Thanks Nick...helpful advice. I just started this photography hobbie/passion 4 months ago and sometimes feel that I'm not progressing fast enough (or at all), yet one of the benefits of learning photography is also learning patience, a great lesson. Have already learned tons from reading and shooting almost every day and anticipate moving forward faster through ATP materials. Thanks again.                                                                                Regards, Gord

Thanks to you Gord and you are right, patience is most definitely a virtue with photography. Too many people think that buying the best camera possible kit will make them a better photographer instantly...not so!

Patience is the ONLY way to learn this trade.  I have had my camera for 2 years now and there is still so much I do not know or understand.

Yep, it's all about patients, you will be improving and not realising it too as you always see someone elses work and think it is better than yours, that's your opinion, it may not be somebody elses.  You could 10 pros in a room, show them a pic, 5 will love it, 5 will hate it.

Get as much critique as possible from peolpe who know what they are looking for, again the 10 pros will have 10 different points and your Granny also will have 10 different pionts.  Just keep plugging away and you will develop your own style.

Thanks Nick...great advice.

I thought it is me ( not progressing fast enough )...now I realise that all I need to do is ...to be more patient.

Thanks again.

P.S. Fantastic website

Great Nick! 

I recently watched a show called The Secret. Not sure I buy into it totally but one common theme is that when you keep positive thoughts in your head, you will find that things start coming out your way. For example, I wanted my new camera so bad I could not see straight...my ex wife on the other hand could not disagree with me more. I stayed positive and never mentioned it again. I kept picturing myself with this camera and taking shots even though I didn't have it yet. Always staying positive and visualizing while not thinking negative thoughts. Next thing you know I had the funds within 2 months. I thought it would be a year before I could save for it. 

So I guess what I am saying is to stay away from people that bring your dream down. My uncle told me from day one, be around the people you want to be like. Do this long enough and you will reach the same levels of success they have achieved if not more. Stay positive and keep Dreaming!!

Thanks for the comments everyone and Chris, you are absolutely right...a positive attitude is everything. I did a lot of training in London many years ago and this kind of thing washed over me as I was quite stubborn back then.

Nowadays I believe in that attitude 100%. Stay positive no matter what, persistently visualise what you want and it will come sooner or later. I am covering this and much more in the business section coming soon...

Providence brought me this post today and I am thankful. Through the years, Patience, has been my elusive Virtue. But Persistence has not! After a cold night on the beach attempting to shoot a lovely moonrise, to no avail, this is ECACTLY what I needed to hear. It is as if you read my wandering mind. Thanks for helping me get back on my path to Patience!

Peace,

~Joni

Thanks Nick ! Very encouraging indeed!

Great Job at ATP and keep the post coming !

Very powerful and very direct but also very true i can't believe what i have achieved in two years your mind is your most powerful asset provided you focus on what you want and believe in thanks Nick.

Steve 

This is so reassuring and inspiring...thank you for writing this!!!

Great read Nick. I do believe in power of mind, I know it works. Of course sometimes we have times where everything seems not to work as we want but with positive attitude and mindset as you wrote, we can overcome obstacles. I have one small problem though. I carry with me business cards as "Photographer", but inside me is still this small something who says, "Common! you are not Pro as others who have great portfolios with super images". Because of this I feel kind of uncomfortable when passing my card. I have to change that or I won`t get any business. I have so much opportunities through events I`m invited as the only one official Photographer. I had a question last time from one of guests. A woman asked me: "Are you Pro?" My answer wasn`t straight forward, but kind of...yeeeaah...I am...kind of semi-pro. Oh, man ! what the stupid answer !

