(click on the image to see larger version)

School is for kids.  This is a sentiment that I often run into when talking to adults.  I understand the desire to be out of school, after all I spend the better part of my first 30 years in classrooms and it was a relief to be done.  Yet, it is currently 6:30 in the morning and I find myself in Cuptertino, CA getting ready to start another day of classes.

How does this relate to photography?  As a photographer you can’t get complacent in your knowledge.  There are always new techniques to try, new equipment to investigate, and new approaches to explore.  Sure, we all have preferences.  I like the look long lenses give me, but I still play around with wide angle lenses.  My images tend to reflect what really happens, a sort of record of the real world, but I also create surrealistic HDR images that look like they are from another world.  The idea is to constantly explore what is possible and see how you might incorporate it into your own work.

The biggest example of this type of change was the transition from film to digital.  Many film photographers moved into the world of digital with hesitation, myself included.  Yet once we got here, we discovered a virtual playground unlike anything we had ever seen.  Was the move scary?  Yes, but the payoff has been amazing.

On an individual scale, take a look at Art Wolfe, one of the best known wildlife photographers in the world.  Art has been producing wildlife imagery for over 40 years and is well known for a specific style.  Yet, if you have followed his work throughout his career, his style and the types of images he produces has changed.  Early on, Art was well known for his clean, simple wildlife portraits taken with telephoto lenses.  Then, we saw a transition to blurred imagery and patterns.  Later still, Art shifted to using more wide angle lenses which he used to create animalscapes (wildlife images that include the environment).  Do you like one phase of Art’s career more then the others?  Probably.  The point is that Art did not settle for a single approach or technique.  He continued to explore and challenge himself to produce better photographs despite his previous success.

I am not suggesting that you rush out and follow Art Wolfe’s career path verbatim.  Instead, all photographers should constantly be on the lookout for ways to expand their knowledge beyond its current range.  My personal area of exploration is video.  Over the past 5 years I have gone from being completely ignorant about video to teaching courses on the subject.  In fact, the course I will be attending in just a few hours is Apple’s Final Cut Pro T3 course which, assuming I pass the test, will certify me to teach Final Cut Pro at Apple’s certified training centers.

What are your photographic dreams?  Given the choice, what type of images would you like to create?  How are you going to get started?  Answer these questions and then go out and see what you can do.  Good luck.

The image was created during a wildlife photo safari in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.  The image was shot with a Canon 1Ds mark 3, 120-300mm Sigma lens, at 200 ISO.  The image was shot from a vehicle and a beanbag was used to support the lens.