I love sharing my photography with friends, work colleges (our teams feed is full of my images) and family. From time to time I get asked how to get started in photography? It’s a good question and kind of a tough one to answer. But I will take a crack at it.
I started out by reading photography magazines, books etc. This was before I could afford any camera gear. After university I was looking for a hobby to fill some of my free time. The local college offered after work courses on photography including fine art printing in the dark room. I took the beginners course, bought the camera the instructor recommended and learned how to process film and make prints. I had a great time, but my work was um…mediocre at best. If it moved, I took a picture of it. Composition what is that?
Still I was lucky in that the emergence of digital camera was shortly after I got started and that allowed me to take many more (bad) pictures and learn how to get better without incurring the expense of continuously buying film, developing chemicals and photo paper.
The other thing that really helped was finding other more experienced photographers to hang out with and take pictures with.
If I was going to start to learn photography today I would take a slightly different approach although the ideas are similar:
- Instead of magazines, the internet is your best friend – Photography websites, youtube etc. Can all teach you the basics of how to use a camera, where to go to take pictures etc.
- Buy or borrow a used digital camera.
- Buy a subscription to adobe lightroom or similar photo editing suite.
- If it moves, take it’s picture. Review the images. Repeat Repeat Repeat
- Join a photography club, take a class. Make some friends they will help with the learning curve, inspire you etc.
KJB
