I am busy reading a couple of excellent photography books which I would really recommend any amateur photographer take a look at. The books are called "On Being A Photographer" and "On Looking At Photographs" by Bill Jay and David Hurn.
In the first book these two world renowned photographers discuss their lives as photographers and what they think being a photographer even means. They discuss how they got into photography as well as what they think others should do if they seriously want to become photographers. The book is very readable with the style being commentary. The reason I started this blog was because I read this book and realized what I really needed to do to even think about taking good photographs.
For me, the key to it all was deciding what things I was going to photograph. I was going out with my camera with no real purpose snapping away at anything I thought could be a fun photo. I was pressing the button on my camera and coming home with a bunch of photographs to look at. While reading the first book I realized I needed a purpose, something to focus my attention on. I needed to choose a topic or theme that I could get fully involved in, that was accessible to me and that I really enjoyed. What better than to focus on the furry little scoundrels that cross my path every day. Having a beautiful scoundrel myself of course makes it that much easier to want to go out and practice.
So, lesson number one to all those amateur photographers: Find something that interests you, that is not too broad a topic and start focusing on that....rather than on anything that comes into your path.
I think this lesson has already helped my photography by allowing me to hone in and focus on specific skills for shooting dogs rather than shooting my camera like a machine gun on anything I see. Of course this does not mean I won't be trying to get some great shots when I go to Ireland this summer!
Oh, and one other thing, Bill Jay shoots about 3600 shots for each photograph he considers exhibition worthy.
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