Question for the photographers here

[xanis]

I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep and I've been doing projects all day every day this week, so bear with me because I'm having some trouble wording this right now.

Ever since I got my first DSLR (a D40) back in December I've been trying very hard to learn all of the mechanics, terms and general information associated with advanced photography. I've been trying hard to use my acquired knowledge and artistic abilities to "see" and to take some really good photos. I've gotten a few good ones, but I haven't exactly gotten any shots that I really like or that I'm really proud of. Maybe it's the artist in me, I don't know.

There is one thing, however, that I have not been able to find information on anywhere. That "thing" is hard to explain, but I'm going to give it a shot.

There are times (like this morning) when the weather is nice, the lighting is good, and I have an urge to go out and shoot and I can't bring myself to do it. I find it difficult for some reason to go out by myself in a big city and just take pictures. I know that I have every right to do so and that there are surely good subjects ripe for the studying, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I guess it's because I feel awkward or strange just wandering about with a big camera taking pictures.

So my question to the AT photographers is this: How do you get over this? How do you rationalize it or get yourself to do it? Any tips for me?

 

[Billb2]

I look at the effort that has to be expended as being just the price you have to pay to get the satisfaction of success. But the the other side of the story is the one time, quick "accidents" that turn out fantastic..........
I once spent 4 years traveling 200 miles 4-6 times a year to get a particular shot just right. It was a night shot, long exposure (4-6 hours), with flash painting, so at best I could do 2-3 shots in a weekend. ....if the sky was clear!!!

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: Billb2
I look at the effort that has to be expended as being just the price you have to pay to get the satisfaction of success. But the the other side of the story is the one time, quick "accidents" that turn out fantastic..........
I once spent 4 years traveling 200 miles 4-6 times a year to get a particular shot just right. It was a night shot, long exposure (4-6 hours), with flash painting, so at best I could do 2-3 shots in a weekend. ....if the sky was clear!!!

I understand what you're saying. I guess that I have to get over certain fears that I have about doing it, and once I do, it'll all be worth it once I get those few awesome shots.

 

[jpeyton]

I think it's important to understand that even an art form like photography has a little math driving it.

Very few photographers in this world are so magical with their camera that everything they shoot turns to gold. A vast majority of professional, semi-professional and amateur photographers alike have a 'keeper rate'. As you practice your skills, your keeper rate goes up, but I'll admit that even with a few years of DSLR use under my belt, my keeper rate is still below 10%.

You can't expect to cradle your camera and hope that the right moment or right opportunity for art will come along. Set out an arbitrary goal (e.g. to have 36 keepers from a weekend of shooting) and realize that the first step to accomplishing that goal is to get out and shoot at least a few hundred photos.

One of my favorite Flickr photographers is Thomas Hawk, and I found the info in his profile worth reading:

Sometimes I like to think of myself as a photography factory. I see my photographs mostly as raw material for projects that I plan on working on at some point later on in life.

My statement as an artist is to outdo New York?s Little Angel Angelo Rizzuto, who between 1952 and 1966 documented New York City with over 60,000 photos. I admire the work ethic of people like Rizzuto or other photographers like W. Eugene Smith or Andy Warhol.

We all have but a short time on this earth. As slow as time can be it is also fast, swift, furious and mighty and then it?s over. Angelo Rizzuto is dead, Jack Kerouac is dead. John Lennon is dead. Andy Warhol is dead. Garry Winogrand is dead. Lee Friedlander isn't dead yet, but he probably will be at some point.

When I'm not taking or processing pictures I'm mostly thinking about pictures. I'm trying to publish a library of 1,000,000 finished, processed photographs before I die.

The absurdity of my obsessive compulsive view on photography is not lost on me. But it is the absurdity of life that I find most beautiful of all. Where Sisyphus had his stone I have my Canon 5D and a bag full of lenses.

Document, explore, lather, rinse, repeat. Photography for me then becomes a kind of hyperactive life documentary, loosely arranged and presented. My work is less about individual images and instead more about the power of a massive amount of excessive and disjointed images where stories, characters and places sometimes stay and other times reappear or disappear entirely for no good reason at all.

 

[yllus]

Awkward because of other people seeing you with a big camera on the streets and other public places? Hmm, have you given it a first try yet?

My experience has been that people tend to take me for a professional and either respectfully swerve out of my way or smile at me if they notice I'm shooting a scene with them in it. I always walk over afterwards to talk to them, but rarely to get a model release or anything like that - more to talk about the weather or whatever in the shot I found interesting. Guess that means I'm screwed if I ever want to sell anything, but luckily I'm not skilled enough to make a sale anyways.

