Reaction and Thoughts on Readings...

The reading that I got the most out of was Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. Even though her book is about writing, a lot of what she has to say can be applied to other fields, including photography. I think her best point was about how most people looked to being published before they have anything worth publishing, and also how hard it is to actually get down to doing the work. But as she says, you just have to take it slowly and in strides, and not worry about if the first attempt is perfect. Although this is not necessarily always true for photographers since time can be a factor, when we do have time it would be well worth it to go back through our first shoot and see where we need improvement. Lamott also makes a great point about the importance of being published to artists in art-type fields, and there is some truth to it. Being published is one of the greatest feelings. Not only does is allow your work to be viewed and affect others, but it makes all your hard work worth it, especially since you and others can see the final product. The main point, however, is that it does take time and success won’t be instant, but most of the time it is enough to keep us striving for more. She also makes a great point about practice and exploring other works in our field. This is something that we are constantly doing in school, but it does help us grow as photographers and see what great stories are made up out and what they are made from.

The main point I got out of Gross and Shapiro’s was about changing perspective by changing lenses, and how to grow as a photographer by not always going for your usual lens. I’ve heard teachers say this before, that by using a lens that is not familiar to us, or one that we do not use all that frequently, we are able to gain new skills. For example, by using a 35mm instead of a zoom lens we are forced to personally get close to our subjects and get over our hesitation about getting too close.

I’m not sure I entirely fully agreed with the audio that we listened to about 10,000 Hours and how experience is much more valuable to a photographer than talent. It is true that experience is probably the best way to grow in any field, but true talent doesn’t always have to be taught like that, at least that is how I feel, even though I am one of the people that will need the 10,000 hours to get where I want to be. The main point that the audio was making, however, is still somewhat hard for me to wrap my head around, because I feel like both are equally valid points and that you can’t have one without the other. In the end, however I guess the old saying is true, practice does make perfect.