# Do you shoot a type of photography you never desired to when you started?



## PJoneil (Oct 11, 2015)

I'm sure this may sound like a funny question to some of you and I'm new here so this is my first ever thread started, whoohoo! But I was thinking back on when I first picked up a camera with an interest besides snapshots. Back in 2011 I was a doorgunner on a UH-60 black hawk helicopter in Baghdad, Iraq and I bought a fujifilm finepix s3300, lol. It was all I could get on base and I had no clue back then. But anyways I would take all kinds of pictures on my adventures from the countryside to just random shots. But one thing I repeatedly told my friends was that I never wanted to mess with portrait photography because I thought it was boring. Well I realized earlier today that now portrait style photography is actually my favorite type to capture. I don't mean the typical sit in front of a backdrop and say cheese. Those really are kind of boring. I like portraits with personality. But I never thought I would be shooting that over other types of photography. I know some on here may not be big fans of certain types of photography, but "to each his own". I guess you never really know where photography will take you. I still want to learn more about the other areas of interest though like wildlife, nature and landscapes and it seems we have a lot of talent in those areas in these forums, so I am in luck. I was just curious if anybody else has found themselves in a similar situation like mine.


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## vintagesnaps (Oct 11, 2015)

I never thought I'd get into doing sports photography, but one thing led to another and I've done mostly hockey (and not the only woman in my area who's done local hockey). Now that I'm not doing that these days I've been doing alternate processes, which I didn't even used to know existed.

I do remember years ago thinking I'd do _something_ someday with my photography, it just wasn't til years later that I discovered what that would be.


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## PJoneil (Oct 11, 2015)

I've never heard of alternative processes. I'm gonna go check it out, thanks!


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## vintagesnaps (Oct 11, 2015)

AlternativePhotography.com


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## runnah (Oct 11, 2015)

Birds. I thought by now I'd be on some beach with Kate Upton fending off her advances rather than in a swamp looking for some bird.


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## wyogirl (Oct 11, 2015)

I wanted to do newborns but after a few shoots I decided it was WAY too much work.  Now I enjoy the one thing I thought I would never like.... Landscapes.  I still want to try to delve into macro, but no.... I'm not shooting what I started out wanting to shoot.


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## dxqcanada (Oct 11, 2015)

When I started I was a blank slate. 
I shot everything since I did not know any better, so I did not make a decision to not take images of whatever.
When taking courses in photography to expand my knowledge, I also did not make immediate reactions.
I did, eventually over time, concentrate on things that were more enjoyable than others.


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## Designer (Oct 12, 2015)

Portraiture for me, too.

Back in the Dark Ages I really liked informal portraiture and candids along with other favorites such as form and texture studies, but never wanted to do anything in more of a formal style.

These days I am trying my hand at studio portraiture using flash.


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## dcbear78 (Oct 12, 2015)

When I took this up as a hobby I only really wanted to do landscapes and get photos of my daughter. 

When I moved into doing this for a part time business I thought it would be weddings and family portraits. But in that short time I discovered I work best with models and I am enjoying doing more fashion editorial style shoots. 

I still want to be doing the portraits and weddings. But it is now being very much influenced by what I am learning in fashion photography.


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## Solarflare (Oct 12, 2015)

Well ... I shoot all types of photography, except macro since that would require a macro lens and a ***load of other stuff.

I mostly enjoy making photographs of people, though. And news-style photography.


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## rexbobcat (Oct 12, 2015)

I didn't discriminate when I first started. I began just taking random photos of stuff I thought was interesting, then I did sports for my school and portraits for my friends. I was all over.


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## JacaRanda (Oct 12, 2015)

I thought once I got the DSLR, I would do portraits.  Bought a bunch of shtuff I did not need and rarely use. 
One day, Wifey and I went to a dog park and that was it; it's been nature and wildlife since then, primarily Birdography.  I've also been shooting surfing and never thought I would be doing that either.


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## Fred Berg (Oct 13, 2015)

B&W is something that I didn't see any point in when I started. For the first twenty years or so I shot almost exclusively colour negative mixed with the occasional Polaroid. I might have bought two rolls of B&W in that time, and one of those got lost in a drawer somewhere before it could be developed. Nowadays I do quite a lot of B&W photography.


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## soufiej (Oct 13, 2015)

_"Do you shoot a type of photography you never desired to when you started?"_



Are "bad" and "missed shot" a type of photography?


