2024 Workshops! Image Zines and The Next Step with Ralph Gibson
One of my most asked questions considering that I have actually been making videos on this channel. In this video we'll attend to the frame of mind and some actionable steps to start improving your photography today!
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On my channel you will discover videos about photography, cinematography, post processing tutorials for Capture One, Lightroom and Photoshop, image assignments that YOU can take part in, the Artist Series and more. The Artist Series is an ongoing set of videos I produce as documentaries on living professional photographers. I am very passionate about photography and video and my objective in making these videos is to share my enthusiasm and enthusiasm with you! Do not forget to subscribe and ensure to strike the like button and share this video if you enjoyed it!
Ted Forbes
The Art of Photography
2830 S. Hulen, Studio 133
Fort Worth, TX 76109
US of A.
-> Get Paid To Take Photos <-
Thanks. In 2024 I am trying to bring my photography to another level and recently just bought a 20mm MFT prime. I love that lens so maybe 1 year with that lens. I have to think about manual focus only. That will be a challenge for me.
I’m wishing and hoping to get back to photography in 2024, I’ve been a photographer since 2016 but not too long ago I had to let my camera gear go, times are tough and I had a lot medical bills and had to sell everything, It hurt so much! Ever since I feel like I’m missing a part of myself, as I always had my camera with me everywhere I went.
I attended a workshop many many years ago and my teacher said in the first class: one camera, one lens, one film, one developer, one paper, or if you’re shooting digital, one software, one printer, one paper, for a year. That was the best advice I ever got.
That’s lame.
This, along with the video, really resonated with me. I think 2024 is the year of the fifty for me. I’m actually really excited about this!
@@bngr_bngrlol your loss champ
Great video, Ted. I love how you’re always looking to grow as a photographer and how to grow the channel. I find myself in a similar space in trying to say more meaningful things with my photography.
Love the new initiatives. Maybe I’ll see you in one of those workshops.
Can’t wait to see what the channel has to offer for 2024.
This is one of the best advice on photography I’ve heard this year ❤ God bless 🙏🏽
Agree very much about a manual 50. Probably the single most educative step I’ve taken on my own photography journey. As indispensable as it can sometimes be, I also find going back to autofocus frustrating as often as it’s helpful. Whenever possible I shoot manual rangerfinders now – it’s a better experience with better results.
This is great. Thanks for sharing your struggles and the strategies you used to get up and take action. Recently I got rid of all my gear and picked up a yashicat4 and I feel like I’ve fallen back in love with photography.
Ted this past summer we went on vacation to revisit Niagara Falls. I had just went to a full frame camera. At that time I only had 2 FF lenes. 85mm prime or 150-500. I decided to just take the 85 and like you said it turned out to be a great experience being limited to 1 lens
Rock solid advice Ted! It’s always funny to me when someone calls the 50mm lens boring just because they take boring pictures with it. The 50 is anything but boring. In fact it’s my very favorite focal length and I’ve been shooting with it almost exclusively fort the past 5 years. I love it.
Yeah exactly! I love my 50mm, I also love my 28mm and 90mm lenses. I did have a great 75mm, but I thought the 90mm was better and gave me that bit more reach 🙂
The value of a workshop with others in the room cannot be overstated. There is a synergy that develops which is just not extant in any other format.
In a recent trip to the Azores, I took the R5 coupled with the 28mm f/2.8 and no other lenses. I had a blast working with this single lens over two weeks of hiking/walking in a totally fascinating place and got some keeper photographs.
Be well.
When I transitioned from musician to photographer I was lucky enough to meet Ralph Gibson and he gave the same advice: “A 50mm for the first two years.” I didn’t have to scale back because I was just buying my first non-point and shoot camera. It really kick-started me and allowed me to, er, focus on the techniques of photography without getting bogged down with a bunch of lenses, or propped up by the crutches of auto-focus and zoom. Thanks Ralph!
I found all this when I had the Fuji X100F. One lens. Would love to be involved in the workshops but I live in Oz….Looking forward to ’24. You’re series about other photographers is awesome. You’ve introduced me to some fabulous people.
Workshops are a great way to improve your photography, even if it’s only for a day. Went to madeira last month for a week long trip and I learned more then I thought I would, especialy from the other particepents. It’s a shame that many of them are just really expensive (from my point of view), otherwise I would book more of them. I can not justify myself to pay $1000+ a day for it. The Madeira trip was €2100 incl flights from The Netherlands. This trip with you and Ralph would cost me over $5000 incl flights and accomodation, for just a weekend. Luckly I do learn a lot from this channel aswell and that’s completely free, thanks for that!!!
Hi Ted. It occured to me as I looked at some of the photographs you shared – thank you – and listened to you discuss learning, that it would be great to get some examples from you in your own journey. Take an image that feels like a milestone for you, and then talk about inspiration, process – maybe some contact sheet type stuff, how you got to the final image, what made you select it, and discuss some things you learned along the way.
This was a great video. I’m looking forward to what you have in store for 2024.
Hey Ted, like the beard!
Several years ago, I started doing exactly as you prescribe. I live in an area where there are several cities within close driving distance. A few times a year, I take a camera with one lens (usually the 50 but sometimes a 20 or 135) and just walk. Walking is crucial, it gives you time to stop and study the things around you. It’s funny how you can find very interesting detail in something that you might just walk past without looking. Again walking is critical!
A few months ago, I was walking down one of the streets and noticed a Crepe restaurant that I had never noticed before. It was a small sort of boutique cookary that only sold crepes and offered an extensive selection (I ended up ordering a strawberry and banana with chocolate sauce – delicious). Anyway, I went in and talked to the owner, a women from Algeria who immigrated about 15 years ago. I asked if I could take pictures while she made my crepe and she said sure. This is another variation on your theme, it takes about 2 minutes to make this product so I had to think on my feet to get a dozen photos in 2 minutes that were interesting and informative – that was the challenge I set for myself. I ended up with 4-5 interesting and/or informative photos that I thought were publishable and the others, well not so much. At the end of this little adventure I enjoyed a really delicious lunch. All-in-all, it was a fun and interesting day that I enjoyed immensely. More importantly, it made me think on my feet which is a valuable skill. I think you are on to something here! I’d love to see you do a series of videos of you in action and showing us the photos that work and those that maybe don’t. Anyway, keep up the great work! ps sorry for being so verbose.
I always have a hard time analyzing my own work. Sometimes I can see what’s wrong, but maybe that’s as far as I can get. I don’t always think of a way to address it.
One thing I want to see some day is a game/simulation where you get a setting and can pick all your camera settings and placement and share your results to compare how dfferent people would aproach different reproducable scenarios. Maybe starting with static scenes and lighting and gradually building upon that. Someday…
If I’d taken just one body and a 50mm to Iceland this winter, I… can’t imagine. But I will add that the best shots I got in the ice cave were taken with the middle focal length camera on my iPhone 14 because it was easier to move around and see things and compose off-beat shots in the quasi-darkness. But even phones these days want you to use all three lenses, plus the macro feature, plus the night exposure (which I actually used to shoot the northern lights). I think you’ve given very good advice, but might there not be styles of photography where a single mid-focal length… oh, never mind. I get what you’re saying.
As someone who started with a rangefinder with a 50mm lens in 1970, I always felt autofocus was an ingenious solution to a non existent problem
I’m excited to see what you create in 2024 Ted. Thank you for the inspiration.
I’d like to see more of you doing photography! Maybe some pov photo walk type of stuff, live on location stuff.. whatever you want. Collabs with other photography youtubers would also be enjoyable to watch. I’m sure you and Jason from Grainydays would have a grand old time.