My Five Tips For Getting Started In Photography

Every now and then, I wonder what I would tell my past self about how to get started in photography. First of all, I'd have to wait for myself to get over the shock that I'm still involved in photography. My journey started over ten years ago, and honestly I still feel like a beginner at times. And at other moments, I feel like I have been doing this for so much longer. Landscape and nature photography is one of the hardest visual art mediums to make a business out of, and it's felt like an uphill battle basically since I started. It's discouraging and lonely, involves working in all kinds of weather and terrain, and sometimes means hours staring at a computer screen, often for no substantial practical gain at all. If you want to do client work, that can mean hours dragging equipment around at a shoot, constantly hustling yourself, balancing multiple opinions and preferences, and more. So why do I bother doing it at all, and even more, why would I encourage you to join the madness?

When I originally got into photography, it was because I wanted to see and feel something different. I wanted to see myself differently in my own life. I wanted to see myself at all, really, because I was feeling lost inside my various roles. I picked up my camera and started pointing it at different things around me, and in doing so, I changed how I viewed my world. At the start, I photographed anything and everything. My children. Myself. My house. A coffee cup. A toy lying on the ground. A flower. A blade of grass. A field. A city building. I didn't really know what I wanted to focus on, so I tried a little bit of everything. Over time, I began to narrow down and discover what felt like "me".

As I leaned more into photography, how I looked at the world completely changed. This is one of the biggest gifts of photography, how it impacts how you see everything. around you. When you look at the world as a photographer, you don't just see differently through the lens. You begin seeing differently without the camera, as well. I wrote more about how photography changed how I see the world here.

Beyond that, there is nothing like the feeling of capturing what you envisioned with your camera. It feels like a magic trick, and you get to walk away with a tangible piece of this marvelous thing that you saw. Memories fade, but with a photo, you can hold on to it for as long as you want. And you can share it with other people, which is hard to beat.

So, if you are looking to get into photography, here are my tips to get started. Note that I'm focusing primarily on nature and landscape photography, because that is my area, but many of these tips could be applied to client work, as well.

Flowers turned out to be my specialty, but I never would have thought that when I started.

My tips to get started in photography:

Tip #1: Just start somewhere. You probably aren't going to know right away what your preferred area is, or what your specialty might be. That's okay. You'll find out by doing it. Try everything, and see where you gravitate the most. See what's the most fun, and where you find yourself wanting to go back. Go where it feels like play. Don't worry about how the photo looks. We'll get to that in tip #4.

Tip #2: Learn how to edit. I prefer staying with a very natural look, but you go with what feels right to you. Start with an easy program at first, like PicMonkey. I believe Canva works for this, as well, but I know PicMonkey better. You can always move up to something more complicated later, but if you start with something too complicated, you will overwhelm yourself and give up.

Tip #3: Show them off! Once you have a few photos you are proud of, start sharing them. This is the scariest part, but it's important to get your work out there. Start small, sharing on whatever social media platform feels best for you. It's intimidating and vulnerable to put your beloved, hard-earned photos out into the world, but it's like ripping off the Band-Aid. It's going to be scary whenever you do it, you might as well start now and get used to doing it.

Tip #4: Be a lifelong learner. Look at your photos, see where you want to improve, and make a list of skills you want to learn. Go on YouTube, and start searching for photography tutorials. There are tons! My favorite is Mike Browne, he has some great ones, and in many of his videos he sets it up so you can literally see through his camera lens. I don't know how he does it, but it helps tremendously. Warning, though--go one skill at a time on this. You can't learn everything at once. Take your time really learning one skill, then move on to the next. As you go, one skill will build on the next one.

Tip #5: Keep doing it! Practice these four steps over and over again. I do recommend, though, that you go bigger over time. Meaning, once you get used to sharing on your initial platform, add another one. And then another one. Start putting your work on Pinterest. Make a reel of your photos. Join an art gallery, and start sharing your work there. As one level gets comfortable, reach for the next one. Keep challenging yourself, keep learning and growing.

Photography is a great art form for many reasons, but one of them is that there is no top level. There is always more to learn, always room for growth, always new challenges. You can set it down for awhile when you need to, and it'll be right there when you are ready to return to it. You can spend one hour on it, or endless hours.

I know it sounds cliche, but the most important thing really is to have fun. Nothing ruins your creativity like putting pressure on yourself. Let yourself be really bad at the start, and take pride in your growth. You've got this!