I think I'm gonna leave Dgrin..
Bayer-Z28
Registered Users Posts: 392 Major grins
-This is not intended as an attention thread-
I've been looking for other boards that are more in my experience range.. I'll still lurk, but I don't think I'm going to be active very often..
Reasons:
-You guys are WAAAAAAAAAAY out of my league
-Granded room for improvement, but it's just like hanging out with Corvette guys if I'm driving a Geo Metro..
-With all due respect, but this board seems to look down at people who are of mediocre experience. Not frowned upon, but not exactly encouraged.
-I'm getting frusterating posting with those who are so far above my head.
-And I feel really out of place... Like the 6 year old who tries to hang out with the grownups.. -People even poked at my avatar.. no offense taken, but I expected a little more in that area..
Anyway. Keep up the good work fellas, and keep on clickin!! :ivar
I've been looking for other boards that are more in my experience range.. I'll still lurk, but I don't think I'm going to be active very often..
Reasons:
-You guys are WAAAAAAAAAAY out of my league
-Granded room for improvement, but it's just like hanging out with Corvette guys if I'm driving a Geo Metro..
-With all due respect, but this board seems to look down at people who are of mediocre experience. Not frowned upon, but not exactly encouraged.
-I'm getting frusterating posting with those who are so far above my head.
-And I feel really out of place... Like the 6 year old who tries to hang out with the grownups.. -People even poked at my avatar.. no offense taken, but I expected a little more in that area..
Anyway. Keep up the good work fellas, and keep on clickin!! :ivar
Auto enthusiast. I drive a 2000 Camaro Z28. LOADED w/ mods.
Camera: Nikon D80, 18-55 f3.5 stocker & 18-200 Nikon VR.... with a small collection of filters..
My Smugmug.. STILL Under construction.
http://bayer-Z28.smugmug.com
Camera: Nikon D80, 18-55 f3.5 stocker & 18-200 Nikon VR.... with a small collection of filters..
My Smugmug.. STILL Under construction.
http://bayer-Z28.smugmug.com
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Comments
I see the good photographers in here as a benchmark that i need to work towards. I buy books & sit for hours following the words with one finger at the same time as hitting keys with the other hand to get stuff to 'bounce'
Hang about mate.
I have to basically ro-tool the way I shoot.. Granted it's been something that I need to learn... Pictures have to tell a story.. I'm more of a nature shooter, and I love a good sunset/sunrise, but they're mediocre at best so I don't bother anymore.. I have high standards, so I try to take shots that don't NEED editing.. Like the one below.. It was like that from right when I shot it..
I grabbed this pic last night and I'm very proud of the way it came out.. Mild photoshop... lens blur was NOT added.. All I did was stroke, watermark, mild sharpening and mild contrast adjust.. 5 min of work..
One of my few GREAT shots, if I do say so myself... FWIW: I always liked your comments, Gus.. I look forward to reading what you have to say..
Camera: Nikon D80, 18-55 f3.5 stocker & 18-200 Nikon VR.... with a small collection of filters..
My Smugmug.. STILL Under construction.
http://bayer-Z28.smugmug.com
Go & do something you would never do...get outside what your comfortable doing with a camera. Change your perspective on 'normal' Sorry ..i digress. But i hope you get what im saying mate.
I disagree with your findings that members here look down on beginners. I've been here a long time and I see the "really good photographers" (long time members) generously giving their advice over and over and over again to newbies and never sounding disdainful. I find that you have to be very specific in what type of help you are asking for, or you will get some vague (and sometimes slightly rude) answers. There are always members anywhere you go who aren't as tasteful in their replies to a member who is seeking help. Interestingly, I find that many of these types of members just enjoy sounding off and never have posted any photos of their own for C&C.
One thing in looking at your posts I notice is that you are struggling with some very recently purchased equipment. I imagine your honeymoon with your new gear is not quite what you were expecting. I know mine wasn't! I always felt the photos should be better 'right out of the camera'. Well, welcome to the world of Photoshop! For a while PS will be fixing those, uh, not so stellar exposures! It takes a whole lot of shooting to get those exposures down right where you want them. I know you mention looking for 'clarity' in your photos. A big part of that is having the correct exposure, and knowing the best aperture to use on your particular lens. Of course, add to that either a steady hand, tripod or IS (VS). While you're learning to cover up those miscalculated shots, your PS skills get noticeably better!!! It's a win-win situation and eventually it begins to come together, but not over night. Don't give up...keep shooting and asking questions, or lurk while someone else asks the questions! But stick around and you will grow as a photographer. (Hmmm....hope that wasn't too much 'attention'.
Well put, Gus....and a lot less 'wordy' than me!!!
ignore the cranks on your other thread....people say stupid things...i have....
just relax and come back when you get those juices flowing again....
when ive had it with members, i hang out in the tutorials all by my lonesome...:D
We'll be around when you have some questions or wanna post a great shot you took.
Hope you find what your looking for regardless.
Best,
-Jon
I have learned so much here and I get so much inspiration from the work I see and the photogs I get the chance to go shooting with occassionally.
