Call for photographer experiences
I am calling out to photographers for help in a project involving several groups. In changing times there is an opportunity to share knowledge and experience that can help others be successful.
Following on from this idea I am looking for the answer to a single question:
What is the single most important thing you have done that made you a better and/or more successful photographer? (Please limit the answer to 50 words maximum).
Fast Media Magazine now has thousands of readers with many decades of shared experiences. I would like to find and share that knowledge in this community of readers. In this first project I am looking to photographers to share an important insight.Â
Wether it’s something that helps you to be more creative or something that has made you successful in business. Anything that you feel has been most important to your success as a photographer.
 You can answer in 3 ways:
- Send an email to editor@fastmediamagazine.com
- Add a comment to this post
- Add you answer in the forum (Fast Media cafe/Photographer project)
I will regularly post updates of the answers and organise them in groups. I may also put them together and make them into a free, printable booklet.
Feel free to forward this to friends and collegues. I hope we can create a comprehensive and relevant list that can help give some direction and new ideas on how to run a great photography business.
I appreciate your help and time and look forward to your answers.
Well, those are two questions….
a better photographer and/ore a more succesful one….
The single most important thing that makes me – you a better photographer is the most simple, and the most difficult one: OPEN YOUR EYES.
Can anybody help me with the scond one? 😉
Anno Pieterse
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At the moment i would’nt call myself successful , i have only been in Alamy less than a year . With modern cameras , they can take the thought process away from you with all their auto modes . So what i have tried to do is keep the brain working as it would be so easy to come complacent too let the camera do all the work regarding the settings for speed apeture and the many other factors involved . Sometimes it works well but sometimes it does’nt . But i always learn from the mistakes i have made . The thought process and creativity are something that can only be learnt through trial and error , so for me the brain is the most important tool along with your own creativity .
I have acquired enough knowledge of photography to be able to recognize the mistakes I am making, and to know (or to know how to find out) how to rectify them.
Constantly pushing myself out of the comfort zone
More successful? The answer to that would be to stop shooting for editorial clients. 90 to 120 days to pay their already insultingly low rates, meh! Moved on, got better paying work and higher end clients and my business is now more successful than ever.
Did a business degree. Art and business are two very different beasts. Success means mastering both simultaneously.
Spending a day with a top Pro – really opened my eyes to how to ‘see’ an image. And from the same day – a cardboard rectangle to look through for potential images; I see so many ‘blemishes’ now before firing the shutter.
The best thing I ever did to help my photography was a post graduate diploma in photojournalism at Cardiff University. It cost me a fortune at the time. We were taught not only how to take photos but how to run a business and get income. Sadly the course no longer runs, but the course made me into a professional photographer. Many thanks the tutors Daniel Meadows and Colin Jacobson
Teaching other photographers has made me a better photographer.
Meeting Heinz Kluetmeier !
Staying eager to learn, and then to learn. Then one can hope to be better…
Adam
http://www.ajamesphotos.com
http://www.springupphotography.co.uk
Start submitting photos to online stock libraries. If your technique isn’t up to snuff, you’ll get feedback very quickly (in the form of QC rejections). This won’t improve your photograhper’s eye, but you will improve or give up.
To get better I’d say to simply keep taking more pictures and trying new things. To an extent success, depending on how it is defined, can follow by getting your good images out there and seen.
Better photographer : take more and more….. and more photographs. Then look back at your older photographs and see how you’ve improved.
More successful : don’t photograph whatever just happens to be in front of you, anyone can one do that with the right conditions ; apply you own creativity.
Thanks so far everyone, keep it coming (and ask friends and collegues if you can). I’ll post the 3rd summary next week and will start work on a small booklet with all the ideas in one place. Once we’re all done there will be a significant shared experience to read for all.
Also, if you want to discuss further you can use the forum as well
Marco
i will be happy
if the relations between us will be more based on personal contact,person to person.
most of the time i feel that i am related with an automatic machine that have its orders
and you have to accept or quit.
in the past i was conversing how to improve my performance for example, and its help.
so i will be happy to find that someone care about me as an individual,
will look at my work and find out what its good and what its wrong,
and make suggestions to improve.
i would like to know for example what are the best body cameras available now and the best lenses that your team prefer.
i hope i made my point.
all the best,
Yoel
Look at photographs and think:
– Why do I like it / don’t I like it?
– How is it done (how could I do it)?
And then try, and try again.