Can you really become a Great Photographer?

[cguaimare]

<p>THANKS EVERYONE. You are very kind John and Indraneel. I will take a look to those books. And yes I think I want to become skilled and not great nor famous. I have asked some questions to photographers in photonet that I admire. Thanks a lot again to you all!</p>

[jean_yves_mead]

Remember what Henri Cartier-Bresson said - your first ten thousand photographs are your worst.

[indraneel]

<p>I'm 50K and counting and they're still bad as hell.... ...err..umm... HCB was a film guy, wasn't he?</p>

[stinshoff]

<p>I really admire some to the great landscape images I've seen on Photo.net and other places. I'll never be able to achieve those kinds of shots, but it has nothing to do with lack of talent or equipment. It has everything to do with the fact that I don't care enought about this type of photography to do what's necessary to get these types of results - Im not prepared to get up in the middle of night and hike out to these scenic areas so I'll be ready for just the right light and then do it over and over again until the conditions are absolutely perfect. I'm pretty lazy compared to the photographic greats. Sure, the greats have got skills and talents, but I think what really separates them is a level of determination and desire that most of us don't have. Really, pretty much the same as what separates the great from the merely good in most walks of life.</p>

[DawsonPointers]

<p>Indraneel, you got a belly laugh out of me with your last comment. Haven't had one of them for a while. Thanx.<br>

I looked at your work. You're self deprecating too. Are you Canadian, eh?</p>

[shawngibson]

HCB was wrong. My first 10,000 were my best. I was free and young and passionate, and not caught up in what other

people thought.

Bruce - I couldn't agree more. I don't have the courage for street photography, I am far too lazy to hop on my bike and

travel 300km just to see a sunrise and even with the photography I do, which I used to be very good at, nowadays the

idea of walking up to strangers and asking them to sit for me is for some reason a negative experience, and the

people I know are so conservative these days that they simply don't want to be phtographed.

 

It takes extreme perserverance (spelling sorry?) to make a real, lasting career in photography. Especially nowadays.

Much of my benign photography would be met with an evil eye these days not because it is evil, but because every

day that goes by sees photography as being more and more evil because the world has changed, gotten very uptight,

and photographers themselves have helped to cause that by way of being less than noble. Paparazzi, Hollywood starlets and creeps on

cellphones are at the top of that list. It makes doing art very hard unless you're willing to hire an aspiring model or

actor, which I'm not willing to do because there is no poetry in that most of the time.

[Norma Desmond]

<p><em>"It makes doing art very hard unless you're willing to hire an aspiring model or actor"</em></p>

<p>A lot of the subjects of my photos have come from an occasional craigslist ad I post. Just regular folks. Individual aspirations.</p>

[indraneel]

<p>Thanks John...</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Are you Canadian, eh?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No, just Indian...</p>

[DawsonPointers]

<p><em><strong>JUST </strong></em>Indian? There's that self deprecation again. By the way, we have the Indian equivalent of the Oscars happening in Canada this year. I could not be more proud. Indian cinema is fantastic!</p>

[cguaimare]

<p>Hi <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=425339">Indraneel </a> You are just an Indian and I am just a Venezuelan :-) ... but your pictures are really good. Wow photonet and the people that comes here are really the best!</p>

[Mark Keefer]

<blockquote>

<h1>Can you really become a Great Photographer?</h1>

</blockquote>

<p>Sure you can.</p>

<p>And there are many interpretations and levels of what is great. Ultimately, you have to decide when you are there, when you are pleased with your shots.</p>

<p>I do like Josh's comment about his Photo being displayed on the wall of someone who means something to him. It doesn't get better than that. The best compliment of your closest peers.</p>

<p>What is a Great Photographer, brings to mind the conversation in a Peanuts Cartoon between Schroeder and Lucy about Beethoven being a Great Composer. And Lucy says how can you say someone is great who hasn't had his picture on a Bubble Gum Card. It is open to interpretation and opinion.</p>

