Your Personal Photography Evolution

The past two years, I've barely looked at or published to this blog due to a busy senior year of college and an even busier first year of "real" adult life.  As I was going through old blog posts, I still agreed with a lot of my old posts, but had to laugh a little at what I used to consider high-quality, blog-worthy work.  Granted, they weren't horrible pictures, but I feel I turn out much higher quality work at this point (and with less effort).  My Flickr page is a great example of that.  If you compare the photos on the first page to the photos on the last page, the difference is obvious.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arait/

My main point in posting this is: Take time to look at your progress.  If you have never picked up a camera before and are just now getting into photography, don't feel bad if you aren't producing professional quality photographs from the first shot.  All you can do is practice, practice, practice!  The more photos you take, the more you will get a feel for your camera, your personal style, and angles that work.  Every year or two, take a look back at your old photos and compare them to your new ones.  If you've taken a lot, I can almost guarantee that you will see an obvious improvement.

The factors I feel have led to my progress are:

a) A nicer camera

 There's no way around it...an equipment upgrade helps.  My dSLR lets me do things I could only dream of doing with my little point-and-shoot.  However, it did take a lot of learning and research to produce better shots.  Initially, I think my pictures may have gotten a little WORSE with a nicer camera because I really had no clue how to use it.  Certain light situations and settings are still a little bit of a mystery to me, but overall, the upgrade was worth every dollar spent.

b) The desire to improve

I'm still not happy with most of my shots.  I have a degree of perfectionism that makes me want to continually improve until I've reached what I consider a professional level.  It's slow going, but maybe I'll get there some day.  You just have to research new techniques, settings you don't understand, and take as many shots as possible to reach your goal.  Honestly, a little money may need to be spent if you have high standards (see point A).

c) Patience

Most people--I say "most" because I'm sure there are natural photography geniuses out there--can't go from first picking up a camera to producing professional shots in a week.  It takes a lot of practice (and some frustration along the way) to gradually improve your technique.  If you want to accelerate your skills, taking a photography class is a good idea.  It's something I always wished I had done early on, but never seemed to get around to doing. I think my skills would have improved much more quickly if I had.

Overall, don't feel bad if you aren't getting the results you want on day one.  Just like anything else it takes times and work to get where you ultimately want to be.  :)

Final Suggestion: I would recommend starting a Flickr page if you don't have one.  Not only does it help you track you progress and receive feedback, but it provides literally millions of photos from other users as examples of wonderful and inspired work.  I've learned as much from viewing the photos on Flickr as I have from practicing on my own. :)