# This feeling : Am I just a Monkey with a camera ?



## cauzimme (Sep 21, 2016)

Have you ever had this feeling. 
Questionning your work, like crazy; I have all these question. 
Am I just a Monkee with a camera, pretending to know what I do ? Is it just luck ? Do I have a style, it feels to me like, no I don't. How do one find his style. 

Am I normal ? Do you also have your self doubt and questionning moment ?


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## jcdeboever (Sep 21, 2016)

Normal, there was just a thread about this. I suck at photography.

I think there is a eb and flow to everything. I just don't take myself to seriously and try to create art. I may take 100 pics at a garden and only 10 are good. I guess I am more happy about the 10 as opposed to the 90 that are poop. I am pretty much a glass half full guy 90% of the time. Sure I could focus on the 90 but why? Think of guys like @Gary A. who shot film professionally for a living, he probably would have had 75 good ones in a garden .

additionally, your work is very creative and your open to improvement.


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## robbins.photo (Sep 21, 2016)

Ok, so your question:

*This feeling : Am I just a Monkey with a camera ?*

My response.  You're kidding, right?  Have you not seen my Avatar?


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## cauzimme (Sep 21, 2016)

robbins.photo said:


> Ok, so your question:
> 
> *This feeling : Am I just a Monkey with a camera ?*
> 
> My response.  You're kidding, right?  Have you not seen my Avatar?



Hahahaha! I didn't make the connection I swear XD


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## Designer (Sep 21, 2016)

cauzimme said:


> Have you ever had this feeling.
> Questionning your work, like crazy; I have all these question.
> Am I just a Monkee with a camera, pretending to know what I do ? Is it just luck ? Do I have a style, it feels to me like, no I don't. How do one find his style.
> 
> Am I normal ? Do you also have your self doubt and questionning moment ?


I think one develops his own style over a long period of time.  Also, your processing will have a style eventually, and will add to the overall look.  It becomes a style when people can guess who is the photographer simply by looking at the photographs.  

Yes, you're normal.  I'm not in the same boat as you, so I have not attempted to develop a style of my own.

If you have ever wanted to create a certain "look" to your photographs, then you are an artist, even if you have not achieved your style yet.  Keep trying.


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## unpopular (Sep 21, 2016)

I think you stop feeling this way when you do develop an artistic vision - but the only way to really  do that is to keep your eyes open. You cannot really do that if you're not taking photos.

Another thing is that your vision has to change with you. There's this sort of myth that once you reach a certain epoch then you're set, you just have to kind of keep up the same thing ad-nauseum and you're great. Like all the great artists, such as George Rodigue or Anne Geddes.

Gimmick artists definitely make a lot of money, and I guess if this if your end game, to be a rich and famous then go for it. Fill private galleries with photos of blue dogs and sell photos of babies sitting cabbages at Las Vegas hotels. I guess there's nothing wrong with that, lord knows Anne Geddes will make more than I ever will without ever trying - thankfully for these artists, the rich have no taste.

Though, don't confuse gimmick for vision. Keeping up appearances is important,  just don't end up drinking your own koolaid.


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## robbins.photo (Sep 22, 2016)

cauzimme said:


> robbins.photo said:
> 
> 
> > Ok, so your question:
> ...


No worries.  You got a giggle out of it so mission accomplished.  Now don't worry about the rest, get out there and shoot.  

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk


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## astroNikon (Sep 22, 2016)

It's an evolution of skills .. and cyclical emotional connection.

I can get anything in focus exactly the way I want it too.  So technically, focusing-wise,  I can do what I want to accomplish.
Exposure-wise I can over or underexpose the way that I want.

But getting something more artistic one has to take one's time.  adding/removing light, shadows, a particular DOF to convey some emotion, etc.   Waiting for the wind to stop blowing flowers around ...

To be artistic you have to think of how you want the shot then work on getting it the way they envision it, plan it.  This is what takes time and practice.

The garden example above.  yeah, I'll take a hundred shots and only like 5 or 10 of them.  Review them again, and not like any of them.  Then I'll go reshoot.  It's just one of those things.

Whereas sports, I'm spot on most of the time getting action and in focus and even adding some leg/ball motion blur when I want to.  It's easier as I do it far more often and it requires less thinking and planning, well virtually no planning except being there and recognizing when to adopt my shutter speed when needed.


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## astroNikon (Sep 22, 2016)

robbins.photo said:


> Ok, so your question:
> 
> *This feeling : Am I just a Monkey with a camera ?*
> 
> My response.  You're kidding, right?  Have you not seen my Avatar?