 

[xanis]

Originally posted by: yllus
Awkward because of other people seeing you with a big camera on the streets and other public places? Hmm, have you given it a first try yet?

My experience has been that people tend to take me for a professional and either respectfully swerve out of my way or smile at me if they notice I'm shooting a scene with them in it. I always walk over afterwards to talk to them, but rarely to get a model release or anything like that - more to talk about the weather or whatever in the shot I found interesting. Guess that means I'm screwed if I ever want to sell anything, but luckily I'm not skilled enough to make a sale anyways.

The thing is, no one would mistake me for a professional because one, I'm a young kid (19) and two, I only have a D40 with the kit lens, so I don't have any impressive-looking equipment.

 

[Jawo]

You just have to get out and do it. Most people won't be able to tell a Nikon glass from Canon L glass, so you kinda just have to go out and shoot what you want. I go into DC frequently to get the "right shot"...like getting up at 4am to go into the city for cherry blossoms at sunrise.

 

[Deadtrees]

Though I've taken many pictures in public places, I still feel somewhat ackward doing so.
One thing I noticed is bigger is better: When I used entry level- budget cameras with a small lens, people seemed to get upset. With a bigger camera and a lens, people seems to just take it. With a tripod, it's even better.
I think it's because a person with a big equipments looks professional doing the job.

 

[yllus]

Originally posted by: Jawo
You just have to get out and do it. Most people won't be able to tell a Nikon glass from Canon L glass, so you kinda just have to go out and shoot what you want. I go into DC frequently to get the "right shot"...like getting up at 4am to go into the city for cherry blossoms at sunrise.

With some exceptions. When people see the giant white Canon 70-200mm f/4 L, they pretty quickly grasp you're not a complete noob.

 

[randomlinh]

I have a big issue with taking pictures of random people. It most likely has to do with how I was brought up. I have yet learned to get over that, haha. The top thing for me is just pure motivation. I've been struggling quite a bit with that. The funny thing is, I always tend to see interesting things when I DON'T have my camera with me... haha

 

[pennylane]

I only have a D50 and some reasonable bang-for-buck/pro-sumer lenses, but most people think I'm pretty much a professional. Acting the part is pretty much all that's needed to convince people. I don't act the part as much as I should be. I always get a little camera shy. I'm afraid to just get out there (ie, the public) sometimes and shoot. I have trouble convincing myself I'm not gonna look like a joker with a camera and even if I were, it wouldn't matter. It's easier for me when I'm alone because I have the feeling of anonymity. I'm still trying to get over it.

jpeyton is right. And that's actually a comforting thought. If your keeper rate is under 10% (and mine is probably under 5%), just keep taking pictures. You'll hopefully raise that keeper rate, but you'll also play the probability game.

"Fake it 'til you make it." People already think you're a photographer, so just play the part. After awhile you'll no longer be faking it. That's as much advice for me as it is for you.

 

[angry hampster]

Walk around like you own the place, don't walk around like a tourist.

I shoot professionally for a paper and as a hobbyist in my free time. WHen I'm shooting for the paper, I'll use some form of 1D camera and a lens with a red ring on the end of it. When I'm on my own, I'll use my 20D (now 5D ) and Sigma 24-70 most of the time. I've walked into concert halls, performances, and generally places where I shouldn't be and not been questioned just because I look confident and have a camera, lens, and flash draped over my shoulder.

I know what you're talking about with the motivation...I'm in college (studying photo) so I shoot, edit, and print projecst and homework probably 30 hours a week, on top of classes and 3 jobs. I have no motivation to go out on my own and shoot for fun anymore. I plan on changing that over the summer.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: Xanis

Originally posted by: yllus
Awkward because of other people seeing you with a big camera on the streets and other public places? Hmm, have you given it a first try yet?

My experience has been that people tend to take me for a professional and either respectfully swerve out of my way or smile at me if they notice I'm shooting a scene with them in it. I always walk over afterwards to talk to them, but rarely to get a model release or anything like that - more to talk about the weather or whatever in the shot I found interesting. Guess that means I'm screwed if I ever want to sell anything, but luckily I'm not skilled enough to make a sale anyways.

The thing is, no one would mistake me for a professional because one, I'm a young kid (19) and two, I only have a D40 with the kit lens, so I don't have any impressive-looking equipment.