<p>Your Photo does not have to be Photo of the Week, or make the cover of a big magazine, it just has to be something you look at and really like. It does not have to be the sharpest most vivid shot taken with a $5000 camera and $2500 lens and be 28 mega pixels. It could be from a used $20 camera and be 1 mega pixel and be an amazing shot.</p>

<p>Look at the shots you like, the stuff that makes you think it is a great photo. Learn what it takes to accomplish this type of shot. Shoot, shoot, shoot....always look for something new or a new way of looking at something old, observe the details, angles perspectives, composition...try taking at least one photo a day in your own 365 project. Try to take one interesting shot a day. It does not have to be of an Eagle pulling a fish from the lake or a glamorous super model. It could be of a yellow or red Lego piece sitting on a wood table and the sun shining in the window, but study the shot, try to make it the best Lego on a wood table in the sun shot you can. Experiment with depth of field. lighting, exposure, color and B&W. You will find after 365 days you will have learned a lot from the experience. Just keep shooting.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>I'm a better photographer<br>

Than I used to be,<br>

And that's good enough for me!</p>

<p>:-)</p>

 

[MarieH]

<p>For me "great" means infamy, like the masters Bresson, Karsh and the like. I don't think even 'celebrity' photographers like Dave Hill and Lachapelle are great, they are celebrities. I get nods from my peers and internet sites lie flickr and facebook where people take a look and 'like' a photo so that pleases me and makes me think its not all crap, but to be honest I mostly hate every picture I take. Even if I think it was worth shooting it at the time, a few days or month later.I'll tell myself, it sucks. :) The hardest critique is and should be yourself. And when it gets too intense, weird or makes you a little nuts, its time to put the camera down for a bit. Sites like pn are good to help your sense of aesthetics and the forums are good places to ask questions and learn, but the popularity factor and seriously ineffective ratings system..leave room for improvement. Sometimes I look at the categories and see the same names over and over again..great shot! How many times do your eally need to hear that? As for greatness..I leave it to the masters and just enjoy a pleasurable pastime and if one of my buddies says that's a nice shot, it gives me encouragement to keep on spending big bucks on digital equipment in the pursuit of a 'great' shot or one that I WILL think is great anyway. :)</p>

[aanji]

<p>I, too, believe that you can become a greater photographer - the mechanical stuff can be improved, the technical pieces can be honed to a razor edge, the "rules" can be learned and augmented. However, I believe that photography is an art-form - for me, you need "the eye" to be even an excellent photographer (let alone "GREAT".)</p>

[User_4136860]

<p>Some photographers are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.</p>

[Richard Williams]

<p><a href="http://www.costamanos.com/">Costa Manos</a> (Magnum Photos):</p>

<p><em>'Photography has become so easy, I mean everyone can take an automatic camera and take pictures. Making great pictures is almost impossible, it's very, very difficult, it takes a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of patience. And so I think photography, can be, you know, a fool's paradise.'</em></p>

<p>Which sounds harsh, but I'm sure he includes himself as someone who finds it 'almost impossible'. Taking a perfectly exposed, critically sharp, well composed shot (according to the standard rules) may be technically challenging, but it's something most experienced photographers with decent equipment can manage at least some of the time. A 'great' photograph may (or may not) be all of these things, but of course it's much more than this, and much less common. Whether the ability to make one is 'natural talent' or just the application of Manos's 'a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of patience' is open to debate (perhaps talent <em>is</em> the ability to do the work, take the time, and have the patience).</p>

[indraneel]

<p>Ben Myerson rocks! +1</p>

<p>Thanks John and Carlos, I'm not self deprecating, merely deprecating. For me... the sky is never blue enough, the grass never green, too little contrast in the world, except where I want subtle tones and pastel tints... Nowadays, I look at a picture from my camera and am sad at the sorry state of the world and it's creator. Then I begin to improve upon it the way I <em>feel</em> the world should be..... It never works out, hence all the deprecation... but then, I'm not a happy man.. but I'm getting there... two steps forward, one step back.. two steps forw....</p>

