Is photography kind of like golf ...

[Mike D]

<p>Is photography kind of like golf in the sense that you are really competing against yourself to capture better images while a golfer competes against himself to reduce his score. While photo competitions will have your images compared to other photographer's images, your real goal is to improve your own skill level and your ability to see. Obviously, the more you improve your skill level level, the better your results, just like golf.</p>

[john_elder1]

<p>No, golf sucks</p>

[William Kahn]

<p>Mark Twain defined golf as "a good walk, spoiled". Not true of photography...</p>

[Hector Javkin]

<p>I don't see the comparison at all. In working on my photography, I'm not competing with anyone else OR with myself. If I've taken a good photo of a hummingbird, I don't try for a better photo of a hummingbird, just another one in which I've done everything right that I can. It's just not a competition.</p>

<p>In fact, if I were to photograph a person and then try to compete with the resulting photo when I shoot the same person again, it would detract from my seeing the new setting, expression, etc. as unique. I believe it would make my photography worse, not better.</p>

<p>Finally, I see the same difference those above do. I like photography.</p>

<p>But if it works for you, keep competing.</p>

<p> </p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<p>It's <strong>exactly</strong> like golf. Many amateur golfers also buy increasingly expensive sets of equipment because they think an "upgrade" is all it will take to make them a much better duffer. ;-) :-)</p>

[mike_stemberg]

<blockquote>

<p>Obviously, the more you improve your skill level level, the better your results, just like golf.....</p>

</blockquote>

<p> .. or iron-ing (I'm a reborn batchelor - so old habits come back fast), cooking, kite flying, working Photoshop (dang! I shouldn't have mentioned that), or driving (not the golf kind!)..<br>

Hehe! I should have done better with this, but it's 1:30 am for me. Good Night!</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Not at all. How does one compete against himself, when you are in the process of artistic expression. If you were, you would not be free to find your own style, vision, or message. On occasion, I do envy another photographer's art, but in a way that also wants them to explore their work more.</p>

[lachaine]

<p>It's very much like golf in terms of equipmentitis and the toys for boys mentality, and also in generating blow-hard conversations when not playing it. It's not like golf in the sense that golf is measurable to a great extent, while artistic expression isn't.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>From what I read in Sports Illustrated, golf pays better. A LOT better.</p>

[David_Cavan]

<p>Unlike many here, I love golf. I also love photography. I golf to enjoy the company of others and to get away from the daily grind, and I really don't have to focus on it very hard.. Sometimes I do well, sometimes I don't. I really don't care - it's 4 hours outside, with occasional triumphs. And I don't care much about the equipment - as long as it's relatively in good shape, it'll do.</p>

<p>I love photography because it's time away from the daily grind (like golf), but otherwise it's definitely not the same. I really want to focus on photography when I'm involved; I want to have good equipment, and never have quite enough bits and pieces; I'm often by myself and I like that, and I care if I do well - after all I'll be able to look at a good photo for a long time, but I don't really remember how well I did out at the Twin Lakes course last year.</p>

[MichaelChang]

<p>Yes, I do believe photography is just like golf, but in a different sense. </p>

<p>Some photographers will stick to one subject and keep shooting until they get it right, sometimes over years. Golfers, similarly, will shoot the same 18 holes for years until they get it right.</p>

[James G. Dainis]

With golf if you get a hole in one you can quit; you can't do better than that. I know of no photographer who has felt that he made the perfect photo.

[rossb]

<p> I have been a Golfer for many years and I do not find any part of it like photography. I did take my camera with me once while golfing and found it to be a big distraction. I never took it again. I have been using the same clubs for about 10 years now. My putter is about 20 years old and I plan to use it as long as I play golf. My Son took my Driver a few years ago and I have still not replaced it. A 3 wood off the tee is very reliable but you lose that prospect of more distance which is difficult to fight back.. I prefer to walk over riding the golf cart myself. It's cheaper also. Anyway it's true that a photographer and a golfer usually want to improve but that goes with anything out there that you might do for fun or professionally. Golf may be like fishing because fish stories and golf stories has some common ground in the world of BS.</p>

<p> Tiger is making his comback this weekend. Its fun to keep up with how the tournament is going. Tiger recently fired his caddie of many years for unknown reasons. Now on his first tournament in months since his last knee injury he is tied for 38th which I think is respectable for being off so long but his Caddie is now working for Adam Scott who is leading the tournment after 3 rounds. Tomorrow is another day and who knows what will happen but I am rooting for Adam Scott and his Caddie this weekend.. Tiger is to far back to be a contender this weekend. </p>

 

[indraneel]

<p>There are those who compete, and there are those who cooperate; Which would you rather be?</p>

[george_ghio]

<p>Yeah, take a long walk, set up the tripod, line up the shot, get it in focus, yell "FORE" and hit the shutter release.</p>

<p>You are joking, right?</p>

[frank_scheitrowsky1]

<p>Photography is like golf: Sometimes you hit a really great shot, but mostly you just struggle.</p>

[pjmeade]

<p> Like lugging round hugely expensive bits of kit in unwieldy bags? Well OK, you have a similarity there. <br>

I hope the similarity stops before the awful check trousers.</p>

[jeff_livacich]

<p>I think the first part of the original post isn't put quite right. In golf, a person is said to "compete" against the <em>course</em>, which really means the course designer, the weather conditions, etc.<br>

For golfers who have played a course before, they try also to improve on their last outing, "competing' against their last <em>performance</em>.</p>

<p>To be good in golf, one must be able to both visualize a shot and make it happen, as Michael said about improving your skill level and your ability to see. It's about challenging yourself and meeting that challenge. A person can play golf with no one else for years and still gain great satisfaction from it, just as a person can gain great satisfaction from years of taking photographs even if no one else sees them.<br>

In both is the striving to do better next time than the last time, or to at least equal it.</p>

<p>James- I disagree about the hole in one. I saw a kid get a hole-in-one on the very first round he ever played, with his family watching him. He was immediately hooked. On the same course, a 78 year old man made holes-in-one <em>two days in a row</em>: same green, same hole position. He certainly didn't quit after that.<br>

Baseball players don't quit after pitching a perfect game or hitting a grand slam; bowlers don't quit the game after bowling a perfect 300.</p>

[will_daniel1]

I drive the cart, drink the beer and take photos of the golfers.

[bebu_lamar]

<p>I hope they are not the same! I like photography because there is no competition.</p>

[tom_harvey3]

<p>I will golf, under great duress, but only as a mechanism which will get me to the 19th hole. Ain't wearing any of that silly-looking get-up no-how.....</p>

[frank_scheitrowsky1]

<p>Competition in golf and photography is with oneself, to improve.</p>

<p>We had a problem processing your entry:</p>

<ul>

<li>You need to type a message; there is no "Man/woman of Few Words Award" here. </li>

</ul>

[johne37179]

<p>I shoot to a 18.5 handicap in both.</p>

[Mike D]

<p>Jeff L., you nailed it. I just didn't quite frame the idea of photography versus golf accurately. However, I do like some of the other ideas such as golfers collecting golf clubs to improve their score as photographers collecting lenses to improve their images. </p>

[john_h.1]

<blockquote>

<p>From what I read in Sports Illustrated, golf pays better. A LOT better.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So anyone can be a successful pro golfer and be featured in SI?</p>