dsnoke Loc: North Georgia, USA

Reply to the original post, without a full quote to save space.

Start of rant.

I tend to agree with the post that this forum seems to express and awful lot of equipment envy and snobbery. That's not to say beginners are not encouraged, but I could do with a lot fewer posts about the relative merits of full-frame cameras over any other kind.

However, the basic question of the difficulty of learning photography can never be answered. I believe that is because the terms "learn", "photography" and "hard" are difficult, if not impossible, to define precisely.

For me photography is simple. I learned to press the shutter on my father's camera in 1955, and it is no more difficult today. What is difficult for me is choosing a subject to photograph and , often, getting to the place to take the photograph. So is photography difficult? Hard to say.

Similarly, I spent 10 years learning my first digital camera, a Nikon D40. But I began taking pictures with it within 10 minutes of getting it out of the box. Does that mean it is hard to learn the camera? Hard to say.

Lastly, photography for me is pictures of nature and my grandchildren, not portraiture, weddings, architecture or other subsets of photography. I don't care about those other parts of photography at this time.

End of rant. My work is available at http://www.seven-oaks.net/dickspics. Form your own opinion, but don't burden me with it.

Horseart Loc: Alabama

I really don't know why I would respond at all since I am NOT a good photographer and may never be, but I am an artist Paint & brush type) and I tend to feel the same applies to both. JMHO!

I feel that at the top of the list of the best beginner photographers are the ones with the natural talent for it and the eagerness to dig deep enough to learn.

Then there are those like me, at the bottom, who want to learn and may or may not ever get it right, but will hopefully at least improve as time goes on.

Then there are those in between who will become photographers at various levels, may improve or may not.

Just as there are all levels of artists, there are all levels of photographers. Some will move forward quickly, some slowly, some never. I think the bottom line is that as long as our work pleases us a little, even if we are our own worst critic, we can enjoy what we do and that's what matters most to MOST of us.

I didn't really say anything there except that I think we allow it to be as easy or difficult as we are willing to work for.

One thing I always tell people who want to take art lesssons...Some learn to paint with natural talent, some learn it as a skill. Either way EVERYONE can paint...some just don't know it yet. I believe all can shoot PICTURES. It just takes practice to shoot PHOTOS.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

"Inside every old person, there is a young person wondering what the hell happened." Terry Pratchett

A horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "Why the long face?"

As everyone probably knows, New Yorkers have a mostly undeserved reputation of being very rude. So a tourist from Kansas is in Manhattan, and he walks up to a native New Yorker and asks, "Excuse me sir... can you tell me the way to the 59th Street Bridge, or should I just go f*ck myself?

An old joke that speaks to traditional Jewish culture: A man is driving along and doesn't see a pedestrian, who bounces off the hood of the car and is lying, moaning in the street. The driver screeches to a stop and runs back to the poor victim. He takes off his coat and puts it under the pedestrian's head as a pillow and asks, "Now, are you comfortable?" The pedestrian replies,"Well, I make a decent living."

jrh1354 Loc: Dayton, Ohio

For a veteran of film photography over the past 40 years, digital photography is still difficult to learn. My film cameras had, at most, 4 settings that you needed to know how to use. My D7000 has upwards of 100 menu options - not all required to be proficient - but a lot more than the 5 on my film cameras. When you add in the need to learn at least basic PP, the task becomes daunting. And, quite honestly, after viewing the many member photos on UHH, I am questioning why I should expend any more effort on it. My son has the required "eye for composition". He makes very good photos with minimal PP. My film-based photos were almost always better than the digital photos I've taken over the past 3 years. I have yet to post a photo on UHH because I'm just not satisfied with any of the ones I've produced. I'm going to keep trying - and I hope to eventually produce photos worthy of posting. Cheers

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Well said, and nicely said!

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

It appears that The Turtle Moved! It is after all just past Hogswatch. Should we be watching out for the Wintersmith? :D

WHERE IS THE CAPS LOCK KEY, ANYWAY?

aellman Loc: Boston MA

In both media, quality often comes from having what's often referred to as an "eye." I think of it as the ability to recognize the potential and previsualize the image successfully. Or in the case of "street photography," just see, point and shoot, all within a couple of seconds. (Google Charles Harbutt.) As far as all the discussions of equipment go, my favorite image of the year was shot with an iPhone 5s, and a director recently made an independent film with the same phone. He had no money for real motion picture equipment. Not saying this method is for many others, but it seems to work for me.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

There is a little application for Windows PCs that disables CAPS LOCK. Best invention ever! If interested, search for it on download.com or filehippo.com.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

But that could be the DEATH of me!

jim quist Loc: Missouri

He learned 85% of what he knows in a day and assumes everyone does can too

RiverNan Loc: Eastern Pa

Horseart...My feeling is that everyone has an artist inside.....only some need to express it more than others.
I agree with you about some having a natural talent. some seem to have it seem not so much.

aellman Loc: Boston MA

I would suggest that you shoot in Program mode, and ignore all the other myriad options until (if ever) you are motivated to take them on. That will allow you to "focus" your attention solely on the image. Best of luck.

John1286

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

d, LoL, LoL...., boy, talk about snobbery, it's oozing out of you, LoL!!!
In the context of your rant about snobbery, why did you feel it necessary to tell us the brand and model camera you started with?!?! Talk about snobbery!!
No way I'll tell you what I shoot...., might just be one of those lowlife, unimportant subsets of photography that is so unimportant to you!!!!!
Jeezz, talk about a snob!!!!!
Start of Rant.......!!!!!! :lol:
SS

BebuLamar

You can reduce the settings down to 5 just like in the good old film days and hire someone to do the Post Processing for you just like in the old days you hired someone to do the Processing for you as I do believe you didn't do your film processing. If you did your film processing you wouldn't think digital is daunting.