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Welcome to Photography

Part of me should have been born 100 years ago because the concept and I'm not like a huge Harry Potter fan but you know you go into school and the headmaster comes out and welcomes all the students and reads an official proclamation welcoming the new students to the class. And that's what I would like to do for you. And so I wrote something. I figured you know I teach a lot of photography classes. I should really have something well-thought-out to tell people who are getting into photography about what they are going to experience. And so I wrote something called Welcome to Photography. And it's too long for me to memorize so I am just going to read it here. But because I like visuals I decided to put ten of my favorite images for the last year to kind of go along with this, to give you a kind of a hint of types of things that I like to photograph and images that we're going to talk about more throughout this class. "Photography is the magnificent capture "of time and light. "Meeting ...

at the intersection "of art and technology "it can be a hobby, a career or a lifestyle. "Wherever you go, whatever you do, "you can take it with you. "It's a craft perceived by some "to be quite easy "and from a certain point of view that is so. "Anyone can buy a camera "and call themselves a photographer "but possessing and mastering "are not the same. "Photography is likely not what you think it is. "Expectations and assumptions "are often greatly misguided. "Finding your way is really quite simple. "Learn from those who inspire you. "Then take in your own direction. "Achieving a high level of success "requires an investment. "I'm not speaking of expensive equipment. "The investment will be in time, effort "and knowledge. "And yes a quality camera is nice to have. "For the most part the gear doesn't matter. "What matters is the desire to create. "Great photographers are simply experts "at observing, recognizing and problem solving. "The attribute most often "in short supply is awareness. "Anyone can recognize the remarkable, "the key is finding the remarkable in the ordinary. "While many are satisfied with a snapshot "some want more. "they ask questions. "Searching for solutions, "they push for something better. "They don't stop until they're out of options. "Pursuing photography is a journey, "as long a journey as you wish it to be. "Where it leads neither you "nor I nor anyone can say. "What I can tell you is that your path "will be strewn with mistakes, problems, "and frustration. "Your skills and knowledge "once honed will be your most valuable tools. "Your vision of the world will change. "You'll see things you didn't see before. "and what you saw before "will now look different. "If that is the path you want to take "this is the time and place to begin. "Commit yourself to learning all that you can "then allow your passion "to point you in the right direction." so if you want to be a photographer what are the characteristics that you should embody? I've always kind of wondered if I had a large audience and I had to pick and choose who was going to be a good photographer how could I possibly ask them questions or query them or look at the way they lived life or see anything else who is going to make a good photographer? and the only thing I can come up with and I have never really tried this is I don't know if somebody who is really clumsy would be a good photographer. And the only theory is is if somebody's clumsy they're maybe just not paying attention to everything that's going on around them. If you're the type of person that spills your drink over all the time you need to be more aware of your environment and I think photographers are very aware of their environment. And so photographic characteristics that I think you need to embody and be good at. Number one, patience. A lot of times you have to wait for the right conditions. Decisive. You have to know when you got it so that you can move on. You can't spend all day well did I get it? did I not get it? I'm not sure. A camera is only built for one set of eyes and one set of hands. It just doesn't work well groupthink working behind the camera. You have to be able to work by yourself. Meticulous. The details. Gotta be able to really get in there and be very very specific about what you want. Being curious. Gotta have an interest in learning because this is a constantly changing field. You're going to have to be able to be innovative and create solutions to problems that you were not expecting. There are some rocks that take a very long time to wear down. I've had an idea for a shot that I want to take. I've had it for 25 years and I still haven't figured out how to take it. I'm working on it though. Observant. Be aware of what's going on around you. You know every once in a while I'll be inside, I'll be watching TV or something and I'll look around. I'm like something's going on and I stand up and I go out to the back window and I can see the sun starting to set. The colors have changed but they've changed just ever so slightly in my living room but just enough for me to notice that there's something unusual going on. Being passionate about this craft. This is something that you will get good at but if you're not really passionate about it you're not going to want to go out there in the less desirable conditions when you're maybe not really feeling it and so you really have to be passionate about this if you want to be great. And then finally imaginitive. The best photo that you have ever taken might just be a thought away. Just as soon as you make that connection for a thought something becomes possible. So being able to be having a very good imagination will help you out in the world of photography. Alright, steps to great photography. You know as I was young and doing different things I always did appreciate that adult that came over and said little Johnny come over here. Let me tell. You if you want to do this, play basketball, skateboard, do whatever, here's what you got to know and these are the things that you really got to know. So if you want to be a great photography, you want to really do this right number one you have to learn the fundamentals of photography. I