[Leica] advice for photographers

[kcassidy at asc.upenn.edu (Kyle Cassidy)]

For your consideration, input, revision & thoughts - I got an email from a 
young woman asking for advice on becoming a photographer - I posted this 
response on my blog, but I'm sure there are plenty of people here who have 
good things to add:

http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/603763.html

A Reader Writes: I want to be a photographer someday. Any advice?
Yes, lots.
Photography is a mixture of Artistic Ability and Technical Skill -- the 
magic of the mix isn't written in stone. The world is filled with 
technically proficient but artistically uninspired photographers, there seem 
to be a smaller number of artistically gifted but technically unsavvy 
artists, but they're out there as well. But the most successful people have 
a mixture of both -- they have an artistic vision, and they posses the 
technical skills to know how to make that a reality. The technical skills 
are the easy part, you can learn them from a book -- f-stops and shutter 
speeds and light modifiers, etc. The difficult thing to come up with is an 
idea.
0) Possibly the most important thing of all: Find creative people and make 
them part of your world. They don't have to be photographers. They can be 
writers, or musicians, or actors or puppet makers. Have a peer group of 
people who are doing things. They'll be your inspiration, your facilitators, 
your idea makers, your artistic partners. Do this for the rest of your life. 
Artists rarely survive in a vacuum.
1) Get a camera. It doesn't matter what kind. Eventually you'll most likely 
end up with a Digital SLR but in the meantime a point and shoot, your cell 
phone, a 1946 Brownie Box Camera, all these will work to start out.
2) Study photography -- this doesn't mean go to school for photography, but 
it means pay attention to photographs tear photos that you like out of 
magazines and keep them in a scrap book, get photography books from the 
library, from the bookstore, at yard sales. Learn what types of photography 
you like. Landscapes? People? Bands? Artificially lit? This will start to 
provide you with your visual vocabulary -- which will be important in 
figuring out what you want to photograph. Given a camera many new 
photographers are left baffled as to what they ought to be taking photos of. 
Subscribe to photography magazines, fashion magazines, travel magazines.
3) Take photos. What is it you're interested in? Enlist friends. Take trips, 
set up elaborate hoaxes, copy great works of art, copy not so great works of 
art.
4) Make a portfolio of your 12 best photos. these can be 4x6 1 hour prints. 
Every month try and replace at least one of these with a better photo. Do 
this for the rest of your life.
5) Evaluate your equipment. When you know specifically why what you have 
can't do what you want, it's time to think about upgrading. Do this for the 
rest of your life.
6) Find someone who will pay you to take photographs. It's always easier to 
learn on someone elses dime. It doesn't matter what the job is -- assistant 
to another photographer, part time local newspaper, photographing houses for 
a Realtor, etc.
7) Go to school. You can learn a lot more quickly this way. Things like 
advanced lighting techniques, gallery framing, etc. can be more quickly 
figured out in an environment like this.
8) Show your work. It doesn't have to be in a traditional gallery, it can be 
in your parents garage, or in your stairwell. Some friends and I used to 
have an open-air art gallery we called "Show up and Show" where we'd meet 
along a length of chain link fence, hang out photos up and stand around and 
talk to passers by.
9) Take lots of photos, throw out the bad ones, only ever show people your 
best. Do this for the rest of your life.
10) Stay busy. The opposite of busy is bored. Don't visit that place. Do 
this for the rest of your life.
Hope this helps.