Good Effort.

June 20, 2012 photog blogs

Still photography is my primary hobby. It used to just be ONE of many many hobbies, but somehow the last few years have been mostly filled with trying to get better at taking pictures.

Don’t ask me why, I don’t have a good answer and I’ve stopped trying to analyze it. I enjoy photography, so I take pictures.

I’m really okay just leaving it at that.

It’s a hobby that I make a pretty good sized money/time investment into.

There’s the gear and there’s booking models and I can rent studio time and organize my own shoots or I can participate in “group shoots”.

On a group shoot I can be just as creative and artistic as if I were working alone.

The only difference is that I’m working with anywhere with could be five to forty (or more) other photographers. Yes, it can be crowded.

On a group shoot, it’s kind of difficult to have shots that are unique. Sure everyone will generally have their own take on the subject.

There’s lots of room to be creative in the camera settings, angles and framing for each shot, but the fact remains that other people will have shots that are very similar to mine.

I’m finding that it does me no good to swear off group shoots. As soon as I claim my last one really was my last one, I’ll come across an announcement for a shoot in a place that interests me or with a model that I’d be interested in shooting.

That’s how I found myself in Signal Hill last Saturday with about forty or fifty models, photographers and makeup artists.

We were all participating in a photography meetup and I was there even though I’d recently decided to stop attending group shoots.

Yes, I caved. I wanted to shoot in this location and there were a bakery’s dozen models booked to be there.

I have a couple of other still photography shoots coming up in the next few weeks, but I believe every picture I take makes me a better photographer.

Every opportunity I have to take pictures helps put me further along on that road I’m traveling that leads to, well, hopefully somewhere.

You know, even if that road doesn’t lead anywhere, I’ve said it before, I’m enjoying taking pictures and I’m happy to just be trying to get better at something I enjoy.