Over confidence

The other day I had read a reply on a blog about photography. Although I absolutely love photography, the post really got me thinking about what I hate about the digital photography world. First let me say that I don’t consider myself to be a professional photographer, maybe semi-pro and that’s on a good day.

So let me explain where I’ve come from with my photography. I actually feel in love with photography as a teenager, when I had a pink le clic 110 camera.  Then 5 years ago I actually started to work in a large nationwide electronics store and soon afterwards I bought my first point and shoot digital camera. I often worked in the camera department and when it was slow I got to play around with the DSLR’s that were displayed. With in a few more months I actually bought my very first SLR camera.

When I first got my camera, most of the time I shot photos in the auto preset modes and I got some nice pictures. I soon realized that the preset modes weren’t gonna cut it, there were situations where my photos looked bad. Sometimes the flash would fire when I didn’t want it to, or the ISO cranked way up and produced a grainy photo and there was nothing I could do about it because that’s how the camera knew to capture the scene. I soon after told myself that I spent all this money on this camera that could do so much and I wasn’t utilizing it. That was it, I was no longer going to shoot in the auto modes. I was switching my camera to full manual mode (mostly because I couldn’t figure out the aperture or shutter priority modes). And again I got some nice shots along with a ton of crappy ones. That was it, I was at my wit’s end, what was I doing wrong? And then it dawned on me I still don’t understand what I’m doing when it comes to setting the camera properly.

I decided that it was me who was the problem and I had either purchased an expensive paper weight or I was going to learn about photography no matter how long it took me. I began to read blog after blog about photography, every one that I could find, I wandered through the photography section at the book store, watched endless amounts of YouTube videos, I took a class from an award-winning photographer, I down loaded books to my e-reader, and most of all I would read something and then practice it with my camera. All of a sudden I realized something, my photography got better. I wasn’t shooting award-winning photographs (and may never) but over all my pictures got better and better. I no longer had to rely on the camera to capture what I saw and getting it wrong most of the time at that. I had the power to capture it how I saw it or how I wanted it presented. I still don’t know everything and not every photograph turns out as I want, oh and I’m still learning. And it only took my about 4 years or so to get to this point!

So now this brings you up to date as to my own experiences with photography. Now onto what made me mad the other day when I read that blog. With the wide-spread accessibility of digital cameras and photo sharing, people seem to think they have more skill than they actually do. The article was about Flickr http://scottdouglas.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/five-reasons-why-flickr-sucks-harder-than-a-turbo-charged-vacuum-cleaner/

but one post in particular by Maurice really struck a chord with me. I’m on smugmug which is a paid photo-sharing site, but the same problems seem to be what I’ve experienced.

My whole problems is that people seem to have this over confidence that everything they touch (or shoot) is gold. Like I said before I’ve been studying photography for 4 years+ and I’m still learning, I know not all my images are great, and they usually got deleted when they aren’t. I have continually seen mediocre photos get praise from people, when I look at the photo I see nothing interesting, nothing captivating, nothing compelling, nothing that makes me stare at the photo over and over. It’s a snap shot, nothing more. And that’s ok, I have no problem with people sharing snapshots, but don’t try to make it into something it’s not, some wonderful piece of art.

People seem to have this over confidence with their photography. I personally think it’s because they are able to instantly share their images. No more going to the store to have to buy them before you can show anybody. Back in the day, you would stand at the counter, thumb through your prints and reject those that were blurry, off-color, or just plain crappy, because then you didn’t have to pay for them. But that seems to have fallen by the wayside, just because you can upload it straight to Facebook, Flickr or any other place you choose doesn’t mean it’s any better than those you would have never have paid for before.

Some may think I’m complaining because I’m jealous, but that’s really not the case. I love to look at beautiful photos from different people, I see a lot of them from very skilled individuals who have a great eye for detail and composition, some people have excellent post processing skills that I’ll probably never, mostly because I’m not fond of post processing images and would prefer to get the best photo I can to start with, even though I know that I don’t always do that even. I feel that if I can look at and study somebody’s photographs who I feel is much better than me, that I can hopefully learn something from them. I often comment on those that I love.

Just because you can press the shutter button on a camera doesn’t mean you’ve got a great photo! My 12-year-old often takes photos and as much as I love her, most of the photos suck @ZZ!! I guess the point of this is people need to accept when they have skill, either natural or learned over a long period of time, and stop pretending when they don’t. Your not fooling anybody but yourself!

Just like anything else in your life, if it matters to you then learn it, don’t just fake it!

🙂