Resources for Amateur Photographers

I don’t believe that reading alone is going to make a big difference in your photography if all you do is sit at home and read.  But I have found that reading about photography can be very helpful IF I used what I was learning about photography just about immediately.  I need to use the ideas right away.

Each month each of the peer mentor groups has a photographic theme for the next month.  At the end of the month each member submits a photograph for the theme.  At the meeting we have a blind-competition where everyone gets a vote and shares their critique of each of the photos.  The “winner” gets to choose the theme for next month.  Not everyone is a “fan” of competition but we have found it to be a step #2 for getting what is known as “Informational Feedback.”  After everyone votes on what they believe to be the best Theme Photo, we discuss what makes each of the images a good fit for the monthly theme and why other images are not as good.  We have found that type of honest feedback to be very helpful.  I’ll post a blog in the near future to share how the peer mentors feel about the monthly theme and the theme competition.

In addition to choosing the theme for the next month, the winner also has to send me an article to help everyone learn about the theme.  We have found some online photography to be especially helpful (e.g., PhotographyLife) when we are faced with a monthly topic and I will share some of them in this Resources page of the website. Let’s start with a common theme that brings a lot of discussion and interest.

Black & White

The B&W Photography Theme has been a favorite for a number of years (we only allow for a theme to be chosen once a year) with a real variety of approaches and quite a bit of B&W photo “growth” over the years.  Here is an article from PhotographyLife that is really helpful – “Complete Guide to Black & White”