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## NancyMoranG (Oct 13, 2015)

Since we live and travel in an RV, I was POSITIVE I would be doing landscape all the time. 
If you look at my avatar, I was hooked by birds. That really surprised me.
We are going back out west 2017, and will get my landscapes someday!!


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## NancyMoranG (Oct 13, 2015)

[QUOTE



Are "bad" and "missed shot" a type of photography?[/QUOTE]

Yes, and it's a BIG club, welcome


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## sm4him (Oct 13, 2015)

Back in the day, when I *first* started getting serious about photography (I'd been shooting since I was 11, but this was probably around age 16), I suppose that I imagined myself becoming today's Ansel Adams, or maybe a renown SI photographer. I was mostly into nature stuff and sports.

Flash forward to around 2007-2008. I hadn't done any serious photography in years, just point-and-shoot stuff. But I went on a cruise to the Caribbean--my sister with her new D90, and me with my little Canon point-and-shoot!!  The desire was rekindled, in a big way, and again, my main focus was nature stuff--florals, landscapes--and sports.  I was getting ready to shoot some pictures of my niece's soccer games, and looking for ways to practice fast AF shots, without being at a sporting event. 
Birds!! They're fast!  I figured, hey if I can grab a in-focus shot of a bird in flight, then I can certainly do soccer.  That was the beginning of a serious, apparently incurable fascination with birdography.
I wonder how many pictures I've taken are of birds that I never even knew existed just a few years ago.

But then another funny thing happened. I got so good at bird photography, that people started asking me to do photo shoots...with PEOPLE. Uh-uh. No way, no how. Not gonna do it. NOT a people person, first of all. Second, if I go out shooting birds out all day and they all turn out crummy, NONE of the birds will care even a little bit! But people?? They will definitely care how the pics turn out! That's WAY too much pressure for me.
Then a best friend asked. A best friend who typically REFUSED to have her picture made. But her kids and grandkids were coming in for Thanksgiving, and she wanted pictures of all of them together for the first time.  I still tried to refuse, but she said she wouldn't do it with anybody else, she'd only do it if *I* would do the shoot. So then, I said, fine, but you have to understand that they might all suck.
Took the pictures (I cringe looking at them today, but the family loved them!)--less than a year later, my friend's husband died suddenly in a bizarre boating accident.  It hit me really hard--he was a dear friend as well--it especially hit hard when they put one of those pictures from the shoot up on display on his casket.  And I just kept thinking, "What if I'd insisted on not doing them?"

So, I decided I'd do them, only for good friends, and only with the understanding that they might all s*ck. 

And somewhere along the way, without my even really realizing it...I kinda started to like it. 
I am actually starting to do more and more portrait work these days, and find that I actually have the *desire* to get good at it and do it for those who might otherwise never have those types of photos made.


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## Buckster (Oct 13, 2015)

_"Do you shoot a type of photography you never desired to when you started?"_

After thinking about it for more than a day now, I'd have to say no.  The few genres that I didn't have any desire to pursue when I started, I still don't, and haven't.  It's only been 46 years though, so that could change!  You never know what's around the next proverbial corner!


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## Vtec44 (Oct 13, 2015)

I started as a studio fashion photographer, but now I'm strictly a wedding photographer and I don't shoot anything else.


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## Scatterbrained (Oct 13, 2015)

First, a random thought:  if studio portraits are "boring" you're simply not doing them right. And if you're asking someone to say "cheese" you need to be smacked. 
Beyond that, I would say that "yes" I'm doing a type of photography I never intended when I started.    I originally thought I'd be doing a lot of sport/racing photography.  My primary hobbies when I picked up photography more seriously were motorcycle and mountain bike racing.   I thought I'd love photographing them as well, but I realized I'd much rather be riding than spectating.  Now I do mostly studio still lifes, and the obligatory photos of my kiddos.


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## Mr. Innuendo (Oct 14, 2015)

I had no desire to shoot portraits when I started but, hey, it's payin' the bills.


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## ronlane (Oct 14, 2015)

I've been on this journey for about 3.5 years now and I've only ruled out a couple of types of photography that I won't do. (Boudoir and Weddings)

I feel that I am still learning so much that I don't know enough to rule out a type of photography at this time. (Both of those were personal choices that I do not want to do them or even try to do them.)


