I was reading this evening three interesting essays/articles: Inspiration, The Expert Mind and What It Takes to be Great. All were quite inspirational, discussing the fact that it is practise which makes an expert, not talent, referring to the "10 years rule" and "10,000 hours rule" (amount of practise needed).
I have a feeling that I'm slipping a bit in developing my photography skills, doing more routine things than I used to do just a few weeks ago. This may not be true, but it worries me. I think I need to start doing something new to keep on advancing.
I'm not yet sure what would be good to try out - one thing which I have been thinking about is to delve into post-processing techniques, especially Photoshop and LightZone. And perhaps finally try to get familiar with a RAW workflow.
Another would be of course to tackle new kinds of photography subjects. What they would be, I'm not sure. I'm sure that I enjoy photography most out in the nature, not on city streets or inside houses. So, something different but natural, what could that be?
In any case, here is a photo from Saturday, of a birch and a pine close to each other. I like the way the branches seem to be overlapping, although the shapes are quite different. Like a dance or an embrace.
Update: I was today also browsing some earlier postings by Andreas Manessinger. It is interesting to note the development there, how a mastery can be developed over the years.
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St. Johns River at Mandarin
4 hours ago
2 comments:
Actually, this feeling of stagnation may not really be a reason for concern. I read somewhere that learning a skill (as photography undoubtedly is) happens in a series of "jumps" where one learns and develops, followed by a plateau, where you don't seem to make any progress. But these are necessary because in these plateaus consolidation of the new things you learned is happening. So as long as you don't get stuck too long in such a plateau, they are no problem. I hope I make myself clear...
By the way, I very much like your pictures and subscribed to your blog... But I wonder how you can keep up posting so often as you do ;)
Thanks for the metaphor of a plateau, which is a nice way of thinking compared to, e.g., "going downhill".
I don't know whether I can keep on posting at this rate, but as long as it does not feel burdensome, I'll go on posting. At some point, though, I expect that there is a need to cut down a bit on this, but not right now.
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