Don't go, certainly not for the reasons you state. Take a deep breath, focus on those things you see as shortcomings and look for guidance to learn from.
Moderator of: Location, Location, Location , Mind Your Own Business & Other Cool Shots
Im a member of several different forums for the reason of pushing myself to get better. I owe 90% of what I know to forums Like this one. If people pick on stuff you do, those are the ones who don't enjoy helping people learn, also when people make those useless post to dog on something someone did I just look at it as there no happy with there life and feel everyone should be as unhappy as they are.
^ This is one that hit me, tho... I am so afraid to start people shooting because it's really difficult and I don't have an eye for it at all.. I found what would have been a nice shot when I was up in the mountains a while ago.. A pair of older ladies sitting and drinking coffee on a breakfast table on a board walk... It would have been a VERY nice shot with either sepia or B+W.. I asked if they minded if I took their picture and that shot me down with the quickness...
Maybe I shouldn't have asked??? But I was just being polite..
Anyway... I'm not the most active on here, but since I got my new gear I have been.. Seeing as my "honeymoon" was quite rocky.. -Good play on words..
I enjoy photography... maybe I'm just gettign bored with the 'norm..
Camera: Nikon D80, 18-55 f3.5 stocker & 18-200 Nikon VR.... with a small collection of filters..
My Smugmug.. STILL Under construction.
http://bayer-Z28.smugmug.com
I guess it's a matter of what you are looking for. Like everyone else, I am pleased when my pics are praised and miffed when they are ignored. But I truly welcome constructive criticism. Seems to me that to learn anything, you need a teacher who knows more than you. On the other hand, if you just want to do photography for the hell of it, then just get out there and shoot. I saw a good quote yesterday from Arnold Palmer (famous golfer): "The more I practice, the luckier I get." I think that applies to photography as well.
Regards,
Everyone else has spread the good feelings and stated the obvious slump factor (dude, I haven't picked up my 30D in 2 months, seriously, stricly P&S for weeks!), so I'll just add: REALLY!?!
DGrin has to be the most beginner-oriented photo forum around! We are continually astounded by the number of newcomers who show up with zero skills and end up as pretty crack shots. If anything, DGrin has a problem retaining or even recruiting high calibre professional and working photogs because of the incredible amount of beginner promotion/fostering that we do.
Wow, slap me silly and call me dumbfounded! I clicked on this thread hoping for some good drama
and you hit us with this reason.
moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]
I like this quote and the one in someone's signature, 'if I keep shooting I'm bound to hit something' (or something like that).
I'm sure you are just going through something. Everyone here has been great and I'm a newbie photog as they come. I got great advice a few weeks back when a friend asked me to take some pictures of her for a magazine article. I freaked out! but everyone here helped me through and gave great advice that resulted in a wonderful picture.
For myself, I ask for the level of C&C I want. Sometimes I'm really sensitive and say 'be gentle with me' other times I say 'give it to me straight'.
It's good to know that I'm not the only one that thinks I should have taken up a different hobby sometimes.
Hang in there. :smooch
tfarley.smugmug.com
Talk about frustration....with film all I had to do was get the technical stuff correct and drop it off at the processors........I could just concentrate on shooting 2 or 3 weddings each Saturday and an occasional Sunday (for the 7th Day Adventists Weddings) and portraits in the evenings........I have searched and searched for a "Processor" for my digital work (remember Ansel Adams??? He did not do hardly any of his own printing) ....nope .....most working Pros do not.....did not have the time.....I had a very nice 4 X 5 enlarger and used it a lot for individual prints I was working on for various salons or to sell, I might have a total of 20 hours per month to work in it......NOW I am trying to learn Photoshop at my age......it is almost a daunting as trying learning calculus without know any thing but basic math....:D.....now I am going to have to find a good photoshop instructor to teach me hands on what I really need to know to once again be able to do what I love and compete with the techie photographers that really don't know photography but know PS inside and out............
Let's talk FRUSTRATION......
Friend, there are a multitude of people with a gazzillion levels of experience here. As long as you are taking photos when YOU want to and of things YOU are interested in there are no probs. We all have issues with our own work. I tend to hate my stuff iitially. I will put the images away and re examin them later with another point of view. I reshoot reshoot and ohh yeah... reshoot. We are all like this. If you limit yourself to preceived levels that you think you are at, you will have a very difficult time expanding your comfort zone as well as limit the exposure to new ideas and techniques. Hang out and enjoy the company here.
That's exactly why I stay. No matter where you go or what you do and how well you do it, there will always be someone who is better at it. Learn from them. That's why we're here. That's why I'm here! There are many here who are far better than I am, and some who have't yet reached my less-than-stellar quality of work. But I learn from all of them. That is how we improve.
I'm new to digital after more than a decade of not shooting anything. I had a portfolio filled with studio fashion photos that, when some people looked at them, they'd tell me I should be working for a magazine. I never considered myself to be that good, but it was inspiring and helped to keep me shooting. (I never should have let getting a more than full-time job end it.) Now I'm shooting everything but fashion and having a blast. Only now I'm not showing them so much to people with no photographic knowledge at all, but to, in many cases here, professionals. Having your cousin the partying college student tell you he loves your photography is an ego boost, but having a professional tell you those very same pictures suck, educates you. Don't let bad criticism from someone who knows photography deter you from showing more of your work. Let it send you back out to try again.