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## PJoneil (Oct 15, 2015)

Fred Berg said:


> B&W is something that I didn't see any point in when I started. For the first twenty years or so I shot almost exclusively colour negative mixed with the occasional Polaroid. I might have bought two rolls of B&W in that time, and one of those got lost in a drawer somewhere before it could be developed. Nowadays I do quite a lot of B&W photography.


I know a lot of people here shoot film. I honestly have never known film other than an old Polaroid or a disposable camera. But since a majority of the people here are still film photographers I think there must be something to it, but do most of y'all develop it yourselves or get it developed somewhere? It is something that y'all make me interested in. I gotta look into this "film" thing, lol.


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## PJoneil (Oct 15, 2015)

NancyMoranG said:


> Since we live and travel in an RV, I was POSITIVE I would be doing landscape all the time.
> If you look at my avatar, I was hooked by birds. That really surprised me.
> We are going back out west 2017, and will get my landscapes someday!!


An RV and a camera is one of my dreams, lol!


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## PJoneil (Oct 15, 2015)

ronlane said:


> I've been on this journey for about 3.5 years now and I've only ruled out a couple of types of photography that I won't do. (Boudoir and Weddings)
> 
> I feel that I am still learning so much that I don't know enough to rule out a type of photography at this time. (Both of those were personal choices that I do not want to do them or even try to do them.)


Yeah, boudoir takes a special person I think. It is awesome but I don't think I can look at a beautiful lady in hardly nothing and concentrate, just saying. I also done a very few small weddings for good friends of mine as a gift and it is way too stressful for me, imo. There is a really amazing wedding photographer: Vtec44 I have found on here so far and kudos to him, lol. I like to keep my photography where I still have more fun than worry! Plus he has some really nice gear and skills.


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## PJoneil (Oct 15, 2015)

sm4him said:


> Back in the day, when I *first* started getting serious about photography (I'd been shooting since I was 11, but this was probably around age 16), I suppose that I imagined myself becoming today's Ansel Adams, or maybe a renown SI photographer. I was mostly into nature stuff and sports.
> 
> Flash forward to around 2007-2008. I hadn't done any serious photography in years, just point-and-shoot stuff. But I went on a cruise to the Caribbean--my sister with her new D90, and me with my little Canon point-and-shoot!!  The desire was rekindled, in a big way, and again, my main focus was nature stuff--florals, landscapes--and sports.  I was getting ready to shoot some pictures of my niece's soccer games, and looking for ways to practice fast AF shots, without being at a sporting event.
> Birds!! They're fast!  I figured, hey if I can grab a in-focus shot of a bird in flight, then I can certainly do soccer.  That was the beginning of a serious, apparently incurable fascination with birdography.
> ...


Awesome post and you are right the picture you didn't wanna do made a family at least one beautiful memory! I know what you mean though about being self conscious about your photography sometimes, but I think that is what helps make a great photographer, always strive for better images. I have done shoots for people that looking back I don't care for, but they loved them and I learned from them. So I guess that's what counts.


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## Brundo (Oct 15, 2015)

Most definitely. When I started I strictly wanted to photograph wildlife and landscapes. And I was dead set against portraits. Eventually I was asked to do a senior photo shoot for a friend. I decided to give it a shot. Whereupon I decided portraiture isn't all that bad. However I still prefer to do candid portraiture over posed portraiture. I now find myself walking around town photographing the people and culture of Fort Collins. I have also experimented with still-lifes (never thought i'd go there. Still don't like it), arcitecture (meh), and macro (I love doing macro work).


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## Fred Berg (Oct 16, 2015)

PJoneil said:


> Fred Berg said:
> 
> 
> > B&W is something that I didn't see any point in when I started. For the first twenty years or so I shot almost exclusively colour negative mixed with the occasional Polaroid. I might have bought two rolls of B&W in that time, and one of those got lost in a drawer somewhere before it could be developed. Nowadays I do quite a lot of B&W photography.
> ...



I wasn't talking about film, per se. It just happens that was the medium available when I was starting, and I saw no point in B&W then. These days I shoot B&W using both digital and film; as well as colour using both. I develop my own B&W negative film (and scan the negatives) but send the very small amount of colour negative film that I still shoot to a large, run-of-the-mill lab: I don't use specialist labs. The instant film I prefer is of the integral type, so it takes care of itself. 

For me, there is some difference between film and digital in the characteristic look of the resulting photographs, which is hardly noticeable sometimes and very obvious at other times. I like both.


