Beginner What is the point of ...

sirch

sirch

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apologies if this has been done-to-death before on here before and well, not so much "what is the point of", I guess more why do yo do it or what is your aim/objective/motivation.

I'm trying to get into landscape photography, or at least I think I am, perhaps I am more into rocks and trees with a bit of water thrown in but I am struggling to decide what I should actually go out and take pictures of. I can wander through the woods and dales round here and be distracted interesting bits of of rock or twigs or whatever but these aren't necessarily photogenic. Part of me thinks I should photograph whatever the hell I like and not care whether other people are interested but I do like a beautiful landscape photo and also think I should develop good basic skills before I wander off in my own direction.

I think I need to focus on something and I think it would help me develop my thoughts if I understood what people are trying to achieve in landscape photography so perhaps you could tell me why you take landscape photos?
 
sirch said:
why do yo do it or what is your aim/objective/motivation.
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Personally i do it to scratch an itch. Ill get an idea of a photo that i want to make, so i will go out and find it. Might get a few other keepers on the way but theres nothing better than that feeling when you find what you were looking for.
 
I think it comes down to who you do your photography for.
Personally, I do it for my own enjoyment. I'm not too bothered if anyone else sees my pics or not.
I do want to take the best pics I can with the equipment I have.
I'm still learning, only been taking pics for about 40 years :)

Take pics of what you like. Consider what you are doing and look around, look behind you. Think of the light falling on your subject, whether it is a landscape or a detail. Would it be better to wait for another hour or day for better light. It might be worth coming back in another season.
The main thing is to get out there.
 
Thanks for the replies, a bit of over-night pondering and the fact that it is grey and raining this morning got me thinking that I suppose what I want to do is represent the things that catch my attention and I while it would be nice if I did that in a way that got other people's attention, what I really need to do is do my thing.

So here is this morning's eye-catcher:)

raindrops1 by ChrisH42, on Flickr
 
I suppose I am suffering a bit from the opposite problem, I am moved by an awful lot of what I see but what I am trying to do is find a subset of this to focus on, at least initially. But that is good advice, analyzing which visual elements I particularly like.
 
sirch said:
I can wander through the woods and dales round here and be distracted interesting bits of of rock or twigs or whatever but these aren't necessarily photogenic. Part of me thinks I should photograph whatever the hell I like and not care whether other people are interested...
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I think you should photograph whatever the hell you like and not care if other people are interested... BUT...

I agree with the idea of being analytical. At the very least review the results critically and try to work out what worked well and what didn't. Check the edges of the frame, distracting elements, exposure, depth of field, location on main elements. Could you have taken that shot better, end of so, how?

Never "spray and pray" (at least at this stage), always have an image in mind before you press the shutter. Bracketing is OK, but preferably press the shutter just the once when you have worked out what you want. I'm not sure that chimping really works, but it can help sort out some of the grossest focus and exposure errors. One option is to give yourself a "roll of film" for the day, a maximum of 36 shots, say, so you need to make every one count. Find he best shot. What is it makes it better?

I don't think you can aim to please other people until you've learned to please yourself.
 
Again good advice, I like the roll of film idea, after all that is what we used to do but I think I might still be too much at the kid-in-a-sweet-shop stage (and just learning the camera controls) to stick to it. Something to aim for though!

The rain drops on the twig image above took about 20 snaps to get the exposure right but I learned a lot.
 
markmullen said:
My goal is for my viewer to feel like they are there with me taking the photo, for example winter shots I like to feel cold,
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This
Its what I TRY to do. My photos remeind me how I felt but I'm finding it difficult to convay that to others. Its not just physical like hot, cold, windy etc but also emotion.

Also it gets me out and even if I can't convey to others what it was like, it reminds me. And let's face it when your focusing on that camera you can become oblivious to what's going on around you. Its you the gear and the view. Bliss!!
 
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I just try and visit places that are enjoyable to wander and photograph.
There is sometimes a bit of negativity about photographing "iconic" places, in the sense its been done before and done very well, but each to their own.
So for me, landscape photography is trying to produce a pleasing image of a view or location that I enjoy being at.

I fear I am getting way from trying to respond to your original post, so back on topic.... why do I do landscape photography?
Well, for me its my best attempt at art, many years of attempting to draw and paint have proven to be a fruitless endeavour, but while my photography wont win any awards, I can take a reasonable landscape shot, and certainly a lot more artistic than my feeble attempts at the formal arts. So I photograph firstly for the artistic aspect. Secondly, its a way for my missus and I to get out and about and enjoy ourselves together. She loves to walk, I hate it, but the possibilities of taking a nice snap gets me out walking, well wandering about. So we go on "photo walks" together, and in the last year of doing this I have visited a ton of places I would never have gone to, or even knew they were there.

One thing I have learnt, or at least think I have, is that the process, the doing, is more important than the results (if one is just an amateur hobbyist). One tries to improve ones technical and aesthetic skills, and produce more pleasing images, but just the doing of it is maybe what is most important if photography is an interest rather than a passion.
 
I think that you should continue to follow your own path of interest. That should be motivational since you are already driven in that direction. But judging by the shot posted above, you need to learn about how a camera 'sees' and records light. We see with our eyes / brains in an adaptive fashion - a film or a sensor is much less compromising. So if you want to make a photograph, you have to grasp what works and what doesn't in those terms. Review your work, look at lots of photographs. Read. Look.
 
Look at other photographers images that say something to you. What is it about them that does? How were they taken? How were they processed? There is nothing wrong with making pictures that are similar to those taken by people you admire, especially when first starting (read the link in my sig). By looking and reading (as suggested by Rog), you will learn what it is that you want to do that will make the images your own.
 
@Creo - I don't think you were getting away from the topic at all and I find what you say very encouraging

@droj - I know what you are getting at but I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said "The wise man adapts himself to the world, a fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore it is on the fool we depend for progress". This is one of the things I am really struggling with. I have posted a few photos for crit on this and another site and some of the comments have been along the lines of "make it look more like this" where I get the impression that "this" is some other image that the commenter liked. But what I posted may be what I saw and may represent what I felt at the time, would making it look like something else (e.g. making the sky bluer) compromise the integrity of the photo, even if it makes it more pleasing?

@Bythesea - interesting and informative article and again very encouraging. Good to think of it as a journey from the well traveled to the less well traveled.
You have three choices: You can look up with raging jealousy and end your days in sadness and regret. Or you can look down at all the distance you climbed, become arrogant about every step you took and not have many friends with whom to share your closing days.

Or you can skim the horizon and take in the gorgeous sweep of the panorama before you. If you can do that you will know peace and rare humility.
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I like this, I am very much in the latter group but often see people in the other camps and wonder if I wouldn't be better off with more regret or arrogance. Nice to know it's OK to only climb so high.

This thread and sticking my oar into some other thread on here (probably where it doesn't belong) have really helped me focus on some ideas and validated some of the things I was thinking. I'm very much a learn-from-mistakes kind of person and when tackling something new I usually dive straight in an plough my own furrow whilst at the same time trying to absorb the background skills and learning. So I really do have a couple of projects in mind now, probably will prove to be mistakes but I'm going to flog those dead horses at least as a learning exercise.
 
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