Biggest hang up when it comes to photography....

Another fun and hopefully insightful topic .... What do you find to be your biggest "hang up" when it comes to photography? By that, I mean the thing you find the most challenging....that one thing that just doesn't seem to "click". It could be anything from creativity (such as finding/creating a subject), to technical issues to post processing images and anything and everything in between. What is your weakest link?

being creative. It's safe to say that I'm deficient in the imagination department.

Marketing...

I spent nearly 25 years in the broadcast industry where the key to survival was to stay below the radar. You wanted Producers and Directors to go home happy having never known you were there. You made your living off having your phone ring again because the powers that be want the same crew they had last time. Eventually, you rise to the network ranks and then it's simply a game of "Show Up, Shut Up and Keep Up" where only a small percentage of people have direct contact with the decision makers. You're just a well-paid worker bee. We used to call it "High School With Money"

Now, I'm having to learn how to blow my own horn in an effort to stand out, get noticed and rise above the crowd. Very, very new territory for me.

I'm one of the best aviation photographers that few have ever heard of and it's my own damn fault.

It sounds like you need to pay some poor but social media savvy college kid to handle your marketing.

Scatterbrained wrote in post #15913395
It sounds like you need to pay some poor but social media savvy college kid to handle your marketing.

I actually do ok with social media. I'd say the majority of my print sales come through Facebook.

No, I need to get better at good, old-fashioned pavement pounding and flesh pressing. I need to channel my inner Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman and be damn glad to meet everyone.

I can recall how much I used to hate those Herb Tarlik types who were "always on" and always glad to see you even if they just saw you five minutes ago. People who could "work" a room. It was obviously a front and fraudulent but I wish I could pull off some of that today.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #15913403
I actually do ok with social media. I'd say the majority of my print sales come through Facebook.

No, I need to get better at good, old-fashioned pavement pounding and flesh pressing. I need to channel my inner Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman and be damn glad to meet everyone.

I can recall how much I used to hate those Herb Tarlik types who were "always on" and always glad to see you even if they just saw you five minutes ago. People who could "work" a room. It was obviously a front and fraudulent but I wish I could pull off some of that today.

I know the feeling. In high school I worked in a small family restaraunt before moving into our own family business. In both places it was "everyone knows your name". I was able to "hit the switch" to be that smiling happy to see you guy the second I walked through the door. Nowadays I just can't do it. My patience for random people is at an all time low.

And it's laser beam narrow in my (preferred) world because I'm trying to crack a part of a piece of a corner of a portion of a segment of a niche of the industry.

As I explained to my wife the other night, the photographic pyramid is similar to any other industry with a very wide base like the Great Pyramid and it gets narrower as you get toward the point. In my case, it's much more like the Washington Monument with a narrow base to begin with, and THEN it gets progressively smaller.

Using flash.
To me, it's a black art.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #15913403
I actually do ok with social media. I'd say the majority of my print sales come through Facebook.

No, I need to get better at good, old-fashioned pavement pounding and flesh pressing. I need to channel my inner Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman and be damn glad to meet everyone.

I can recall how much I used to hate those Herb Tarlik types who were "always on" and always glad to see you even if they just saw you five minutes ago. People who could "work" a room. It was obviously a front and fraudulent but I wish I could pull off some of that today.

2 points for the awesome Herb Tarlik reference.

As to the original question, my biggest hurdle is getting close enough; virtually all of my favourite photos were taken at close range with a moderately wide lens. That's where I need to be, but I often have trouble doing so.

Directing subjects. More specifically getting small groups of people to pose consistently. I've done quite a few group shot sessions and I feel like I'm always settling for the shot where they all look ok-ish. A few months ago I did a shoot for flyers for a 5-man band and I had so many shots where four were looking great but one was looking away or accidentally pulling an off face.
I really need to work on directing and posing groups... It becomes exponentially more difficult for each member added though. Maybe I'll try shooting from a tripod next time for some more freedom of replacing/merging between multiple shots.

philwillmedia wrote in post #15913633
Using flash.
To me, it's a black art.

Have you ever gone through the Strobist Lighting 101 section?
Obviously it's mostly aimed at off camera flash, but it'll help anyone understand the basics of flash, on and off camera and manual, but also applies to TTL.
Otherwise, the book "Light, Science and Magic" is always a good read.

My own timidness when it comes to people. It doesn't matter what I'm shooting I'm always thinking about those around me that see me shooting. I need the I don't care attitude a bit more.

Talking to people I don't know is an issue as well.

Directing along with creativity is something to work on.

I could go on lol.

Street photography is an absolute no-no for me. No way can I do it. Not going to happen.

If I find an interesting picture I have no problem in lying down in the street or adopting some strange stance, that doesn't bother me.

I also don't like being with other photographers when shooting.

for me its finding good locations for portraits, i ask if i can shoot at places and they tell me no, or i just cant find a spot that isn't trespassing.

where do all these location photographers find good spots?

Mine is rushing to get stuff out and processed. Am trying to step back and be more objective.

Though the marketing thing is up there too. I'm a terrible self-promoter.

jra wrote in post #15913374
Another fun and hopefully insightful topic .... What do you find to be your biggest "hang up" when it comes to photography? I mean...that one thing that just doesn't seem to "click". It could be anything from creativity (such as finding/creating a subject), to technical issues to post processing images and anything and everything in between. What is your weakest link?

For me it is definitely the entire "computer environment". I seem to be able to use my camera gear to advantage, and get everything out of it that it has to give. I have no trouble with creativity, and have tens of thousands of ideas for unique, different images I'd like to create - and even an idea of how to go about creating them. And I can find subjects as well as the next guy.

But - once the process moves from camera to computer, I am a blithering idiot! The editing itself isn't a problem - I know what I want an image to look like, and can rather easily figure out how to use software to make it look that way.

What I can not do at all is learn how to interact with the whole computer environment:

1. I have no idea how to turn one type of file into another type - how to prepare images for agencies like Alamy where they require that a j-Peg be XXXXXX amount of megabytes when it is uncomoressed (how would I ever "uncompress" a j-Peg, anyway?).

2. My computer got "full". It had no room for any more photos. So, I asked for an external hard drive for Christmas a couple years ago. My wife bought me one - yeah! When I tried to use the external hard drive, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I stuck the cord thing (USB) into the computer's USB port, and an icon came up. I clicked on the icon, but could not figure out how to get anything from the computer itself onto the external hard drive. I tried clicking on everything possible, but nothing ever seemed to work. Finally, I made the 150 mile (each way) trip to the nearest computer store. People there spent a few hours with me, showing me how to use my external hard drive, and how to get photos onto it. I can do it now, but remembering the steps is difficult, and each time I back things up, it is a real challenge to remember how to do it.

3. I bought Lightroom 3 a couple years ago, but have never used it. Guess why? Yup - I can't figure out how to get it loaded onto my computer, in a way that will allow me to access the images on my external hard drive. What the heck do you click on to get Lightroom to bring up a photo from a hard drive, of from anywhere else, for that matter. Whew - all this stuff is mentally exhausting. I would much, much rather spend 3 or 4 hours sliding thru mud on mhy belly, trying to get close to a wild animal . . . that is actually so much easier than figuring out what thing to click on to get a computer to work!