Young Beginner

I'm currently a High School aged beginning photographer who enjoys photography

very much. I am very inexperienced; I mostly fool around with my digital

camera (Cannon Powershot SD630), though I have been told by some adults with a

bit of photographic expertise that I have an eye for it. I really enjoy

photography and I would like to take it farther into developing my own photos

and possibly making it my career. I was just wondering if anyone had any

advice for a young photographer like myself as to what I can do to become a

more experienced photographer. Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thank

you!

Look at as much of it as you can. Develop your own style, early on. Do not settle for anything less than technical excellence. Read as much about it as you can. Focus on repeatable, scientific processes. Focus as much on the artistic aspect of the craft as much as the technical details. Shoot as much as you can. Shoot everything. Give yourself projects to work on each week. Don't leave images in a negative sleeve or on a hard drive--make images that you can display in a frame and evaluate over time. Join a camera club if you have one in your area. We're all in the same boat: trying to make our images better. Some of the best artists have NEVER liked their work and always strived to do better.

Try taking a Photography class at a community college,If you are here in the US. There are excellent classes that anyone can take at night.

Bria, I personally suggest you take some college/community college courses or even find a

highschool in your region that offers a photography course. Seriously investigate

photography as a art style or commercial product. Remember that anyone with a camera is

a photographer and that making a career from photography is a very difficult path to take.

Grab some books on photography, read as much as you can, learn as much as you can.

Craigslist is a great resource to find things like enlargers and developing equipment to

build your own darkroom and most people are more than happy to get rid of them,

providing you come pick them up.

Julien Busselle's two books on printing are a great place to start for learning about printing

and developing, plus a variety of techniques.

Good luck in your endevours, don't be afraid to drop an email if you need any advice.

 

Sincerely, Alex I.

Also classes at www.ed2go.com will take high school students. I assume you are doing digital? Don't let people tell you that younger people cannot become good photographers just because they are entering it in the digital age, and didn't grow up shooting film. I have never done serious photography with film, and have had some old timers (even though I am 49--but new to photography), do everything possible to discourage me.

Good luck and stick with it :)

Do a course to learn the basics, read as much as you can. Look at other peoples work, and

have an opinion on it and decide why you have that opinion eg. lighting, colour.......

Decide what area you want to go into, find photographers that interest you and bug them

untill they give you work experience. The most i have learnt has been trial and error, and

from asking people, work experience. Not from my degree. Although the paper does look

good!

Shoot, shoot, shoot and shoot some more. Look at lots of other photographers work, from

the fine art masters, to the succesful comercial photgraphers, to emrging young artists

(you'll see a lot of overlap). Look at other art, painting, sculpture, printmaking, drawing

etc. Read- art theory, art criticism, photography technique, photography buisness, history

of photography. Learn how to write or speak about your work. If there is any idea you are

following learn how to put it into words as well. What makes picture making important to

you? If you can write/speak fluently about your work, you can get grants, get into schools,

get jobs etc. etc. Most importantly make lots of pictures. Most will mean nothing in a

month, a year, 10 years, but everytime you shoot, as long as you are paying attention, you

will learn something. Most, most importantly if this is something you want to do (and you

may find that it is not, which is ok too) don't let anyone stop you from doing it. It takes

time and probably lots of rejection, but its woth it! Good luck

and definetly get into a class somewhere!

I'm with Katherine on her suggestions. Shoot, shoot, shoot. If you don't do that, the rest

doesn't help. But then temper that with study. Not sure where you are, but get to a

museum or galleries and look at some great work - will set the bar for you (don't settle for

images in books).

<p>

On the subject of books, one comes to mind you might find interesting:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Criticizing-Photographs-Terry-Barrett/dp/

0072977434">Criticizing Photographs</a>. Interesting read to critique the different ways

to interpret an image, with lots of examples. Good way to get a grasp of the breadth of the

experience photography can bring - and a good read before you tackle other's work in

that museum.

Oh yeah - poke around the photo.net site - where you find articles

<a href="http://www.photo.net/learn/making-photographs/">like this</a>. Good luck.