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What's the hardest part in taking up photography?

I want you to go back in time and remember the time you decided to take up photography. What was the most intimidating part? Was there something that almost stopped you?

Same question for publishing your photos. When did you decide it was time to show your work?

I remember I decided to learn photograpy by completing a 365 project because I already knew learning by doing is the best way. I was pretty bold about that and sure I could make it with no problem. I knew Photoshop very well so retouching was not an issue for me either.

I did make a rookie mistake though. I wasn't sure if my camera was good enough. Even though I spent few weeks on research before buying the gear. When I got my Canon EOS 50D and 24-70mm f/2.8 Sigma and tried it out for a day, I thought "Hey, this camera does not take very good photos."

That's actually number one "excuse" I get form new tookapic users. "Oh, I don't have a good camera."

How did it go in your case? I know it turned out pretty well to most of you, but I'm curious about the very beginnings.

15 comments

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vera I find you externalize it so well! a beautiful victory thanks to Tookapic! Do not devalue yourself! keep it up! your project is beautiful and what a beautiful evolution we can see! ... sometimes the bigger enemy is our mind that's true!!!...

vera At first, I didn't want to have a good camera, because I thought I would have to carry a ton of material. I saw some friends with these big cameras Nikon and Canon and I couldn't imagine myself giving so much money, and then strolling in the mountains having to pull a trailer! All that did not mean anything for me, just a cumbersome trick of specialists.

Then I discovered through a friend who does mountain biking the camera of Olympus E-M5, a little and very light camera.
I thought it's perfect to make better photos, and it's easy to take it everywhere. I wanted to improve the quality of my photos, especially the colors. Before Tookapic, I was already hunting pictures for my painting with my iphone.
After some month with my Oly, I realized that I shooted only on automatic mode. I didn't knew nothing about technical aspects and all the possibilities of my camera. I was frustrated because I wasn't exploiting the full potential, and I thought it was wasteful...
At this time, I began Tookapic thanks to my friend @tania ;) , hoping that practicing every day, it would force me to search and learn better how to use it. A friend of mine showed me to shoot in aperture mode. He said to me to begin with it... and it really was a revelation! I read the tuto of Pawel on the blog of Tookapic. blog.tookapic.com/aperture-exp...
It helped me to understand better how my camera works ;0
From there I try to learn and explore other technics or lenses.

The second obstacle that made me hesitate to post on Tookapic, was to be seen by a lot of people around the world. Don't be afraid to say it, it's still intimidating! My thoughts: and if nobody appreciate my work??? I will die of shame😭😱😵😖💥
Then I realized that the project Tookapic is not here only for showing my photos, but was mostly to learn. Practicing every day is a way to learn, even the best way in my opinion, to learn what you know theoretically! Beginning with low profile is easier that to try to show that you know everything. It leaves room to be wrong, to try, to make streak pics while maintaining a steady pace and progress on the long term.
At least, I hope I'm progressing!

Voilà!
Hasta la vista! 🙌🏻

tania So happy you did it !

vera Thank you Tania for this sharing!!!! I'm so happy too!

Karolina Oksiędzka First:
For me the worst was that nobody cared. I remember doing some photos that I thought were good. I was hyped to publish them in the net (digart at that time) alongside my drawings. People commented that I should focus on my drawings cause they are much better than the photos. I never really stopped making new photos, but I did not publish anything for a long time (till facebook started). I just thought that people don't want to look at my photos at all.

Second:
I studied Graphic Design at PJATK in Warsaw, and I had a lot of different art classes. One of which were photography ones. And I was ultra happy to attend. BUT my teacher was not impressed with anything that I did. I had also Photoshop classes with him and he already knew my drawing skills. I remembered him say: "Give up photography, you don't have what it takes to take good photos". He gave me a 4 for my semester project and I did not attend any of his classes again. Though I did not stop publishing :P.

tania It was on 7th January 2015 when @Ian sent me an email saying « My only resolution for 2015 » and a link to his Tookapic profile. I remember the date because it has been a real discovery : people able to find beauty and keep a trace everyday of their life ? Wow ! I remember finding the concept incredibly strong and powerful on our lives.

But I had one main internal brake : I’m not a creative person, I won’t be good enough in photography. Then I waited until 25th of Mai 2015. I was everyday looking for new photos on Tookapic, for inspiration, and struggling with myself.

On 24th Mai I was walking along the lake with my mum and I saw new baby swans. Suddenly I understood : why don’t I have a proper camera with me ? I can’t do anything so far away with my Iphone. The result was awful. I started Tookapic the day after. 10 days after I understood I had a new addiction ☺ !