know that there's a lot of people that learn photography on their own and that's great but there's going to be gaps in your education if you haven't really gone through and studied everything about what you're doing. You need to know how to operate your particular camera. And we're not going to get into all the specific different cameras here but you need to know your tool that you are working with forwards and backwards so that you can do everything that you want to do with your camera. You need to learn how to see like a photographer and this class is going to help out. And that section 10, photographic vision, is a whole section dedicated to that and that requires some studying, a lot of practice and just going out there and shooting in order for that to get better. For whatever it is that you're doing maybe you're taking real estate photos or you're taking car photos there's going to be a whole set of field skills that are very particular to your unique field of photography. And that is going to be something beyond this class. We're going to get you the foundation here but there's going to be a whole other skill set that you're going to need that goes along with this for whatever else it is that you're interested in. And then finally you need to get out there and shoot, shoot, shoot. As much as I say watch my classes, I got tough stuff to tell you, it's great stuff, you got to get out there and shoot. You got to get out there and practice. There's nothing like getting out there and making some horrendous terrible mistakes and learning from those mistakes. And so there is nothing that substitute for that. And so at first you know I've had some people, well John should I should I take a class or should I go out and shoot photos? What's more valuable? And I think for a new photographer there's a pretty even balance of studying to kind of learn the basic principles and going out and practicing. And then as you get better you probably need the classes less and less and more and more shooting time. But it never goes completely zero on the study. You know you always want to keep that in there. I'm still reading books all the time, going down to the library, getting photographic books, watching videos. I got to stay up on my game. Alright now the stuff you need to know is kind of interesting because it ranges from technology to artistic. And that is one of the amazing beautiful aspects of photography is that we got one foot in the technical and one foot in the artistic. And I know that some of you are much more comfortable in one of those fields than the other. And you're going to have to lean over, straddle that fence, and get comfortable in both worlds. So when I'm out shooting photos the thing that is really technically important to me is that I nail the focus and I nail the exposure to the best of my abilities. And that means having a really good understanding of shutter speeds, apertures and ISOs. And that right there is the first three sections of the class. You need to have an understanding of the rest of your camera settings. And we'll be talking about those along the way as well. Now we start getting into the more artistic side of the issue. Its kind of straddling that world of artistic and technical, the use of depth of field, the choice of lenses and working with lighting. More and more into the artistic side, the timing of your photographs, whether that's a sunrise or a smile. And then the composition of your photographs. Definitely more on the artistic side rather than technical side. And if you want to be a great photographer in anything in particular just think of something that you would like to be a really really good photographer at. I want to be a good racecar photographer or I want to be the best dog photographer in the world. Here's what you need to know more of than anything else and that is the subject that you are shooting. Find any photographer who is an expert in frog photography. I'm sure there is some. There's probably a lot of frog photographers out there but you know what? They are probably experts in frogs. Now one of the things that people, students have is they want to know the right answer. What is the right answer? and in photography there is definitely a duality of answers that I can answer. And so I want you to kind of think back because we're going to refer back to this yin and yang. Alright we have all sorts of things. Well you can do this or you can do this and either one of those could be the right answer. There's a lot of times that just one answer is not necessarily the right one. Sometimes it is but many times I have found that it is completely opposite ends of the spectrum. For instance, focus and exposure. These are completely different topics. We have completely separate topics but when you change your aperture you change both at the exact same time. Some people will ask well should I get new gear or should I learn a better technique? Well sometimes one's the solution, sometimes the other. And there are some people who like to say gear doesn't matter. It's only what you do with the gear. Well I can put you in some situations where I know you are not going to get good photos because you don't have the right gear. Sometimes that is the solution and sometimes this is. It's not so easy as it's always one where it's always the other. The camera and the lens. These are two completely different items. We have different sections in the class on it and they each have their own peculiarities to them. I remember one time one of the manufacturers they came out with a camera that was just notably higher end than anything else they'd had before. And people bought this really high-end camera and they put really average lenses on it. And then they were complaining that they weren't getting good results. It's because these are both important. They're both key elements in this link. And then back to the technical and artistic. Very different concepts but they apply equally importantly in photography. And so every once in a while if you see me waver on a question, well you could do this or you could do that, it's not that I don't know what I'm talking about. It's that you can go either direction and end up with good results depending on what you want out of your photography.