Rookie Phase.

I bought a DSLR (40D) 3 weeks ago and only have 1 lens (17-85mm f/4-5.6). Never played around with a camera outside of a P&S. I've made it a routine of mine to shoot at least for a few hours every weekend (and somewhat focus on a specific technique) here in NYC to hone my skills. I would love to shoot on weekdays as well but my work hours are pretty long. So far I've shot the past 2 weekends in a row and produced so-so photos like the following:

I think it's perfectly normal to be going through what you are going through.
I think a little bit of discipline is a good thing. (Like forcing yourself to shoot a few hours on the weekend, etc.)

I guess people end up approaching things differently.

Right now, I shoot when I feel like it. It's not so much that I have everything down, because i don't. I don't do this for a living so obviously I can afford not to shoot all the time.

It's just that I started to realize I do in fact do this for fun, and forcing myself to pick up the camera to shoot is the last thing I should be doing.

So I would go weeks without picking up my camera. No harm...

I think you hit it right on the nail nicksan. I just feel a little torn between purely having fun and 'forcing' myself to learn the fundamentals first. It's just that I want to get all these fundamental techniques out of the way so when I truely approach an interesting thing to shoot I can accurately execute the shot I want. I guess just a little venting on my part. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Having said what I said, I did go through the usual learning phase, reading up on "Understanding Exposure", asking a lot of questions here and to friends who happened to be photographers, figuring out why I like certain images, etc.

However, I really never took the "academic" approach beyond that. I am not sure whether or not that was a mistake or not. The whole idea for me was not so much to force feed all this, learn this and that, take classes after work or on weekends, attend seminars at Adorama, etc. I never did any of those things. I let it come naturally. It probably shows in my crappy photos but at least I am having fun, and it really is just that for me, just fun. No pressures of being a paid professional, owning a business, etc. Frankly, I'll keep my day job. It pays me very well.

I mean, if we all follow all the rules of photography, then we'd be taking the same pictures!

But again, different people have different approaches. You should do what works for you, and whatever that keeps the interest level up there.

big_apple_ken wrote in post #5523097
I think you hit it right on the nail nicksan. I just feel a little torn between purely having fun and 'forcing' myself to learn the fundamentals first. It's just that I want to get all these fundamental techniques out of the way so when I truely approach an interesting thing to shoot I can accurately execute the shot I want. I guess just a little venting on my part. Glad to hear I'm not the only one who feels this way.

You might find this article to be somewhat relevant.

Although I feel like I can take a decent picture (better than I could with my Sony H5 after a year of owning it) I still consider myself a rookie. I've had my XTi since christmas but just haven't done enough variety of shooting conditions. I'm great at shooting pics of my cats in the apartment.. lol

You say rookie like that's a bad thing.

Recently I had a young man take an interest in shooting a baseball game.

I loaned him my backup and showed him the basics--he had only used a P&S up to this point.

I think I learned more from him than he did from me--looking at things from a fresh perspective rather than the same old routine.

And at the end of the season I just put the gear away for several weeks--until it becomes fun again

Best of luck--Enjoy the new toy!

Everyone went through that. Just get the basics down & you'll be OK. Shoot. Make miStAkes. Learn.

Virtual Camera
http://www.photonhead.​com/simcam/
Notice the background change when you use his "Shutter and Aperture" settings!

Canon: = Enjoy! Digital SLR camera =
http://www.canon.co.jp​/Imaging/enjoydslr/ind​ex.html

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