Yesterday, I spent some time looking at the infamous “Stages of a photographer” chart again. The graph starts out with a blue line – the one that marks “How good you think you are” – at the top of the scale. It mentions that the photographer, at an early stage of his/her photography career shoots mostly flowers and cats (or anything else that’s pretty, cute or more or less easily accessible). The green line marks the actual quality of the photos, which is at the very bottom of the chart. It all makes sense – at one point, we all thought our work was, well, pretty.
Then I imagined there must be plenty of people who have been through other stages of that chart, and yet still shoot flowers and cats today. How would those guys feel after seeing the chart? Discouraged, offended maybe?
As a photographer, you can get good at photographing anything, including flowers and cats. Want to be inspired by some beautiful images of cats? Check out this page on 500px.com. Who says only newbies photograph cats and flowers? Try searching for “flowers” on 500px and you will be amazed by some stunning imagery.
The photographs in this article were captured by my girlfriend, Bee, who loves shooting flowers! She has a great artistic “eye” and she is much more creative than I am – it becomes even more apparent when we photograph weddings together.
Nothing else matters but your own choice of what to photograph as long as you enjoy it. Landscapes, portraits, street or even HDR – if it’s your thing, do it and don’t listen to what others say. Let your artistic vision develop and create, and someday, it will help you become a better photographer. Who knows, maybe one day you will have a collection of art that sells for millions. You never know where your creativity could take you.
Just do what you love. Stay inspired and create.
About Romanas Naryškin
Ok, but here is also silent helper-photoshop… ;)
I’m sorry, I’m not sure I understood what you meant by that – silent helper. :)
I mean that photoes were edited by photoshop. :)
Well – of course. That’s the point of digital photography and RAW files, to have them slightly edited later. :)
That was an interesting chart! Though somewhat “suspect” due to the fact it was not in PIE form…gotta have Pie Charts.
You’re right! And anyone that think that making photos to a cat is easy and accessible shows that never tried it. They never stop trying to catch your camera!! or just ranaway!
Indeed it is a great post!
I agree wholeheartedly with the author. Photograph what you want to photograph.
“Nothing else matters but your own choice of what to photograph as long as you enjoy it. If it’s your thing, do it and don’t listen to what others say. Let your artistic vision develop and create”
I’m glad you liked it, Paul, thank you!
Since when is shooting animals and flowers not skillful or respectful?
Trust me, there are plenty of people who think so. :) Thank you for visiting, Bruce! I’m glad you’re not one of them.
Don’t forget it was you who asked what we thought of the chart.
It’s probably the dumbest chart I’ve ever seen. It’s a stereotype chart that probably plots only the author’s personal experiences who, according to the cart, is now dead. Or, it’s a satirical joke by the author who laughs everytime someone takes it seriously.
Botom line: It’s useless.
Why so angry?
I’ve no idea who the author is, really, however I find it to be accurate on many occasions, thought not all, and it’s not always a bad thing. I think it should help one look at himself with a little bit of humor. I’m not sure, however, I’ve ever met anyone who would take it seriously. :)
Thank you for reading, Peter. Don’t take it seriously! That’s one of the reasons I wrote the article, in case someone did.
I’m not angry, Roman. And I don’t take the chart etc. seriously. Like I said, it’s probably one of the dumbest charts I’ve ever seen. Why be angry over or take seriously dumb things?
By the way, your counter “Why so angry?” falls into the categories of fallacies called “Ad Hominem” and “Exploitation of Strong Feelings and Attitudes.”
Look it up. A good book to read is: Attacking Faulty Reasoning- A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments by T. Edward Damer.
I may have misinterpreted your rather strong reply, pardon, English is not my first language, thus sometimes I get things wrong.
Don’t worry about it. As a former language major, I know what you’re talking about.
The toughest Americans to initially understand come from what is called the “New York Metropolitan area.” They speak their mind and quickly, and this is sometimes seen by others as “aggressive” and maybe it is. But, I’d rather have people speak their mind to me face-to-face than talk behind my back where I can’t reply.
At least you had the guts to say what you did just now. I respect that…from a former New York Metropolitan area resident for over 63 years…now in rural Connecticut for 8 years.
:)
I prefer, just as you, to speak face-to-face, openly, and to be spoken to the same way. But language is a barrier I’m still working on.
Regardless, thank you for you time, it was educating.
I think some sense of humor is always needed and besides… it is not far from being true, when we start all of us though their pictures were brilliant. Then, when we increase the knowledge and look past what we did… we found out that maybe we were too optimistic! :)
It is true that is a stereotype and a satirical joke and it is still quite funny!
Thank you, Myriam. The chart got too much attention, I won’t mention it ever again, I think. :)
Obviously one shouldn’t take the chart totally seriously, but in my (very limited) experience it’s not that far off either. I can plot myself pretty accurately on there (right near the ‘first tripod’ tick).
I’m just about to fall into the HDR hole and, as the chart predicts, am smack dab in the middle of the gear buying frenzy, and learning photoshop/lightroom. Meanwhile, I’ve moved out of the flowers and cats stage (though I’ll confess to still being in my ‘moon’ stage), and am trying to learn to see the world with a more artistic eye.
I’m glad you see where you’re heading, Sam :) Best of luck and thank you for reading.
Well written article. The chart was cool but this article is encouragement. Keep making images, the more you click away the better you are going to become. So if you started off taking images of flowers and cats and after many months, take another picture of flowers (and cats). You will see how good you have become. I always keep all my pictures for two reasons:
-keep me grounded
-they help me learn
Remember, ‘Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep”.
I just love that quote :)
A great quote, Muddasir :)
Could not have said it better myself. Great article, I like your voice in them.
Rafael
Thank you, Rafael!
Keep it going, Roman!
Ачу, миела :)
Hey Roman,
Your English is fine. Peter is just another angry New Yorker. It is Peter who needs to read a book.
“Love” by Leo Buscaglia. If it smells like poop, it must be poop. Tony
lol
Thank you, Tony, for reading and kind of stepping up – it’s unnecessary though, as I’m sure Peter didn’t mean to offend anyone. This sort of community is one of the friendliest I’ve come across in a long time, Im sure we can keep it that way, too ;)
As a matter of fact, we all need to read books, a great activity. :)
Roman,
I personally found the chart very entertaining and humorous, and that’s because it’s very close to the truth! The best humor is laced with truth, afterall, and my photog friends and I can all place ourselves somewhere on the chart. It’s important that we laugh and never take ourselves too seriously. If we can’t do that then the game is over. One of the beautiful aspects of photography is that we never stop learning, which means we must be making mistakes along the way. In that regard I suppose photography is a reflection of life. We’re in it so let’s try and enjoy it. Well done, Roman.
Ooo. I like the way you think. Well put.
Thank you, Ron, for reading. And you are quite right :)
The photos were great, nice post! :)