Photography discussion

What shoudl I do? I'm only 11 and I want to be a photographer and author when I'm older.

I agree. I got a D3000 for Christmas and have been taking some workshops to learn different techniques. I'm out in the backyard playing with all the different features. It's amazing what you can come up with. Enjoy!

Study composition and learn about exposure. A great book to start with is "Understanding Exposure" by Peterson. It's a wonderful hobby that will fill your home with visual memories.

I decided I was going to be a photographer from about 9 years old. And what I did was just take photographs all the time. My dad had a DSLR so I would always take photographs with it. Mainly landscapes but it opened up a whole new world. I sudied art GCSE which helped a lot. Then I went to college and WORKED MY ASS OFF. like my life was my photography work. I had no other life for a whole year. The hard work does pay off. I'm not saying i'm amazing, not at all! But i'm now studying Documentary Photography at Newport University in South Wales. Preparing myself to be a proffesional Photographer.

BUT! beware. the market for real photographers is growing smaller. Everyone thinks because they can point a camera they are a photographer. And because they don't charge a lot, many newspapers ect go with them. So your greatest asset in the future will be contacts- who you know. So visit galleries, attend workshops and meet people who give you an advantage in the future.

Another thing you should do is find a library with a large selection of photography books and READ! But don't be too picky about the subject as you are still young. And you have a long time to narrow your interests.
Good luck

There are many different ways to achieve this goal.. So i can only speak from personal experience. I got my BA in photography, I and eat sleep and live photography durning that time, spending so much time in the darkroom that the sun hurt my eyes. I graduated with 150 kids from the photo program at my school there are 3 of us working as photographers. After college I opened my own studio, it did alright then the market crashed, so I went out searching for a job a studio photographer. For the years after the I took crap photography job after crap photography job, I should mention that durning all that years I would have been starving and homeless if it weren't for my hubby helping to support me. Over the 10 years I gained value experience and then got hired on by a major company to be their product photographer. But that is just my story if you want to be any kind of artist (and photographer is in that group) plan on working hard and dedicating yourself to only that otherwise you will fail as I have seen happen to sooo many people. Good luck.

Learn to live on very little money and abandon hopes of being wealthy.
Learn to observe everything.