Return on Investment

[Fixcinater]

What has been your best return on investment in terms of inspiration? In terms of usefulness in your process of making images?


There've been threads on "best piece of gear you've bought" but I want to know outside the realm of gear, which is why I placed the thread in Ethics/Philosophy. If it is gear, it's OK to answer as such but maybe throw in some of what got you/keeps you motivated and making images.

Maybe it's a trip you took or that movie you saw which gave you the drive to start/complete a project, or having your first child prompt the desire for better record-keeping of their start in the world.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Equipment: [get it out of the way up front] All the cameras that I now use Nikon slrs, Hasselblads, Pacemaker Speed Graphic, and Graflex Model D

Darkroom: Jobo CPP2 processor, Chromega Dichoric II 5D-XL, Arkay Print Dryer, Print washer make the darkroom experience more enjoyable.

Locations: Red Rock of the Colorado Plateau, Sierra Nevadas, Hawaii, National Parks, Alaska, Europe, skiiing and offroading

The return on investment is the enjoyment I derive from these and more.

 

[jslabovitz]

My biggest return was committing to attending an artist residency for a month (which happened to be in Portugal). I had never really seriously photographed every day for that amount of time, especially not in a single place on a single project. It moved me beyond little spurts of work into a full-fledged project which had to be 'done' (or at least sufficiently covered) in a certain amount of time. And yet it was also enough time to be able to go back and re-shoot areas that I wasn't sure I'd adequately covered.

 

[Ian Leake]

My greatest return on investment was from a "Friends" subscription to the Royal Academy in London. This allowed me unlimited, free visits to their many exhibitions, and unlimited inspiration.

 

[Xmas]

Looking at other people's photos

 

[blansky]

My best investments were always attending workshops and seminars put on by working pros. I've attended dozens, including one last year. Most last about a week or at least 3-4 days. They offer inspiration, a different point of view and a new set of friends to keep in contact with.

Some were about shooting styles, some were darkroom, one was negative retouching, some were digital and workflow and some were about a particular genre of photography.

Nothing else in my career has been as beneficial and inspirational as that, probably because you are fully immersed.

 

[removed account4]

my biggest return on investment was to teach myself how to be a better printer
by printing every piece of trash, every bad and "good" negative anything i could get my hands on...
( and taking art+architectural history courses ... )

 

[BradleyK]

Art history courses, hands down!

 

[Sirius Glass]

Equipment: [get it out of the way up front] All the cameras that I now use Nikon slrs, Hasselblads, Pacemaker Speed Graphic, and Graflex Model D

Darkroom: Jobo CPP2 processor, Chromega Dichoric II 5D-XL, Arkay Print Dryer, Print washer make the darkroom experience more enjoyable.

Locations: Red Rock of the Colorado Plateau, Sierra Nevadas, Hawaii, National Parks, Alaska, Europe, skiiing and offroading

The return on investment is the enjoyment I derive from these and more.

A darkroom class with Per Volquartz and joining APUG. Selling cameras in Baker's Photo in Washington DC.

 

[4season]

Freeman Patterson

Oh yeah, Patterson's "Photography and the Art of Seeing" was a biggie for me. In it, he suggested that photo opportunities might literally be as close as my kitchen table. Well! If nothing-special could be a worthy subject, I was all for it because I had plenty of nothing-special.

And then there's Henry David Thoreau's Walden: HDC was clearly another man who could see the wonders of the universe in pretty much nothing.

A couple of photo classes, the sort with regular assignments and critique sessions.

 

[Vaughn]

Taking, then being an assistant at Friends of Photography Workshops -- seeing a lot of work and hearing what the photographer has to say about them. Then 23 years working as the darkroom tech at a university...being paid to help teach students, which is the same as getting paid to learn.

 

[Fixcinater]

Lots of talk of printing...why has that helped so much? Technically? Taking the time to really look at what you shot while you're printing it? Editing down as you go through the printing process or is it just seeing the print finally realized?

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Yes, all of that. That is, as a beginner spooling my film, developing, and printing, I'd spend the evening deciding which of the 20-odd frames I've shot are worth printing. Then spending from 10pm to 5am printing and realizing I might have only two which were worth it and the rest are junk ... and of the two, they were printed badly.

That more than anything made me think before I released the shutter.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

a book of Helmut Newton imagesand the AAseries of books.NoplaceI learned more about photography

 

[removed account4]

Lots of talk of printing...why has that helped so much? Technically? Taking the time to really look at what you shot while you're printing it? Editing down as you go through the printing process or is it just seeing the print finally realized?

it didn't teach me to be choozy behind the camera or editing down what i did commit to a negative
it taught me how to translate a poorly exposed ( maybe ) poorly developed ( probably ) negative into an image
with contrast and form. exposing the film and developing it is the easy part ... realizing it might not
look like the negative / be transformed into something else when it is done is the hard part ...

YAMMVFWOTS

 

[blansky]

Lots of talk of printing...why has that helped so much? Technically? Taking the time to really look at what you shot while you're printing it? Editing down as you go through the printing process or is it just seeing the print finally realized?

Well doing a lot of printing will usually help a person be a better printer, ask better questions, study cropping and try new things with no pressure. And it will help you be a better photographer while looking through the viewfinder to be more selective and judicious of nailing down the subject matter.

Actually whenever you complete the cycle on most things you elevate your game. In this case the cycle being competent in almost all aspects of the photographic process, camera to print.

To me there is always something special about completing the cycle, rather than just doing a part of it. It's like being present as we plant the seed all the way to putting the food on the table and eating it. It tastes better, we appreciate it more, and it's a part of us.

 

[JPJackson]

I have thought much about the OP's question of return on investment. Since returning to chemical photography late last after a 20 year hiatus it has been a steep relearning curve. My oldest, closest and most educated photography friend encouraged me to embrace the "quantitative" aspects of the materials by investing in a used densitometer and curve plotting software. Adding this "quantitative" aspect to the "qualitative" approach i practiced for 20+ years has been most rewarding.

 

[mdarnton]

Commitment to a specific photographic project, and then following through on that. No random shooting, hoping for the best.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Also Ralph Lambrecht's Way Beyond Monochrome, second edition http://www.waybeyondmonochrome.com/WBM2/Welcome.html
and Tim Rudman's The Master Photographer's Toning Book.