This is for Adam .....

remember that we ALL start out with the same desire to succeed and it is quite normal to have fears that you are not good enough, or not as good as another person. What makes the difference is the way you use that fear..instead of letting it hold you back, use it as a spur to egg you on i.e. tell yourself that you will PROVE to yourself that you ARE good enough. Get rid of negative language such as "Man..was that a bad reply !" ...instead try something like "That was probably not the best reply I could have given ..next time I will do better" and then PRACTISE what you will say when asked the question "Are you a Pro?" It sounds silly, but practise it out loud and hear yourself saying what you wish you HAD said and then it will be much easier when you next get the opportunity. Words are powerful, and when they are spoken out loud they are even more powerful, so use positive statements to yourself whenever you can instead of negative ones which will discourage you and bring you down. The only person who can bring you down is yourself .... so be kind to yourself and congratulate yourself for every little success as you go along and learn as much as you can in the process. This is why we are so fortunate to belong to this website ... I have found that there are people here who are more than willing to help and offer guidance, especially Nick with his wealth of experience and insight. They will help you celebrate your achievements, no matter how small they are, and will point out areas where you need to improve so that you can have even more successes!

Lorna,

Thank You a lot. I very appreciate your very nice encouragement. I promise you, from today forward I will handle such situation different. I know what I want to say next time and I feel more comfortable.  I`m going out soon to take next events photos as the only official photographer (paid) :)  I will share with you some of them. I got my 70-200mm and I will go with Nick`s advice to use this during speeches. There are going to be a few tonight. I try my best to catch people in action.

Great stuff Adam....I know you will do well and will go from strength to strength. You are incredibly lucky to be given opportunites to do paid work so use them to  gain experience ...looking forward to seeing your first images!

Thanks. I uploaded today a few images from party and not only. Please see Gallery :) By the way, a Japanese older lady came to me in the party. She looked at my lens and said: "wow, I see you must be professional photographer, right?". My answer was straight forward, kind and with big smile: "Yes I am ";) Then she told me a lot how much she loves to take picture and want to learn more and need some advice. So....long story short, she asked many basic questions, which luckily I was able to answer. I felt good and very confident, but first of all it was nice to share a knowledge I have. At the end she felt very happy that she could learn more than she knew it.

WELL DONE ADAM  !!  I knew you would be okay and this is just the beginning of a long and happy relationship with your new profession !

Starting out ? Yes I am...........

Thank you for such an encouraging introduction into starting out and how to. Photography is a passion and is becoming an important extension to how I communicate my artistic pleasure to others. I feel that becoming a member of ATP is a step in the right direction. It has given me a comfortable place to retreat to if and when I need help or assistance. It's now time to take some photographs, show and share.

Thanks for that Alan, nice to know you feel comfortable here and look forward to seeing lots more pics!

A little knowledge is dangerous  starting out is frightening too. What is life without a little danger? The danger of enjoying myself in the process of starting out is becoming to be addictive  

Thank you Nick, for your website and your encouragement.  This is just exactly what I need!  Encouragement, guidance, and education.  I have been a nurse for over twenty years and nobody can begin to imagine how much I dream of doing something different, something that I enjoy.  I am trying not to dream too big, and keep my feet firmly on the ground, but even if learning photography ends up being nothing more than a hobby I will be ecstatic.  If I could also earn money at the same time...even better.  I know it is wishful thinking but I guess stranger things have happened.  Anyway, I FINALLY purchased my first DSLR camera (Canon T1i) a couple weeks ago and have only begun to learn!  Wish me luck.

Thanks, Nick, for taking the time to give a good foundational encouragement to those of us here. It means more to me than I can adequately express.

I've been a photographer since age 13 (mid-70's), from my mom's old Brownie, to a 110, to a Polaroid (those were truly awful!), to my first SLR I bought with my own money in college, a Pentax K-1000 (I really should have hung on to that). I even took 16 college credit hours in the photography area (I have a Bachelor's in Criminology and Masters' in Social Work---I was definitely *not* artistic by nature).

My first wedding was back in college w/my K-1000 and looking back at those old pictures, I realize that I had a good eye for photography then, but no one ever encouraged me.  It was a "hobby", something I just did for fun.  Then marriage, 8 kids, and all the fun with that, who had time to polish the skills, much less the money to get decent equipment?!! I do have some of the best-photographed kids in the world, though!

My husband is the most generous man on the planet, and with some money he made consulting, I bought my first Canon, the Rebel xti and then this year the 50D.  Had I to do it again, I wish I'd known what I know now and gone with the mark ii, but I needed a decent slr for my nephew's wedding and the Rebel was affordable.  

