Newbie From Wisconsin

J

John Dingman

New member
Hi All,

I am new to the forum and to DSLR Photography. I picked up a Nikon D5100 and I am interested in learning how to take professional looking photos. I take a lot of photos of Woodworking related stuff as my first hobby is Woodworking. Thanks for hosting this site!

John
 
Marcel

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Welcome to Nikonites John.

Taking professional looking photos is not learned from an evening with a camera. It's a craft just as woodworking is. Even if I get the best planes from Japan, I might not be able to built a cedar canoe in my first week.

Give yourself a little bit of time and much practice. Photography has to do with light. You have to study light and it's relationship with your subject and your camera's ability to capture it.

Practice makes perfect.

Good luck with the learning. In the meantime, look at other people's pics and keep taking pics. You'll get there.

Enjoy your Nikon!
 
F

fotojack

Senior Member
Welcome to the site, John. One thing I always tell new people to the site is....read the manual! Not cover to cover....that's just not practical. Reading about what you'd like to know is a better approach. Read....then put into practice.
One thing we promise to do here is to help you out wherever we can. However, that old adage...."help is available to those who help themselves"....comes into play here. Heed the wise words of Marcel, for he knows that of which he speaks. ;)
 
J

John Dingman

New member
I am going to join a Local Camera Club. This is the response I received from the club about my inquiry.......

Hello John,

We encourage photographers of all skill levels, beginners to professionals, to join the club. If you want to be an official member, there is a $20/year fee. You don't have to be a member to attend the meetings, but you do have to be one to enter most of our competitions.

We try to have a mix of topics & discussions to interest everybody and one of the best ways to learn photography is look at the work of others and to have other people critique your work. We try to always do that in a positive manner so that everybody learns something.

Our schedule of meetings is on our web site, although we are changing a few of the topics for the remaining meetings this year and I haven't had a chance to get all of them on the web site. Next month, we will be doing tabletop photography. This is an idea brought to us by a member of WACCO. Everybody brings their camera and something small(ish) to photograph. We share the items and try our hands at lighting the subject and then we will share our images at the March meeting.
Click to expand...

That, along with possibly taking a local community college class on photography and shooting thousands of pictures should help.

Any recommendations as to what I should take for the Tabletop Photography Class?

John
 
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