A few considerations :

- I’ve never tought I could expend so much money on a hobby. But actually it’s not a hobby, it’s a real way of life.
- My main reason to keep it up is still the same after almost three years : finding beauty and joy whatever are the circumstances of my life. I find also this through my current exhibition : people are emotionnaly touched by this search of beauty, light and joy.
- I understood photography wasn’t a hasard : it came as an answer and it’s part of a strong mutation in my life.
- I also remember the first present I got myself with my first proper salary when I was 18 was a camera : Nikon F50 I only used in mode A ;)

So that’s my story. And if I can fall from my ski lift, like yesterday when taking my daily picture, and then see my kids laughing so much at me, my day is good ! I’m happy with that.

So… what will be my photo today ? I have a tiny idea ;)

120mr Real way of life <3

tania ❤️

Ian Prince Happy to hear how one little email was the start of a big journey for you :)

tigg I am interested in the thought process of “taking up photography” - is there ever a concious decision? There is a photograph of me aged about 7 holding what I think is a Brownie 127 camera. I know Father had something much more complex, so I an only assume that it was my camera. Lucky me. Perhaps I should print it off, photograph the photograph and post it here. An idea for a weekly theme perhaps - earliest photo memories?

120mr Great idea!

Marta Tomaszewska I don't have photographic roots in my family although we've always took family photos and I've got my first compact film camera in my teens as far as I remember. I have my albums till now. And I had never again such a high rate of good photos on the trip as when I had my Zenith and 2 rolls of film for 2 weeks in London.
I'm IT girl, so I started publishing as soon as digital era came. And everything was fine, I attended forums, portals, even lead a photographic association for some time. Had better and better equipment and more and more knowledge. And the more I knew the more I doubted if it makes sense. It revealed that chances to make anything more with my photography are low or required a lot of effort and I have many other hobbies as well. And meanwhile style of my travels changed and I was not able to take my camera with me, so I've switched into smartphone or GoPro, automatically lowering the level and making less photos in overall.
Fortunately I've made up my mind again, bought a decent compact camera and found the pleasure again. My first pic here is from the first day with new equipment. And I must admit that tookapic carry this fire for me and I'm sure that if not because of it I'd took a lot of less photos.

And despite checking "likes" of my photos here or there, as I simply like to know what emotions I trigger, I think that I've reached the point where I can but I don't have to prove anything. I just can do what I like :) and if I like taking photos I don't want to stop doing this - simple! ;)

Mikołaj As a part of planning my exchange program, I tried to find a way of saving quality memories from it. I spent months on research, reading tons of articles, watching videos, browsing reviews, specs and comparisons, so that I almost became a camera expert that had never held a real camera in his hands. I'm an computer science student and my engineer's brain grasped all the technical concepts quite quickly, but struggled with finding and creating nice compositions. I'm not good at drawing, I tried to do some graphics design, but without good results, so I was curious how this would turn out.

Finally I bought my first camera and started posting to Tookapic on the same day (I stumbled upon it somehow a bit earlier), initially trying to keep it rather secret. I chose my username to mean that getting started with photography in my case was an irrational decision. And if you scroll my profile down enough, you'll see that the beginnings were hard indeed. I remember being intimidated by my equipment and needing a really long time to set the camera (in priority modes). That's why I preferred still subjects and no people – they'd just lose their patience.

I still don't like telling everyone around "Hey, I'm a photographer!"... because I'm not. When I go out to take some pictures, I prefer to keep the camera in my bag or pocket and not on the neck, even though now I'm much more confident with my gear. Anyway, I'm happy about the progress I made in these 8 months and I hope to keep it up! I just wish I had started, like, a year earlier :D

Ian Prince I still remember my first photo I took when I was five or six years old. From that moment on I knew photography was "my thing", so I didn't really have any excuses for not starting here back in 2015 :)

Shawn I always liked to play with instant cameras as a teen and was interested in drawing and painting. I went to an art school, so I had my first camera for a required class in black and white photography. I had no idea what I was doing! I was told to consult the teachers for advice in the darkroom and I misunderstood, thinking I needed to show them everything I did. So I pestered the teachers for advice after every picture! (I got an A+ for effort). I continued to use the film camera occasionally for a hobby, but never used a darkroom ever again. Later, I had an instant digital camera but it was a terrible cruel automatic camera with no creative control!
Finally got a DSLR for Christmas when my dad saw me struggling to get good pictures for Tookapic with my android phone.
The hardest part was learning how to use it based on my old 35mm and my phone camera experience. My strong point is composition because it was the only control I had with my first phone. I'm still learning about light and rely on my same choices again and again.