Saw the title, knew what was going to be the response ...  lol


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## limr (Sep 22, 2016)

Well, we're _all_ monkeys and some of us have cameras  

And yes, it's totally normal to go through periods of self-doubt. It's ironically a function of learning _more _about the subject, not knowing less or being unskilled. When you start out, you gain some knowledge and feel like you've learned a LOT, but only because you don't actually understand yet the scope of what you still have to learn. 

Tip of the iceberg kind of thing. Let's say you land on an iceberg, explore it, learn every inch of the iceberg. You think you know it very well. Then you start paddling around the iceberg and suddenly realize that there's still a sh$t ton of ice under the water that you don't know, that you didn't even realize was there while you were exploring the tip. You feel small and overwhelmed.

You get a camera and start taking pictures. You read some of the manual, get a handle on the basic settings, get some good feedback, pictures look good to you. You're set, right? You know what you're doing. Then you start really digging in and learning about other settings, lighting, tricky situations, different types of photography...and you suddenly stop marveling at "Look at what I've learned!" and start freaking out at "Holy crap, look at everything else I still have to learn!" You see what you've already learned is just a tiny portion of what you have yet to learn, and presto! You feel like just a monkey with a camera.

How to move past it? Keep learning.


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## dennybeall (Sep 22, 2016)

No, Not a monkey with a camera!
You care that the subject likes the images you create, a monkey could care less.
You work to bring the essence of the subject out in the image you create, a monkey could care less.
You have a style and a genre that you pursue, a monkey Nope!


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## FITBMX (Sep 22, 2016)

There is no normal in the world, so don't overthink life. Just enjoy your love of photography, and the rest falls into place.
Don't worry about finding a "Style" that will develop on its own without you even knowing it.


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## AlanKlein (Sep 23, 2016)

Take some portraits of your friends and family.  Pick out the best.  Then print 8x10's or 5x7's.  Put them in frames and give them as gifts to the people in the pictures.  I guarantee you'll feel great with all the thank you's and hugs.  Like most things in life, you'll get the most satisfaction from your photography when you bring joy to others.


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## table1349 (Sep 23, 2016)




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## Rick50 (Sep 23, 2016)

gryphonslair99 said:


> View attachment 127913


Thats just cool..................


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## Solarflare (Oct 1, 2016)

cauzimme said:


> Have you ever had this feeling.


 Nope. Thats how others see photographers. Thats not how I see myself, or other serious photographers.




cauzimme said:


> Questionning your work, like crazy; I have all these question.


 Thats a feeling I know. Theres always room for improvement. Think more, examine more, keep your mind open for strikes of inspiration, get faster and more efficient, pay more attention to the light, move around more, improve your technique with the camera itself, rather take one picture more than not enough, ... and all these aspects at the same time, too.

But thats also why I never ever feel like a 'monkey'. I know situations in which I feel like a monkey perfectly well - but thats when I get bored and my mind starts to wander off.

Quite on the contrary photography when done well is damn strenous and requires a lot of concentration. At least for me.


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## pixmedic (Oct 1, 2016)




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## Solarflare (Oct 1, 2016)

Solarflare said:


> Nope. Thats how others see photographers. Thats not how I see myself, or other serious photographers.


 Ooops. Just realized I indirectly called myself 'serious photographer', despite the fact I'm just some hack hobbyist. With "serious photographer" I simply meant people really striving for good pictures and interested in the craft. Not anything beyond that.


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## Advanced Photo (Oct 1, 2016)

I approach photography like the Beatles did music, I don't like to do what I have done before, I try not to develop a 'style' that can be identified but rather a quality that is apparent.
In my opinion, if you have a distinct 'style' you have become stagnant.


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## Overread (Oct 1, 2016)

I feel compelled to point out that as we don't have tails we are not monkeys but closer to apes - although in truth part of neither group and more in the homonid grouping but that gets complicated and political (scientifically political). 



Otherwise what you're feeling are the same insecurities that are totally normal and natural and which people experience in everything. From being artists to doing science there are always those of us who worry about the quality or class of whatever of what we produce. As what we produce and spend our time on is important to us and those around us we often question it and its through constructive and measured self criticism that we can flourish. 

The key is to harness these feelings into a productive method that produces desirable results; however we all reach plateaus where our learning curve slows down. We thus have to learn to not be overly critical nor overly demanding on results least we set ourselves up impossible tasks that we can't achieve and which then exist as a negative barrier. 

So you're not alone most of us here have/will have/ are having the same feelings and self doubts. And most of us will work through them though there's no "on glove fits all" method that will be the solution for us all.


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