PHOTOGRAPHY COURSES!
I've not been serious about photography for very long, but summing up the
first 6 months I'd have to say that enrolling in a couple of photography
classes at the local arts center has by far been the best expenditure of my
time and resources to date. For those who are just beginning I'd highly
reccomend seeing what local arts centers and community colleges have to
offer by way of photo courses. Some are insultingly basic and some are
almost boringly specific. But my first class got me into the darkroom and
my current class is getting me into the street and field. There's a lot to
be learned from others that are interested enough, and serious enough to
simply fork over the time and dough to attend class with you. I've always
felt that I could pretty much teach myself anything by reading the right
books, but I wonder if I'd have ever gotten so bitten by the darkroom bug
had it not been for having somebody show me how easy it is to make gorgeous
8x10 B&W prints. Sure, there's other sizes, but I just love the sheer
ecconomics of being able to produce wallhangers for pennies.
NOTEBOOKS and RECORDERS
As others have said numerous times, one of the best ways to keep track of
what's what is to take notes. For the first few months, a simple pocket
notebook was my vital photo-recall. Since then I've gotten a small tape
dictaphone/taperecorder and would recommend that as a positive necessity.
TRIPODS
I'm of the opinion that more gain can be gotten from regular use of a
tripod than from different camera brands, different lenses, different
films, etc.
DECENT FILM
I tried a variety of films and settled on a very small number of them based
more on how easy they are to develop or whether local labs can do a good
job with them. To me, it makes little sense to buy some trendy pro film
only to have the local lab muck it up (sometimes quite subtlely) because
they use somebody else's chemicals or paper.
Finally, I'd say that money spent in finding out exactly which lab produces
the results you want is money well spent. Currently, I'm printing my own
B&W stuff, but rely on others to develop it and to develop color prints and
slides. The differences that I found amongst different labs was far greater
than I've so far seen with different films. When I found one that
consistantly produced high quality prints and slides at reasonable prices,
I switched film brands to one they do exceptionally well (Fuji).
Hope that helps somebody,
Mike Swaim
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|