Particular genre vs everything

[Salah Yousef]

As a beginner I must ask this question.

Should I become a particular photographer or not ?

I searched photography genres and turns out I like the following:-

Astrophotography, underwater , black & white, landscape & nature.

Should I be particular in those genres or should I also learn about portraits, macro, color, etc....

Plus, is underwater photography 180 degrees different than normal photography ?
I like scuba diving and I also like photography although I'm a beginner in both.

 

[slclick]

It's what I call a good problem. Now some of us are fortunate to live in certain locales, travel for work or pleasure or have access to gear and places which lend themselves to opportunities for great photographic moments.

So similar to starting out with one lens and working it with all parameters possible, you do the same in your little slice of the world. That might dictate landscapes, nature, street, ....whatnot. Please by all means, explore all genres and you may find you have a knack for something you did not realize you had. Now, budget constraints sometimes tie our hands on shooting certain subjects...i.e. big teles for wildlife and BIF, travel budget and time off etc etc.

We can all shoot macro with the addition of just one lens. Easy. Natural and available light portraiture is there for anyone with almost any gear. Astro takes particular gear and locales for available and coma free stars. Underwater speaks for itself. Black and white is free since you're not shooting film, but maybe you should if you truly want a handle on contrast and tonal parameters.

I've had periods where I shoot everything and those where I shoot only my passions. What it did after a period of years is to distill and hone all my experiences into a more select group of favorite genres and styles. It also turned me into a buy and sell lens geek. Zoom vs primes...a combination of both, rinse and repeat.


If you're looking to make an attempt to make money from this hobby, look into the area you live in and think about saturation and differentiation. That's a whole other ball of wax though.

Have fun!

 

[kaswindell]

If you find yourself drawn to particular topics, by all means concentrate on them. But don't close off others, you might find things you like even more. Unlike film, digital has a low cost per image (once you own a camera, that is) so make lots of images, learn what works for you and have fun.

 

[Zeidora]

I would experiment and see what you like to do. Eventually you will figure out what you like, and then you will spend time, effort, and some cash on developing that area. Your interests may also change over time. I started out with B&W, event photography early on, did lots of outdoor nature/macro, eventually added LF, now do a lot of z-stacking and microscope imaging.

Re underwater, I started UW with an SLR in a metal housing when I had about 50-100 dives in. You need to have the diving skills that you can concentrate on something else (photography), while still keeping an eye on all the SCUBA related aspects (depth, time, tank pressure, currents, buddy). Think of it like the difference between being a novice driver and being a taxi driver. As you know, with SCUBA a little problem quickly mushrooms into something very dangerous, even deadly. Consider that holding a camera restricts your movements, puts you off balance, and can also hinder you from getting to whatever you need to get to. Familiarize yourself at 3m/10' with having a camera and diving, do exercises with camera (clear mask, buddy-breath, take tank on and off, take weight belt on/off), then graduate to 3m with some surf, slowly work up your skills to kelp forst, reef, walls, caves [decompression dives, if you really are up for it]. Some places rent cameras, so that may be a good way to try and see whether that works for you.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[LDS]

Should I become a particular photographer or not ?

My photo teacher told me "you have to discover what kind of photographer you are, because almost nobody is really good at everything".

And you could do it only approaching different genres, and find what you like more - and are more proficient and comfortable with.

This doesn't make you will never change as your experience - photographic and not - evolves and matures, nor that you can't enjoy different ones whenever you like.

Each genre, anyway, requires some specific skill set, technical and not, besides the "generic" ones.

Start with what you like more and avoid being too dispersive (it may make learning more difficult, in the beginning), but don't disdain sometimes to get out of your "comfort zone", and try something different, to challenge yourself and look at things from a different perspective.

 

[canonix]

If you are considering a specific area of photography to begin with I think it is fine, but don´t exclude the other areas a priori. The advantages of specifying are clearly that you can improve your skills radically, but as a consequence you might figure out it is getting to boring after a time. So I would suggest that you change your subjects by mood/mission.