Check Your Focus by Aaron Graham

Smoky Mountain Morning by Aaron Graham

Hey everyone, I’m finishing up my Yellowstone workshop with an awesome (and I mean it) group of people.  We had two wonderful days of shooting in the Tetons and Yellowstone and today we’re focusing on processing in Lightroom.  I asked a long time follower of my blog to write a post about his experiences growing as a photographer.  I hope you enjoy what Aaron wrote, and make sure to drop him a note on the blog.  He’s a hard working person who, like many of us, shares an incredible passion for photography.  Make sure to check out Aaron’s work HERE.  I hope you enjoy…John

Check Your Focus by Aaron Graham,

A little over two years ago, I really started pursuing photography in a serious way and almost immediately hit, what seemed at the time, an insurmountable wall of frustration.  I would take a bunch of photos, and in my excitement to see what I was sure would be the greatest image ever captured, I would race home, download all of them to my computer and check them out.  Imagine my disappointment when all of them, almost without exception, just seemed to be missing something.  They didn’t excite me the way other images did.  I would repeat the process time and time again and continually get the same results.  At least I was consistent!  Unfortunately, I was consistently bad.  Then it occurred to me.  I needed to check my focus.  By “check my focus” I don’t mean cranking around on that ring at the end of my lens; it was more of a mental focus issue.  After really looking at my photos and considering all the things I liked and didn’t like, I found that my most glaring problem was with my compositions.  I decided that would be my focus for the better part of a year.  I read stacks of books, looked closely at all of my photos, compared and contrasted my pictures with ones that really moved me, made prints to take notes on, and continually tried to apply what I was learning to what I was doing at each shoot.  The result?  While I still have plenty of room to grow, my compositions were greatly improved.  They weren’t professional but they were at least passable, and more importantly, much closer to what I was trying to achieve.

I had another close look at my photos and found that my better compositions were drawing more and more attention to my poor post-processing skills.  Again, I set a goal and spent most of my time reading books, looking at photos, and trying to apply what I was learning.  The results were similar and my post-processing skills were leaps and bounds ahead of where they were when I started.  So, what did I take from this experience?  First, it really pays to look at your photos.  I mean REALLY look at them.  What do you like?  What do you not like?  Do you see a clear way to reinforce your likes while improving your dislikes?  Second, set reasonable, achievable goals.  This can be hard to do since the skills associated with photography are rather hard to quantify.  In my situation, I knew I wouldn’t be producing professional quality images after only a year of work but I felt like I would instinctively know when it was time to focus on some other aspect of my photography.  That really turned out to be the case.  Third, decide what it will take to help you improve.  Everyone learns in different ways.  Are you able to apply what you read from books?  Would a mentor help?  What about online classes or classes at a local school?  And finally, did I mention REALLY looking at your photos?  I can’t stress this enough!  Being able to evaluate yourself on a continual basis may be one of the more important skills you develop.  If you are having trouble getting started, look for help.  Ask people whose opinions you respect.  Have someone review your portfolio and be open to their critiques.  In the end, you are the only one that knows what you like, and in my experience, you won’t enjoy what you’re doing unless you are producing results that you are pleased with.  Being a photographer is a process.  Keep working, keep evaluating yourself, and keep setting new goals.  You will likely be surprised with the progress you will make.  So, where is your focus?

Aaron

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 9:00 am. It is filed under General, Inspirational. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.