Background - Facination with the night sky led to purchasing several telescopes. I started taking pictures with not so expensive CCDs, then bought a Canon T3i. I migrated to nighttime land and citiscapes then upgraded to 6dMark ll; I'm now 3 years into this journey.

I now see things from a different perspective. While traveling, I'm always on the lookout for sites that I feel are worth a return trip to photograph. I also search the Internet for pictures of nearby places taken by professional photographers and others. I'll locate the site and take my own picture, sometines, I feel, my pictures even come out better that the ones I've found.

I wonder if other members do the same thing, copy other photographer's ideas? This is a hobby for me, I don't sell pictures though friends say some of my pictures are the caliber that I should consider selling. I have no desire to sell for many reasons.

So what about it, am I really imposing on others by copying their creativity. I feel a little awkward about it; any thoughts? And, what if down the road I do consider selling some of my work is it truely my work?

Thanks Bill

I appreciate all the thoughtful responses and will continue to sharpen my skills in the manner in which I described when I started this post. I've learned a lot in 3 years time from following other photographers work and trying to duplicte it as well as improve upon it. I've learned even more by reading the daily posts from this forum.

I'm not at the level of where I can look at a scene and know exactly what camera settings I shoud use, instead I take many different shots using various settings; I shoot a lot of bracketed photos, pick the best and note the settings. I also experiment with HDR using Photomatrix.

Thanks again, Bill

Background - Facination with the night sky led to purchasing several telescopes. I started taking pictures with not so expensive CCDs, then bought a Canon T3i. I migrated to nighttime land and citiscapes then upgraded to 6dMark ll; I'm now 3 years into this journey.

I now see things from a different perspective. While traveling, I'm always on the lookout for sites that I feel are worth a return trip to photograph. I also search the Internet for pictures of nearby places taken by professional photographers and others. I'll locate the site and take my own picture, sometines, I feel, my pictures even come out better that the ones I've found.

I wonder if other members do the same thing, copy other photographer's ideas? This is a hobby for me, I don't sell pictures though friends say some of my pictures are the caliber that I should consider selling. I have no desire to sell for many reasons.

So what about it, am I really imposing on others by copying their creativity. I feel a little awkward about it; any thoughts? And, what if down the road I do consider selling some of my work is it truely my work?

Thanks Bill