Yes, some pictures I post get little to no reply; but I posted a few last night and got three very positive compliments on two of the four images. Three I'd shot that very day, and the fouth one the day before. The fourth one was completely unrelated to the other three and all of them were completely unrelated to the trains I'd shot a week prior, which were completely unrelated to the portraits I shot for one of Nikolai's assignments, which will be different from the actor shots I'll be doing in a couple weeks. . . . You get the idea.
The whole idea behind dgrin is to get you out with your camera, have fun and learn from each other. Since buying my DSLR, I've had more fun in the past three months than I've had in the past twelve years! Why? Because I'm doing what I love, again, and dgrin, bad commets and good, is giving me the inspiration to keep doing it!
Yes, it's not very inspiring when you get less than positive comments on your photos, but they're a reason to learn and grow.
Remember: The more you click, the better you get! The same is true of posting and reading comments on your images. Go out and have fun with your camera.
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"If you've found a magic that does something for you, honey, stick to it. Never change it." - Mae West, to Edith Head.
"Every guy has to have one weakness - and it might as well be a good one." - Shell Scott: Dance With the Dead by Richard S. Prather
One thing I learned long ago it's OK to put the camera in P and just shoot. I learned more about composition that way instead of the technical aspects. I am now starting to concentrate more on the technical aspects now that I am comfortable with composition.
I have had those days when I really felt that I had done well with my camera and yet when I look at the end result the pictures are only going to get hosted in the trash can. I bought a new lense a few weeks ago and it has been a mare, but this past weekend I have found out where and lense works and had a few decent shots (thats decent by my std.)
One thing I would like to see here on Smugmug which I beleive would not make you (and others) feel so "outside" is a newbie\beginners\whatever name you would like to give it forum, while there is a lot of information in the seperate forums it is disjointed and can be a quite daunting to a new novice user.
How you hadle it is up to you but I don't think leaving will solve the problems you are having.
Tim
I try to learn photoshop, think I'm getting somewhere, then a chap (you) says all he does is 'stroke' and hey I'm like 'wha? I don't even know what 'stroke' is in photoshop!
So all I can relate is my experience: yes it really get s you down sometimes - but - as I was just saying to myself over breakfast as my mood crashed after seeing all those great pics taken in Scotland on the workshop.. the people who make it arent the ones who are just born naturally great - they're the ones that don't give up.. so I say to myself.. don't give up.
I post pics (here and elsewhere) - and people just don';t say 'they're great'... they downt even say anything sometimes..which is worse:cry and it gets me down .. I mean man I have invested a fortune (for me) finanacially in gear.. a fortune in emotional investment.. and time etc...Im not joking when I say it gets me down, it really reayy does..
So Im going to post more; not less.. and shoot more; and post process more and post on the forums more...
well that's my solution to getting down in the dumps anyway - recognising that isolation is the WORST thing when you'rre discouraged.. so I really encourage you to do more of what you're doing .. posting and telling it like it is
Good luck
...pics..
The only way you're gonna learn and get better is by hanging out with people who know more than you. Hang out with people at the same level you're at and you'll just stay at that level.
I forget the exact quote but it's something like:
"If I have seen further it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants" by some famous guy.
I've been discouraged dozens of times in my life and I've often found that going back to the basics works well. Ditch all the fancy hi tech advanced techniques and the expectation of perfect images everytme and just focus (no pun intended) on taking good photos with what you know well. You'll get your confidence back and you can move up from there.
I could go on and on but by golly you're not gonna get better by quitting. Take a break, reevaluate your expectations, rebuild your foundation, then build from there.
www.socalimages.com
Artistically & Creatively Challenged
I keep coming back though, because I can learn to do better and the community here is just phenomenal! Oh and purchasing gear here is so much easier than anywhere else!
www.tednghiem.com
I don't consider myself a very good photog, at all, but I sure am learning quick. The more people on a forum, the more information that's out there.
What I get most from this particular place is the sincere service from the people that run it. They tell you straight, always have time to answer your questions, point you in the right direction and encourage you to do your best. They also work hard to make it a clean, safe environment to post in.
We're all out there trying to become better photographers.... isn't that what matters most?
VR
Then I click submit.
Whatever. I'm just trying to give people help and a different perspective. And it helps me figure out what I want to do with my own work.
dak.smugmug.com
By the way, Henry and I graduated highschool together...no kidding.
http://danielplumer.com/
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I often feel the same way. But if I've already been down the path someone is asking about, I'll relate my experiences, trials, and tribulations. I've learned a lot by hanging out at photo forums (first FM, now both there and here) and reading comments from more experienced/accomplished photographers. I wouldn't have learned a thing if everyone were at or below my level of expertise.
What's really cool is watching the noobs turning into experts themselves. The best is when you can say you were part of that growth--you've given back to the community.
http://www.chrislaudermilkphoto.com/