Will I be past it?

I watched a youtube video about burnout. Link. And it got me thinking. I'm a couple of years away from being sixty. A lot of what I see and read, or maybe take more notice of is about what happens as you age. A decline that starts in your thirties increases in pace. I got concerned that the fitness and strength I had achieved would disappear. Instead of decreasing exercise, I increased it. I thought my lack of motivation was caused by boredom; so I cut a little from my cycling and started running. But that just gave me another way to increase the load. I started running around three miles daily, then increased it to six. 

I tried to compensate by eating and sleeping more; both good strategies. Less so was more coffee. It was hard to stop, but eventually I had to. I now have days when I just go for walks instead of a ride or run. I wait for my motivation to return as a sign that normal training can resume. I do hate to use that word training though.

What am I training for? I'm not an athlete. I had the half marathon that I completed last weekend. And now I've signed up for the Brighton marathon in April next year. I'll have to be careful not to use this as another excuse to overdo it.

Should I use "keeping fit", or "maintaining good health"? Maybe that will reduce how I view all that I do; help me to sometimes switch off a little.

I've had "milestone" birthdays, but they never really bothered me. I saw them as just another day; nothing special. But sixty does seem to be building in importance. I guess I don't feel old as I expected to, but I'm aware of a decline more than in the past.

If I'm going to stay fit and healthy I'll need to adjust my outlook, otherwise I risk doing harm. I don't want to have to stop completely, it's a mental health issue as much as a physical one.

This could mean that I'm starting to wonder what that next decade will be like in a way I haven't before.

Ten Thousand Hours

It's said that ten thousand hours is needed to become an expert. Or to put it another way, eight hours everyday for over three years. I'm not sure many will have the time to invest after they finish school or university.

The ten thousand hours and photography practice has to be focused to be effective. If it's not you'll see improvements at first, but I think it will tail off quickly.

I'm at a point where I want to specialise, I think I have a good understanding of the technical aspect, composition, planning and execution of a photoshoot. But what genre interests me the most? Then there is the business side, this is the last part of the puzzle and it worries me the most. Training for it is hard to find. There are plenty of what I call portfolio building courses, but I see very little benefit in them. I also think they can give potential clients a false sense of security. The client sees great pictures; but how much input did the photographer have during the shoot?
Many videos of workshops I see seem to be follow the leader. A queue of photographers waiting to take the same picture as everyone else.

For me learning about the camera is as important now as it was in the beginning. I don't need a workshop for that. Hiring experienced models was the next step. I leant much more and could confidently say the pictures were the result of my experience.

When I was ready I started working with less experienced models, I needed to plan ahead and keep the shoot moving. I also shot a wedding. Recently I did a shoot for designer; there was the studio, a model and a makeup artist to organise. I knew the model so it wasn't all on me which helped immensley. It was another learning experience and one that may lead to some of my work being published.

How do you know when you're an expert?

Photography has many genres and techniques. A lot of hardware and software. Then there are customer relations and business skills.

Are you an expert when you know them all? Can you know them all?

For me, I feel that I am always learning. If I add up all of the hours I have spent using my camera, planning shoots, talking to people, processing the pictures, experimenting; how many more hours until I am an expert?

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Workshops and building a portfolio

What do people think of photography workshops? 

A group of photographers, a model and an instructor. I must admit I have only been on one. I did come away knowing I liked and wanted to pursue the portrait genre. But there was also frustration. It must be said there are probably two types of these workshops; teaching a skill or process, and a portfolio builder. This one, I now realise was the later. That was probably the problem. 

I have watched workshops on line, and they seem to follow the same route. The photographers stand around and then take turns photographing the model. All very quick and little connection made with the model. There isn't time to explore different angles and poses. You have to have a more forceful personality them mine to almost ignore the queue and take your time. 
I came away with pictures I liked, but they were very similar to the other participants results. Maybe now I would take charge more, but I'm not sure I would do another workshop like this one aimed at building a portfolio. 

My advice if you are starting out would be a model studio day. Pick a good studio and model though. You get assistance if you need it from the studio team and the model. You are able to just experiment with no pressure from the next photographer. When you get more confident, hire a good model and studio or shoot at their home or on location if you have a smaller budget. I learnt a lot this way from trial and error and from the model.
I am now looking for the second type of workshop; teaching a skill. I want to start wedding photography. I'm looking for more than just pictures for my portfolio; I need to plan the day, optimise the workflow to produce the finished pictures, and to learn how to run a business. 

This type of workshop seems to be more difficult to find. I attended one, unfortunately it left me with more questions than answers. I tried beforehand to detail what I wanted, and the photographer had a style and business I thought I could learn from. I guess ultimately the skill of teaching is more difficult to asses.

I'm not criticising anyone who provides workshops, just noting that for me they haven't really worked. I may attend some in the future, but I need to be sure they will provide me with the experience I am looking for. I think maybe I need to define that more clearly first.

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What next?

I had steadily improved and gained more confidence; but where now?

I decided I wanted to try portrait photography. I have talked about this is a previous post. Family and friends. I wanted to push forward and gain as much experience as possible. I booked a portrait photography course. It was a good introduction to photographing people I hadn't meet before. How to quickly break the ice and have both sides of the camera relax. I'm sure Jade was way more relaxed than I was.

Here a few of my favourites from the two days.

Those two days convinced me I liked portrait photography, But I needed more experience. Different people, locations and styles, so I started to hire models. I mentioned this in my First Post.


The next few shoots were home based. This meant limited room and having to check the backgrounds for distractions. There is nothing more annoying than getting home, and realising you missed something that could easily have been cleared away at the time.

I was using speedlights, okay for smallish rooms but they take some time to recycle and if you do fire off too many shots in quick succession they overheat.

Some of my most liked pictures from the early days are:

Jessica

Jasmine

Jodie

TR

Check the blog for more updates These early shoots were in houses. I'll post my first studio shoots and my thoughts on them later.

For more of my work, go to my Facebook page.

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website