Heh, I was at my daughter's "field trip" from preschool at a local farm, and I brought my Sony with a 28-75/2.8 (really not that large) along to take some shots of her and her classmates. I think what most sets people off is a lens hood, at least a petal hood, since the kit lenses don't have them (or have those garbage hoods).

Anyway, one of the mothers walked by and said, "You're intimidating with that camera." There may have been some implied flirtation there, but I thought it was rather funny.

 

[Jawo]

AndrewR....Don't forget that Tamron includes their own hoods on many lenses that are quite nice...the one on the 17-50 is pedal shaped and is very durable.

 

[xanis]

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm going to pick up another lens, probably a telephoto, this summer once I make a bit of money. Maybe then I'll have a bit more motivation.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Having a vertical grip helps as well. People assume that you must know what you're doing. I have had this backfire though and been pestered occasionally by people who want to know what I think about X or Y type of camera or the more common people who come up and say things like "wow, that's a big camera, it must take really great photos" to which I usually just reply, "well, it would if I were any good". That one annoys me though. It's like going up to someone and saying, "wow, that's a really nice pen, it must write really great novels".

And then, of course, there are always the rare people with a Canon point-and-shoot who see "Sony" on my Alpha 700 and come up to ask me why I'm using junk or that their little Canon A650 is a better camera because it's from a "real" camera company. These people don't come up very often (only once so far) but they are really, really annoying. If my 70-200 f/2.8 wasn't so damned expensive I'd have used it as a bludgeon.

As others say though, act like you belong and people will think you do. Even with "just" a basic body and kit lens (which is still a good setup, regardless of what anyone says, we all start somewhere and it's just silly to spend thousands to start with) people will likely think you're a photography student at whatever local college you have.

ZV

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
If my 70-200 f/2.8 wasn't so damned expensive I'd have used it as a bludgeon.

I never looked outside the canon camp at those lenses... and when I found out how much it cost I was floored, heh.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: randomlinh

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
If my 70-200 f/2.8 wasn't so damned expensive I'd have used it as a bludgeon.

I never looked outside the canon camp at those lenses... and when I found out how much it cost I was floored, heh.

Mine's not the Sony version, it's an older Sigma EX and was much less expensive, but it's still too damn expensive to use as a blunt object.

I do want one of the Sony or Minolta 70-200's though. They're reputed to be phenomenal.

ZV

 

[soydios]

there's two ways to do it, and each has the ideal setting:

1) Tourist
Pull out a small DSLR with the kit lens and go take pictures in any publicly accessible place. You'll look like a tourist, so most people (and the police) won't think twice about you.

2) Pro
Pull out the bigger equipment and act like you own the place. In public people who are aware of their surroundings will probably stay out of your way. In private spaces it varies: sometimes you'll be allowed to pass on by and take photos, but in others you'll be asked to stop or leave.

I still wish that I hadn't sold that 18-55mm kit lens. It was so small and light that I would've been able to take and my camera to so many more places. The 18-200mm VR is a great lens for grabbing a quick shot anywhere between moderate wideangle and medium telephoto, but it's big and the zoom creep is annoying when walking around all day.

 

[virtuamike]

Just shoot.

Recommended reading -
Art & Fear, by Bayles & Orland

 

[finbarqs]

maybe it's the fear of not being good enough... You know, when I walked around with a 4x5, I felt pretty good... Even though none of my shots really turned out any good at all....

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: finbarqs
maybe it's the fear of not being good enough... You know, when I walked around with a 4x5, I felt pretty good... Even though none of my shots really turned out any good at all....

When I walked around with a 4x5 I just felt like an ass. Odd. :laugh:

 

[Lalakai]

might make it easier if you team up at first. take someone along that also likes to shoot pictures, or for you to pose and take the shots of. I laughed when i read the statement about the 4 x 5; friend that i do alot of pics with uses his crown graphics and speed graphics alot. people like to see the old gear and think it's interesting.

Taking pictures out in public has a lot to do with your own comfort lvl in doing it. if you are nervous or uncomfortable, people will sense it and be more aware of you. As your confidence and comfort levels grow, you will become more invisible and less obtrusive. Even when i take specific shots of complete strangers, they will see me taking their pictures, and when i talk with them about it, they seem relaxed (for the most part lol ). A great place to break the ice for you; go to a renassiance fair. Nearly everyone dresses in era and they all accept that having their pictures taken is part of the process. Gives you perfect freedom to find a nice comfortable place, set up your gear, and snap away.

enjoy