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## MRnats (Oct 16, 2015)

I started out wanting to do food photography. Wife and I love to cook and wanted to take pics of our creations to hang around the house. The pics of her came out better than the food and I started using her as a model to practice portraits on. That's what I like doing now.


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## BananaRepublic (Oct 16, 2015)

Ya the style known as bad ones


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## oFUNGUSo (Oct 21, 2015)

not yet........but weddings sounds about the worst to me. 

However, the first time I get offered money to shoot a wedding my thoughts will probably change


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## The_Traveler (Oct 21, 2015)

*Please read this thread about,  another contest that will allow you to tell why you love/like what you shoot.
Why do you photograph what you do? | Photography Forum*


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## Village Idiot (Oct 22, 2015)

PJoneil said:


> I'm sure this may sound like a funny question to some of you and I'm new here so this is my first ever thread started, whoohoo! But I was thinking back on when I first picked up a camera with an interest besides snapshots. Back in 2011 I was a doorgunner on a UH-60 black hawk helicopter in Baghdad, Iraq and I bought a fujifilm finepix s3300, lol. It was all I could get on base and I had no clue back then. But anyways I would take all kinds of pictures on my adventures from the countryside to just random shots. But one thing I repeatedly told my friends was that I never wanted to mess with portrait photography because I thought it was boring. Well I realized earlier today that now portrait style photography is actually my favorite type to capture. I don't mean the typical sit in front of a backdrop and say cheese. Those really are kind of boring. I like portraits with personality. But I never thought I would be shooting that over other types of photography. I know some on here may not be big fans of certain types of photography, but "to each his own". I guess you never really know where photography will take you. I still want to learn more about the other areas of interest though like wildlife, nature and landscapes and it seems we have a lot of talent in those areas in these forums, so I am in luck. I was just curious if anybody else has found themselves in a similar situation like mine.



Hi friend!

When I first starting shooting in high school I had a Minolta film DSLR my parents bought. I shoot a lot of frames of people but with nothing more than ambient and nothing more than a passing interest. I was just into general photography shooting this and that and my main interest was wasting a lot of film.

Fast forward to my first DSLR, a hand me down Canon 300D. I wanted to shoot cars and what not. I did start photographing people more, but they were just doing their thing. I kind of got an itch to shoot "street photos". At this point I still knew nothing of lighting and figured that flashes were for chumps who couldn't master natural light.

Eventually I was able to afford my own brand new 30D with my new government contract job. I distinctly remember being at a good friend's house while her and her sorority sisters were getting ready to go out on for my Birthday on St Pat's. I was photographing them and enjoying the process. I also ended up taking photos of mostly people that afternoon as we were walking from bar to bar. At some point one of the girls asked me if I wanted to take photos of her so she could send them to her husband in basic training and I unwittingly obliged.

One evening we met up and I started shooting. I was slightly nervous as the poses were disastrously awkward and the photos were turning out terrible from crappy ambient in a 100 year old house. I ended up turning the photos over and thinking that there has to be a better way of doing this and that maybe those flash kooks were on to something.

From a mutual photographer friend who I asked about lighting, some online research, and the drive to do good at everything I do, I found Strobist. That was about the time that Strobist had first started and before it was a world wide phenomenon. After reading the blog and purchasing about $150 worth of lighting gear on a limited budget, I  learned to light. After that it was all over. All I wanted to do was shoot people and light things. Ever since that day I've pretty much considered myself a portrait photographer.

And then there's weddings...don't get me started on those.


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## Village Idiot (Oct 25, 2015)

oFUNGUSo said:


> not yet........but weddings sounds about the worst to me.
> 
> However, the first time I get offered money to shoot a wedding my thoughts will probably change



I was in the same boat until one day I woke up and asked myself how I became a wedding photographer. They can be fun if you get creative.


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## The_Traveler (Oct 25, 2015)

Essay contest open at Official 'Why I shoot what I do' essay contest - open now, closes Dec 1 | Photography Forum


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## JDB1911 (Oct 25, 2015)

I never really thought I would shoot sports, but I have found myself shooting a variety of different types of athletes ever since that 100-400mm Canon lens landed on my doorstep.


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## amitbhatt (Oct 29, 2015)

*@PJoneil  Yeah my clients  wants  that  types of  photographs that i never shoot in my  career  because they pay some extra money for that work.*


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