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Photography?

All my life, I have had a video camera, and I shoot videos all the time. Now I am 22, and just recently I picked up an interest in photography. It all started one day when I was at my moms, and she was planting flowers in her garden. I was bored, so I went inside and came across her digital camera. I started taking pictures of the beautiful flowers and now I love to! I have been filming all my life, and I want some pointers on how to start photography. Flowers and nature are my favorite things to photograph. Where do I go from here? Should I stick with filming?

Public Comments

1. Welcome to the wild world of photography. You can probably do both, if you enjoy both. Hi-res photography can be very satisfying. When it comes to photography, especially with digital, take a lot of photos. The more you take the better you will get. There will come a time, when walking down the street, you will see something and think to yourself, "That would be a good shot, but if I can get over there, low to the ground, it will be a GREAT shot". It just takes practice. And, use all the features that your camera has, see how they effect the photo. This will make getting the best photos easier, whatever setting your in. Light is key. Learn to use what you have, and how to add light to make the photos what you want. It might seem hard and complicated at first, but it wont be long before you start seeing how everything comes together. I always keep my camera with me, because you never know when "that" shot might show up in front of you. Always have fun with your photography.
2. Crazily enough there are oodles of similarities between the two media: Composition, film speed, f-stops (exposure to light), ASA ratings, etc. so you do (or should) have the basic already within your grasp. The only basic difference is that video is a MOVING medium, and PHOTOGRAPHY is a static medium. Bear that in mind when you compose for photographs: Now, as opposed to with video, you've got to convey the message with only ONE shot - that includes suggestions of movement, life, etc. Yes, this is possible, by manipulating the shutter speed. Oh yes, that is one of the mechanical differences between the two: Where video runs at a steady 25 frames per second (50 hertz), a stills camera operates at various shutter speeds, i.e. the time the shutter, which admits light onto the film or digital image recorder, is open for such light to be admitted. This has an effect on the final product, in that it determines the exposure of the film/image recorder to the light source. By manipulating the shutter speed, eg. by slowing it down and panning along with a moving object, you can create a sense of movement, where the object is frozen as an image, yet the background "moves" and is blurred. The best example of this "trick" is the stock type shot of racing cars where the cars are sharply focused, and the background is streaked and blurred. Like in video, when you want to have a fairly static object clearly in focus, eg. a flower, and you open up on your f-stop, in other words allow more light to enter the lense, and thus decrease the focal length (the distance in focus in front and behind the subject), you do the same in still photography, but here you can actually manipulate the shot even more with such techniques as a high shutetr speed to freeze all movement, close-up zooming, macro lense adaptors for real close-up photography, and high speed film, which allows you to stop down to f-1,8 or on some cameras en below that (Nikon FM goes down to f-0,4 at 3 000th of a second, effectively freezing a hummingbird in flight!) All this probably makes still photography more of a challenge than video, despite the "disadvantage of not being a moving medium"). Thus also more of a joy, for it is in the scope of manipulation and the knowledge of how to do it, that lies the pleasure of photography. To find out more, join a camera club, read up about photography (there are literally thousands of books and a zillion www. sites on the subject), and above all: experiment! There simply is NO substitute for experience!
3. depending on what efect u want your work 2 give is how u chose. In filming u r telling a storie but in photography it is just a tiny bit of a storie a snap shot. if i were u i would stick with photograpy but when u hear all the things about takeing great pics(rule of thirds exetra) only if u don't have to think about them do u stick with photograpty they should come natraly.
4. Most nature and flower type photographs are purchased for publication and other paid uses thru a photo agency. If you are trying to make some money doing this type of work, put together a really good portfolio of 10 - 25 images of the photos you like to take and then go to your local library and find a list of photo agencies that accept your type of pictures (a computer internet search also gives good results) and then submit your portfolio to each agency that seems to meet your requirements and needs your type of photos. Tips: to start with, fewer photos are better than more, agencies see a lot of pictures and if you send too many to start with, they will probably go straight to the agencies waste basket. Don't send photos to any agency that does not use the type of photo you take.