Quote Originally Posted by Elly View Post
I'm so going to ignore the fact that at first I was sitting here, mouth agape thinking .. well, very unpleasant thoughts ... so onto your question/ponder Mark ... I don't claim to be speaking for all beginners or any other beginners .. but for myself ... I think it is a matter of confidence in what we're doing and "seeing" the results of practice ... I struggle with that a lot, I mean ... as for one of the lovely April fools points up there, I do shoot with the magical M and I see the differences from when I was not even on P .. but on the dreaded Auto .. oh judge all you like ... but I'm not delusional .. I don't have FB, so I can't compare, but I'd like to think they are marginally better than your average snaps .. but competition worthy? No .. I know I'm a beginner. So ultimately I guess it comes down to a confidence thing .. when you can move past that beginner thinking and start daring to dwell where those with more experience do with absolute confidence .. because they've been taking photos since forever.
Elly, you're right about the confidence thing. However, the best way to gain knowledge and confidence is to have a go. For example, is the pic that's your Avatar taken by you? If so, I find it very interesting. If not, then it says to me that you like a quirky image with great colours. Whatever it is, that's a part of you, that you would bring to images that you take

The weekly comps are great for learning. The topic comes out on a Sunday and you can set yourself a challenge to learn something about the techniques required and have a go at shooting it, then entering it. Entering a comp gives you some feedback, and there's nothing to stop you from putting the image into the 'New to Photography' forum for CC after the comp, if you want to learn how it could have been improved. THe comps are a great way of putting some specific structure into your learning, and if weekly is too time compressed, then Monthly is also a good option.

This image won me the Beginners section of a weekly comp (after many tries at different themes). I researched how to photograph 'burning ice' using the web, bought myself the necessary ingredients (ice and isopropyl alcohol - should have added a fire extinguisher!) and experimented until I got something I liked, then I did some post processing. I don't have super fancy gear or lighting, other than a basic flash (which wasn't used). Probably a tripod is the most important thing you could buy. Every week I'd have a go and I learnt an enormous amount in that time.

fire1.jpg

The comps are a great way to focus on technique and embed learning, have a go, no-one is going to say anything nasty, or mark you as 'rubbish'. You'll most likely enjoy the experience, cheers Deb