Where is the hump?

I've been taking photographs for forty-one years and I'm still learning. It reminds me of a time I was once walking in Scotland; I climbed for about and hour or so up a range of hills expecting a huge vista to open up when I reached the top. When I got there I saw the mountain previously obscured by the hills.

 

Yes, the climb lessens but it's still an upward slope - as it should be. The most important thing is to find your subject, what it is that moves you to take photographs. It's that that drives everything else. I'm still refining my ability to produce prints which present the world as I see it.

<i>I've been taking photographs for forty-one years and I'm still learning. </i><p>

 

I am still learning what pictures not to make.

photography is too big to have a hump. i could shoot people for the next 20 years, wake up one day, and decide i want to buy a 300 2.8 and shoot birdies. back to the learning curve.

I crossed a hump in 1985 after having had a purpose built perfect darkroom for a year. With every step in the photographic production process calibrated and rehearsed I realised I could make photographs come out exactly as I wanted them every time. It is a liberating feeling to know that technical failure or shortfall won't be a problem.

 

Unfortunately there is another hump and it may be too big to overcome. Not all photographs turn out well. The problem is not in getting what I want but in wanting the wrong things. The only solution appears to be more talent, imagination, vision, and creativity; genius in other words. A quantity in serious short supply where I sit.

The mind never ages. But if the spirit ever gives up, and you lose hope, you begin to die.

 

You can saw "eureka and I got it" a million times; it's just a milestone, because there is always more. Scientists have been trying to understand the universe since day one, the more they learn, the less they know. Currently, they are just making stuff up to get grant money.

If you have the tecnical skills to perfectly express your vision and can create images that are exactly as you want them to be then your goals must expand or you will be bored. Learning is an end in itself. Always challange yourself.

<i>Currently, they are just making stuff up to get grant money.</i><p>

:) If you are speaking of the big questions of physical cosmology, then I'd agree.<p>

Something strange is happening - cosmologists are beginning to appeal to philosophers for

critique and insight. Or is it that cosmology is becoming more like philosophy, which is the

study of knowledge itself. <p>

"The mind never ages."

 

Actually, the brain does age and does so by flushing brain cells over the decades. The joke about going soft in the brain, actually has meaning.

 

"But if the spirit ever gives up, and you lose hope, you begin to die."

 

Oh my! Then I guess I'm a dead man. My lack of hope has been made up for by shutting off the tele and no longer reading newpapers (not even the headlines) because bad people are the puppeteers and nothing short of a revolution will make things right.

 

When you think about it, since no one get's out alive, I'm in good company with your above.

I've been a pro photographer for over 20 yrs. Going over the hump is when you realize you want to be a photographer in your career & make the most of it.

In education research, learning over time is often represented as S-curve with students going from ignorant to informed quickly then more slowly becoming increasingly knowledgeable (many students stall in that growth phase achieving various levels of expertise), and then a few students become masters who quickly acquire and invent new wisdom.

 

It is also easy to backslide. If you don't keep moving forward, you may find yourself slipping backwards or being surpassed by others.

 

Right now I envy Karen. I would like to get over three humps: (1) make the camera do whatever I want whenever I want; (2) always come back with pictures I like and other people will purchase and (3) be able make a living as a photographer, even if it only remains a hobby.

 

On the other hand, getting over the hump is a little like crossing the horizon. It's always ahead of you, sometimes closer sometimes further. Good Luck to all.

I think one of the dilemas that many photographers face (I am certainly included in this group) is that they don't have a 'vision' of what images they want to make - they just make a lot of images and then see if they discover their vision. And if they do have a vision, are they then able to translate that vision into a well executed photograph? Maybe this is what keeps us going?