The psychological circle of being a beginner at photography
This is a story about the learning process and how feedback is important.
It’s been a while since I started this new journey of photography as a hobby.
By now, I’ve been through the phase where you take pictures of everything (and I mean everything). I can say I took some photos I’m proud of but I have the other kind too. I’m not talking about out of focus, I’m talking about “What was I thinking??? This is bad…. ” kind of thing.
Something like this ….
or this….
Actually this one makes no sense at all…I was trying for the first time the telephoto lens. I had an idea when I took it but then I couldn’t make it what I was expecting.
Right now I’m at the phase where I want to take the perfect picture. I don’t like this phase. This phase happens when you pick up your camera, take a picture, look at it and delete it instantly. I find myself thinking all my pictures look the same or have the same subject and most of them are not interesting at all.
They don’t tell a story!!!
When I look at my photos I feel like something is missing… I see other people photos and they are full of mood or composed so amazingly and mine are just vulgar. I want to get to the place where I can take a picture and know what i’m going to do with it in post so it can look the way I want.
The problem is to get there I have to take pictures, practice and I just don’t feel like doing it. I feel I lack the skills to get there and I get demotivated. Sometimes I want to go out and practice but then I feel I don’t have the “eye” for it.
I always thought of myself more like a pragmatic person much more connected to science and proof than arts, imagination and creativity. I think this is my problem. I’m not creative enough, I’m not an artsy person. Please note that I don’t think it’s one or the other… at least I hope not.
This line of thought ends up with me thinking about how different lenses or a tripod would increase immensely my possibilities. I search for different lenses, faster lenses or longer lenses, macro lenses…anything actually. I get all excited again and think that before spending my wage I should go and practice with the material I have, because if I get any good with a kit lens then it will be way more fun and easy with the hypothetical new gear.
So now I get my gear and start practicing on weird stuff, copying some compositions trying to mimic the vibe the other person got…And I can’t…I try some post editing but I’m not that good at it so nothing changes …
Not so long ago I decided to play with some low light photography and I was a proud of what I got. I made it at home so I prepared a scenario with some candles and water for reflections.
This is what I did:
But when I try to share my “work” with other people they just look at it in a funny way. The worst part is when you publish your photos in social media (facebook groups or instagram) and you get zero feedback. You are so proud about that particular photo that you decide to share it with the world to see other people reactions but nothing happens… It breaks my spirit a little bit. For me some constructive feedback is better than no feedback.
I know learning is a process but this process is taking forever and I’m getting a little demotivated. Everyone says the most important thing is practice so I guess I just have to keep trying! Keep reading and watching videos about photography, and most hard part for me, composition.
To finish, I leave you with some of the photographs that make me a little proud.
