I'm interested in Photography what do you suggest?

Ever been asked that question? What is your response? Its a funny question because I think a lot of us who are trying to take photography  somewhat seriously remember posing that question ourselves. When we hear someone say it  we think, hey what advice could I have used when I first got started that would have made a big difference.

  I have had a number of people ask me that question and  I have tried a number of responses. From keep shooting.  To observe light, or even recommending particular books. I can say clearly  that few if any went beyond a initial  pass at following my suggestion.

I am coming to the conclusion the thing that separates people that are genuinely interested to those interests are just passive is  the decision to expend energy. The passion that drives you to move forward made me read all these books about exposure ,  composition  and the mood of the gesture. Devoting the time, money and effort have all come at a price. That price gets steeper the further you want to go.  There is a lot to be said for intelligence and for genuine inspiration  that can cause one to leap above the masses but at the heart of it if they are not willing to learn the ropes and understand the process,  execution will spoil the results of what they create.

 This means my new response is "Are you willing to stoke the fire?"


 The shot is from my trip to Croatia, near Dubrovnik.. Its getting near sunset so you know people start setting the cameras up! I thought it was  a decent capture  of the  detailed focus of the husband while his wife is  waiting for him to get done so they can actually enjoy the sunset!