Have you noticed this about beginner photographers?

They always get into shooting bicycles and motorcycles and old black men with wrinkles.

I hadn't noticed.

 

There is, however, a rich history of photography and bicycles, so it wouldn't surprise me that it's a natural choice for beginners. Bicycles can be quite photogenic.

My recollection (of 50 years ago) is that I took a lot of pictures of my then girlfriend. Edited December 3, 2020 by John Farrell

They always get into shooting bicycles and motorcycles and old black men with wrinkles.

 

I have no idea where you 'noticed' this and what it is that you noticed that led you to this conclusion. I have not seen any pattern to what beginner photographers choose as subjects - not that I follow or even recognize 'beginner photographers'. My advice is to seldom (I almost said 'never' which leads essentially the same error as saying 'always') say 'always'.

New dogs and new babies are popular and are often the thing that gets people into photography. Several times I'm mentioned the famous Agha photographer's oath.

I grew up in a college town so it should be an easy guess what my favorite subjects tended to be and no, it wasn’t SEC football. Now that I’m old and wrinkly, well.....

 

Rick H

I started out mainly shooting nature photos: flowers, squirrels, interesting trees and such.

 

Very soon afterward, I got a macro lens and started shooting coins, stamps, insects, walnuts, cheese... LOL.

 

Hmm... Vincent is certifiably

nuts...

http://bayouline.com/o2.gif

My recollection (of 50 years ago) is that I took a lot of pictures of my then girlfriend.

Was she on a bike or a motorcycle? :)

No I haven't noticed. I think beginners tend to do portrait, landscape, wild life, travel or essentially everything.

Back when I taught film photography at a photo school it was easy to pick out the 35mm contact sheets of raw beginners - 36 frames, 36 different subjects. By the end of the course it was 36 frames, one subject but visually explored 36 different ways.

There are several photography facebook groups in my state and city. On these I would say a lot of the photos posted are sunsets and sunrises in both the city and the country, over lakes, etc. Calendar stuff!

Not at all!

And I must admit: Both look quite tough to tackle (seriously), so why shouldn't beginners enjoy their struggles with them?

Not something I had noticed - and how do you tell a beginner anyway ? I think choice of subject matter can ga affected by the age of the 'beginner' - when some people start out, there is a lot of family pressure to do family portraits etc - I recall my ex-parents-in-law seriousle telling my ex-wife that my photos were rubbish - because they had no people in them !!

 

Often subject matter is predicated by the photographer's interests (vide VP, above), or if they are trying to take images they hope will sell. When I started, back in nineteen hundred and frozen to death, I was trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph steam trains at our local station with a Box Brownie !

The Internet's legally allowable limit of 2 trillion pictures of cats is rapidly being reached.

 

Two-wheeled vehicles and old men of colour? Not so much.

I hadn't noticed.

 

There is, however, a rich history of photography and bicycles, so it wouldn't surprise me that it's a natural choice for beginners. Bicycles can be quite photogenic.

I found the subjects the OP listed are more of an intermmediate or advanced photographer rather than beginner.

I found the subjects the OP listed are more of an intermmediate or advanced photographer rather than beginner.

I find the whole thing a bit off the rails.

I grew up in a college town so it should be an easy guess what my favorite subjects tended to be and no, it wasn’t SEC football. Now that I’m old and wrinkly, well.....

 

Rick H

 

Rick,

 

I seem to remember you telling me a story one time about a series of modeling? students coming to your house one evening...am I remembering that correctly?

I'm more interested to know how to define intermediate and advanced photographers

I didn't expect its time would come again so quickly, but here it is

17-Year-Old Thinks She's Getting Into Photography

I didn't expect its time would come again so quickly, but here it is

17-Year-Old Thinks She's Getting Into Photography

From the Onion article ...

Sources close to Ivers expect the camera to join her clarinet and yoga mat under her bed once she pays $14.85 to develop the roll of clumsy, overexposed images.

Either that or she’ll die penniless 75 years from now only to have her brilliant negatives found by someone who buys her estate at auction and is published posthumously, cementing her reputation as one of the great photographers of her time.

Edited December 3, 2020 by samstevens

I get suspicious when I read generalizations like "beginners" (implying all or most) and "always".

 

Personally, I haven't noticed that 'beginners' post photos of bicycles or old, black men with wrinkles. 'Beginners' is a moot term' but let's leave that aside. I think it's true that 'beginners' who start to look for something else to photograph outside their home environment look for people, scenes and objects that they find interesting.

 

And this is also when their development become interesting. For people who try out 'street photography' there are a number of photographic clichés that still appear on photo sites, including: wizened old men and women, homeless people, pretty girls/women (walking or making a phone call), random people in a random street, etc. Land-, Sea and Cityscapes have their clichés too, including sunrise/sunset, milky flowing water//sea, streams of light on highways and starburst static lights.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think it's good and necessary that 'beginners' go through this stage. On the one hand so that they practice basic techniques (aperture, shutter speed) but more importantly that they (hopefully and gradually) begin to realize that they're repeating the same clichés that others do to. And decide to break out of the cliché mold.

 

 

BTW, I still photo's of bicycles :)

 

 

They always get into shooting bicycles and motorcycles and old black men with wrinkles.

Either that or she’ll die penniless 75 years from now only to have her brilliant negatives found by someone who buys her estate at auction and is published posthumously, cementing her reputation as one of the great photographers of her time.

 

That has happened a lot hasn't it? :rolleyes:

 

In my view as an archaeologist/social scientist, almost any old photograph has value, not so much artistically, as for the commonplace, everyday things they show that artistes never photographed -- I'm not talking about 'found objects' here, but things like house interiors and street scenes.

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by JDMvW

Maybe it's a regional thing? Mostly what I see are mildly interesting landscapes, animal shots, flowers, and children. Some years back when I started back up in a serious way, the urge got on me to enter in the county fair photography competition. It was the first and last time, as it was like being cruel to puppies. Of the six I entered (different categories), four won first place and two seconds. Oh, the best of fair? A wedding photo... Almost everything else was one of the sort in the first sentence of this post. Most amateurs never graduate from that place, but it makes them happy.

 

Here is the gratuitous wrinkled Black man photo:

 

BTW, I still photo's of bicycles :)

Mike, I imagine you have more choice than some of us when it comes to bicycles...

 

 

I started with photos of rusting cranes, derelict warehouses and the occasional ship - but I lived two minutes walk from Leith docks at the time.

 

 

These days, it's mostly cows.

Edited December 3, 2020 by steve_gallimore|1

I found the subjects the OP listed are more of an intermmediate or advanced photographer rather than beginner.

 

I suspect that real beginners won't get to posting their pictures, or even use subjects worth posting.

Or, even more, think about asking others' opinions about their pictures.

 

So the intermediate are the ones that we see.

Maybe when they actually start thinking about subjects and how well they will photograph.

 

Beginners are shoot first, ask questions later.