Do you have someone...

[Lachesis00]

who motivates you to do better when taking photos?

I have this friend that I love to go out shooting with. She sure pushes me to want to do better!! Kinda rare to find that in a person, but Denise does a good job of it!! She is forever giving me tips and hints and praise and critique.
And she is an excellent photographer in her own right. I mean she makes me want to try new things. She takes some off-kilter photos I would never imagine taking. Nothing I suggest is odd or weird to her. She is always giving me suggestions. It is so cool to see her perspective. My husband often rolls his eyes at me like "oh boy!". He takes his own odd pics, so who is he to judge.


Anyway, do you have someone who pushes you to want to do better?

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Mostly just me. I just about never review my pictures from a trip without being disappointed about a very large number of things that I could have done better. In fact, if I ever got to the point that I was really happy with my pictures after most of my shoots, I'd probably get bored and find another hobby.

 

[jann1033]

i think mostly it's all about me i only have one friend into photography and i like her but she is very competitive and i don't care for that so probably wouldn't go take photos with her( plus she makes fun of my camera cause she has a p & s)...i do like seeing the photos here and i go to a few other sites occasionally for "inspiration and motivation",,,

i definitely am from the old school though... i like some different perspectives but i can't really say i would normally consider an out of focus picture of 1/2 of some one's nostril "art". for me decent technique has to be there first so i just don't care for some of the way way way out there stuff that looks like they didn't know how to use a camera( i'm like that about painting too though..kind of like show me they know what they are doing then get crazy creative otherwise it just looks like they don't know what they are doing and are just plain crazy .

 

[DueyDooDah]

I, too, rely mostly on me, although you people give me the opportunity to see I am not taking enough pictures. I have been lax in my commitment until I came here, only taking pictures when at an event (such as WDW). After seeing the text posted on this board, I now try to get out every weekend, if only to shoot the same scenes I've shot before. I do this at times to see if I can get a better image. It's so cold lately though, it's harder than I'd like. But, I'm getting better, so thanks everyone.

 

[Lachesis00]

I love Denise because she will point out my flaws but in a good way (Sometimes I knew it, sometimes it's like a lightbulb going off). Or she will edit a photo and it's like 'wow, I never thought about that!!'.

She does all kindas of crazy shots, M&M's in a bowl, rose petal strewn around, ect... things I think are silly but in the same breath I wish I had thought of it and taken them. YK?
She has no worries about people thing of what she does, I on the other hand, am always worrying people will think that is really a stupid thing or I look stupid taking the shot.

At the same time, I am jealous of those who meet up monthly and seem to have themes. I wish we had a group like that here in Phoenix. I checked with Denise this weekend and she said she hasn't found any groups or clubs to join here either.

 

[jann1033]

I love Denise because she will point out my flaws but in a good way (Sometimes I knew it, sometimes it's like a lightbulb going off). Or she will edit a photo and it's like 'wow, I never thought about that!!'.

She does all kindas of crazy shots, M&M's in a bowl, rose petal strewn around, ect... things I think are silly but in the same breath I wish I had thought of it and taken them. YK?
She has no worries about people thing of what she does, I on the other hand, am always worrying people will think that is really a stupid thing or I look stupid taking the shot.

At the same time, I am jealous of those who meet up monthly and seem to have themes. I wish we had a group like that here in Phoenix. I checked with Denise this weekend and she said she hasn't found any groups or clubs to join here either.

my bold exactly how i felt last week when i was taking up the entire walk way to take a flower shot...and someone literally stepped over me and just kept on walking....

 

[Lachesis00]

Exactly. She has no problem getting on the ground, laying on her back, 1/2 twisted, back arched, one leg propped against a tree to get her shot. You can forget me getting on the ground

I look like a doofus just standing. I do not need to contort myself but then again she gets the neatest shots LOL

my bold exactly how i felt last week when i was taking up the entire walk way to take a flower shot...and someone literally stepped over me and just kept on walking....

 

[Groucho]

who motivates you to do better when taking photos?

0bli0 and others here are a big motivation for me. I'm pretty competitive (it's a character flaw, I know, but recognizing it is the first step in correcting it!) so I always want my photos to be as good or better than anything else that anyone has taken.

There, I admitted it. C'mon, I'm sure a lot of others feel the same way. I try to keep it purely fun though, I don't want to put down anyone's work, but I certainly do aspire to match anything else being done.

In the "real world", it's mostly just me. I'm often hypercritical of my own stuff, especially right after taking it (it doesn't help that I'm often looking at things at 100% zoom), though I'll sometimes look back on some older stuff and be pretty happy with it. But with recent stuff, I'll sometimes take basically the same photo over and over and never be 100% satisfied with how it turned out. I am pretty happy with how many of my WDW photos turned out from the last trip (especially after my previous trip's dull PnS photos) but there were still many photos that coulda, shoulda been better. Sometimes it was the equipment's fault (needed a different lens or it wasn't focusing quickly enough or on the right things) but as is usually the case with DSLRs, the problem lies with the photographer themselves. I was so busy unloading and processing the photos nightly (and spending time with the others and, you know, sleeping) that I rarely got a chance to examine specific photos and the exif data to try to learn how to improve that shot for the future.