[Mark Keefer]

<p>Ben Myerson rocks! +2</p>

<p>Destiny does not always call you to greatness at a time of your choosing or convenience. :) But when it calls be ready.</p>

<p>Ever been some place and seen something like a landscape that was perfect, but you didn't have your camera. You got your camera and went back but it was not perfect any more, the light was different, the sky was different, the festival was over, that fat lady had sung and gone home and you were there photographing the empty stage. Sometimes, it is just like that.</p>

<p>Some great photos are a matter of being there at the right time to catch the perfect image, knowing how to use your camera and being prepared. Sometimes it's planning, sometimes it's luck.</p>

<p>One of my favorite photos entailed getting up at 4:30 am to be out on a cold lake at sunrise to catch a fisherman out on the lake in his boat while there was a special light. It didn't take the most expensive camera or lens. I shot it with a Digital Rebel XT. It is one of my favorite photos.</p>

<p>I could have slept in till 8am and been on the lake at 8:45am and seen the same fisherman and boat but I never would have captured that magical light.</p>

<p>Keep your camera with you to catch the lucky shot, plan to be some place when the magic is happening, and in some cases you can create your own magic with proper lighting and skill.</p>

 

[User_4136860]

<p>Thanks for your kind words Indraneel and Mark, there's are two old sayings in photography Mark that your post reminds me of "good photographers are early risers" and " the best camera is the one you have with you"</p>

[bojepsen1]

<p>We live and learn, I suppose. As long as we get better, it doesn't really matter at what pace we progress. I'm sure talent is very important when we are talking about beeing truly good (not celebrated, mind), but what is more important, I think, is drive. Wanting to go that extra millimeter to get a better photograph is, I think, really important.</p>

[denniswms]

<p>I believe you can learn and implement technical prowess. Esthetic however, is the distillation of a lifetime of perceptions rendered through elements discovered, assembled or created.</p>

<p> </p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Don't know how anyone would go about becoming a great photographer, but I can say with certainty every photographer and P&S'er posting their images online is now seen worldwide and forever with just an image search and a click or finger tap away. </p>

<p>THAT'S what's great!...and the fact this very question can now be asked and answered on the same level of scale which probably wasn't even considered possible 20 years ago.</p>

<p>But Shawn raised a good "realistic" point about this level of global awareness toward modern photography affecting the freedom to create art with the camera.</p>

<p>For instance I like to shoot interesting looking scenes I spot around my small town most folks overlook. Stopped by a taxidermy shop I always pass by every month to get permission to take some pictures. I've never been or seen the inside of one of these places before. It was operated out of an odd but interesting looking rustic building painted in a hippy/bohemian/western style motif like some old barber or tattoo parlors I've seen.</p>

<p>To my surprise the owner didn't want me taking pictures especially of the interiors because of concerns over his client's privacy of not having pictures of their stuffed trophies winding up on the internet. Had a hard time understanding the reasoning behind this since no one's name would be associated with the images.</p>

<p>I think the internet is spooking way too many people unnecessarily. I mean it's just a picture. It's not like I'm going to become some "Great Photographer" from those shots.</p>

[User_4136860]

<p>Who or what decides who is great ?</p>

[zigzag]

<p>Who or what decides who is great ?<br>

History. Work as hard as you like, feel what you feel, share what you share. Unless you touch others it goes nowhere. You might find a better way to push it but the best sells itself. Sometimes this means 'going viral' - touching many and other times it means strongly affecting one. Consistency may turn the fluke into a series, chance may play its part but the stuff that stops you in your tracks is a good place to start. For all the technology, a good dose of humanity may be a key component. Greats are of their time, before or after but they are never the same as the crowd - simple derivatives need not apply.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<blockquote>

<p>Who or what decides who is great ?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Really good and well connected publicists, agents and investors?</p>