Welcome to the first of my blogs here on talru.com, I hope you’ll come back for more.
At the time of writing, I have no photographic qualifications, but armed with a geek-like thirst for knowledge, a hunger to learn and a creative itch that never goes away, I have been teaching myself the skills of photography for more than two years now.
My main passion is around sports photography, more specifically football photography. I will write another blog shortly on my path in to football photography, I know there is likely to be a lot of interest in that.
In this introduction, I wanted to write about being a beginner in the world of photography.
Don’t be intimidated by photography terminology
Like all hobbies and professions, photography can be an intimidating field to start out in. From ‘exposure triangles’ and the ‘rule of thirds’ to sensor size and f-numbers, there is a lot to learn if you’re going to get the most out of it.
The good news is that the digital age in which we live presents endless learning resources which are just a few clicks away. You’ll need one thing above all else though, and that’s a genuine desire to learn the art.
If you take the time to learn the underlying science behind photography, you will be better placed to get the most from it. That said, it doesn’t mean you have to solely concentrate on reading. The best advice I ever got was to shoot whenever you can.
Keep your camera gear handy, take it everywhere you possibly can and try your hand at different types of images. Don’t worry if you’re not happy with what you shoot initially, you will eventually learn what types of images you like and which you are more comfortable shooting.
The internet shows many examples of stunning, and in some cases world class imagery from professional photographers. What it doesn’t show you is all of the images that each photographer has thrown away since first picking a camera up.
In football photography, someone told me very early on that a “keep rate” – that’s the number of usable images from one shoot – of around 25% is acceptable. Your keep rate will increase as you become more experienced, so even if you only have one image you are happy with after taking a few hours of pictures, don’t be discouraged.
Instead, analyse the ones which aren’t ‘keepers’.
Why don’t you like them?
What didn’t work?
How could you improve them?
Don’t get hung up on what gear you can afford
I was so gloriously under-educated when I started in photography that I used to say “I want a DSLR” without really knowing why. I had no idea which DSLR I wanted, what the differences were between them except price, or even what types of lens I’d need.
I’d borrowed a Bridge Camera a few years earlier and loved it, but had become frustrated with not being able to figure out how to do long exposures properly.
In reality, it may have been partly down to not reading the manual, but theoretically, I presumed that the freedom of a DSLR meant that I could dictate all of the settings. I also had a misconception in my mind that purely because it was a DSLR, the image quality would be better than any non-DSLR.
And so, I jumped on to eBay and tried to vaguely educate myself for weeks while watching cameras come and go in auctions. Eventually, I took the plunge, purchasing an old Canon EOS 400d Rebel for £105.50 in the summer of 2013.
This came with the standard kit lens. I knew I would want to have a go at football photography and as I had done some reading, I knew I needed a “bigger zoom lens”. Again, I knew nothing about them. I honestly did now know why a Canon 300mm f2.8 were priced in thousands and some which also stated “300mm” were sub-£100!
See? I really was clueless.
Continuing my eBay purchasing session, I bought a Tamron AF 70-300mm F4-5.5.6 lens for a whopping £46. That completed my first collection of camera kit. A total of £150.50 spent for one camera body and two lenses.
I didn’t realise immediately when buying them just how old they were, and how limited in terms of capability. The body was the entry level consumer model from 2006.
The key point here is that it didn’t matter. In fact, starting with gear this basic turned out to be the best thing I could have done. Did it hold me back? No. I shot three professional Football League matches with this gear.
I also learnt more about camera capabilities and required settings for different types of photography than I would have done if I’d have been able to afford to buy a top-end piece of kit straight away. I remember shooting a match in bad light and I could almost hear the camera struggling with what I was trying to make it do.
I’d got absolutely everything out of it and I knew why I needed to upgrade. It wasn’t because I wanted to look cool, or blow a lot of money on a bigger piece of kit. It was because for the requirements I had and for the conditions I needed to shoot in, I needed specific capabilities only offered in high-end bodies.
For more about my journey in to football photography, read my post Breaking in to Sports Photography.
