall and get them to read the chemicals for me). I had a senior student repeatedly taking credit for or copying my shots. I got taken off extra curricular activities as punishment for poor grades.

I picked it up again when a friend sold me a second hand camera. I had been homeless and was struggling to get established with a family. I could not afford film and collected bottles in ditches to buy film.

I had a library card.

It took me six months build a photography business and started commanding $1200.00 ( a lot at the time) per wedding.
I eventually saved up and went to collage where I got straight A's in Photography and marketing. I was the only student ever, that had alread been running a business and published several times.

I learned the way I always do. On the one hand I just know a lot of things a person with my disabilities and education simply has to reason or explanation for knowing, and on the other hand I'm just too stupid to understand "It cannot be done"

did an a level in photography & pestered famous pgotographers for advice. the majority where very helpful.

as for joining a club, the few i have visited i found soul destroying. run by people with very antiquated & narrowminded artistic ideas...

i learnt more from studying art books rather than photography books.

tour photos on flickr are very good bu the way, stick at it your going the right way...

Hi,

I did a full time photography course for two years a very long time ago when I was 21 in the early 1980's, well before digital came along, after which I achieved my aim of becomimg a full time professional studio photographer.

I would try local colleges, and evening courses, but be warned, there are many part time and evening courses that call themselves 'photography' courses...but are not! most are just digital software courses run by people who often know about PC's and photoshop, but know almost nothing about the mechanics of photography itself.

Learning by being self taught has many pitfalls, although digital helps a lot in that respect. People who are self taught often fail to really understand the basic technicalities of photography and often take round about ways of doing things which are not the best route to take.

You can take many 1000's of shots (which is good) but still fail to understand exactly how you are doing things and why. I would try some general books and the WWW, but being taught one to one (which I had) by professionals cannot be beaten IMO.

cheers Steve.M.

No courses, very few books or magazines, a little bit of web inspiration but basically self taught. I was lucky enough (?) to be made redundant just as the photography bug began to bite, so spent the next five months out most days with basic kit learning from all my many mistakes

Basically self taught here too. Most of my best shots have come from bad technique - e.g wrong aperture or wrong shutter speed, etc

for example: Shutter speed technically too low, but I'm glad it was.

Cheers folks - plenty to look at there. I've always shied away from the local photography club as I thought there was a very good chance it would be full of folk described as Cabstar said. I love in one of those sort of areas.

Library for more books sounds like a plan and I'm definitely considering a couple of Landscape workshops.

My advice is to forget books and just continue taking photographs and looking at other people's photographs. Looking at your pics you're doing fine already.

When you are out on a shoot always spend some clicks shooting what you might think initially is nonsense ( settings and perspective ). You'll be suprised that some of these will be corkers.

Smeggy, do you mean How To Guides?, there are wonderful books out there. I'll bang on about Irving Penn, Still Life; William Eggleston's Guide; New Brighton, Martin Parr to name but three.

I often buy exhibition catalogues from ebay as they have some pretty good reproductions of original photographs and they are a fraction of the cost of the original books.

Couple books with visits to galleries/exhibitions you get a good idea of what an amazing photograph looks like.

I think books that show great photographs are well worth looking at for inspiration.

I'm more talking about technical books.

After all is there a set way to shoot anything?

I think the best books have nothing to do with photography.
ART books showing the work of masters that understood light, color and composition long before Photography came around... are the best places to learn what you really need to know to create nice photo.
Guys like Rembrant taught me more about Photography than any photography book.

Totally off topic post here, but I have to say it:

I'm totally in love with your photos marklj. I hope to follow in your footsteps and hope to learn from your mistakes.