Since my nephew's wedding 2 1/2 years ago, my daughters and I have shot 4 more weddings, 3 as gifts and 1 for someone unrelated who actually paid us!  It was after this last one that I realized I had this huge resource of talent (my daughters, especially the 2nd oldest) and was not working to develop it to its fullest potential. So here I am. I found your website last year which gave me the courage to say yes to the paying photo job, and have invested in this web site and the wedding blueprint stuff (which I can hardly wait to get), to learn as much as I can, so in 2011, I plan on replacing my 40 hour grinding job with all photography related earnings.

I know this is long, but I want anyone who might read this and maybe is in a similar situation (older, raised a family, wanting to branch out in a different direction) to be encouraged to take the chance.

Thanks again, Nick.

Thank you Rhonda, and to everyone else...all comments are much appreciated.

There is nothing better for me than to see people starting from scratch and slowly building success upon success...very gratifying for me!

Your comment is quite inspiring Nick.

All my life I have felt like a boat without a helsman, driffting to wherever I could get confortable enought to survive. Recent events and the accumulating stresses concerning family pursuit of happiness have made me take the turn in my mind.

I am definitely decided to take my life into my own hands.

First step, whether you approve it or not will be to try and negotiate a mutual contract termination with my 10 year contractor (German multinational).

Second will be to change air and move to the southern part of Portugal, getting a part time occupation that doesn't imply mental stress.

Meanwhile I'll start building what I hope will be my way of living. For now I have already many questions popping up as I'm reading "The Business of Photography". I'll really have to start creating more posts at our forums, and add up more of my existing photos for all of your critiques, good or bad.

Abraços

Gabriel

That's great Gabriel, good on you and good luck with it! You only live once!!!

Very inspiring post, thank you Nick..

Regards

Ruth

wow this is just a week of coincidences..  Excellent write up Nick and I feel inspired..  I just was thinking about the sheer number of photographers out there (saw something on tv and made me think wow there is a lot of people out there taking pictures plus going to local high school sports games there are TONS of people with decent cameras now) and I constantly get flak from my wife about photography so this was a much needed read for me..

I feel like I have some natural instincts when it comes to photography..  and the more I read, learn and get information from here the more I understand it..  I find out I am doing a lot of things that are recommended to do..  Like bracketing - I didn't even know what that was but I was just doing it on my own in the beginning..  Another example is I took the preschool holiday pictures and a pro photographer friend of mine looked at them and made some comments about composition, etc. that just blew me away..  like instead of standing up 6'2" like I am I kneeled down to take the pictures of the kids at their eye level..  he was impressed by this and said that is exactly how I would shoot it..  that meant a lot to me..

Absolutely love this site and all the information here as well as all the great people..  it truly helps me keep balanced in a chaotic unknown world and I look forward to many more years of shooting pictures and learning everything and anything I can.. 

Thanks Mud

Thank you Nick for everything,

This is all new for me, I’m a student of the NYIP New York Institute of Photography and learning a lot including being part of this family. I'm 35 and this has become my second career move from being a nurse and now to Professional Photographer. The big difference is that this time around this career move is for life. I can’t go one day without capturing images and occasionally i don’t even have my camera on me. I see in focal length or in telephoto length. I don’t like to compose but rather say i crop a scene until I’m satisfied with my subject. Having one of my images as the weekly image is an honour and privileged amongst great photographer.

Thank you for the opportunity to excel in this wonderful world of photography.

Chris J. Pierre

Thanks Chris...good to have you here and congrats re your image. You have most certainly got the bug so I wish you all the best with it and with starting your own business one day!

I have a personal philosophy, which is " It takes 2 years to get good at someting and 10 years to master".

This helps me remeber to be patient. It helps reduce the stress and frustration of my need to go go go faster faster...learn everything now!!!

For me , it's a powerful affirmation that there's time...

It's nice endevour on a pleasant journey that's meaningful and rewarding. Kinda like life, yeah?

I think this is a wonderful website. thanks Nick

Well put Grant and thanks for the comments, good to have you here at ATP!

Very interesting advice,just need to put into practice..

I would agree with Grant. Rome was not built in a day, neither is the knowledge acquired to take photographs. If it doesn't work then use the three p's, practice, practice and more practice. Keep doing it and it suddenly comes together.