<p>I am going to be a freshman of university of Arizona and I just got the admission several days ago. I chosen a finance major at first cause my father asked me to do that, he has a big company and he wants me to be a business man. But in fact i hate business.. It is too boring for me although i am good at math.
What i interested in is photography, I started to learn photography by myself in the first semester of my senior year. I just find a lot of knowledge on the internet And i know how to use M,A,S mode, but i am just a beginner, i don't know if i am good enough to major in photography...I really love and enjoy taking photos...
I am worried about it for a long time, and i don't want to waste my time, so could you please give me some advice for my problem?</p>
<p>I actually asked one of my cousins about this,who is a photographer. First, there are many types of photographers: portrait. portfolio, wedding, news etc. Really if you can keep your hand steady or use a camera stand, have an understanding of lighting and shtter speeds, and you should be fine. Much of this can be taught in school.
The real key, however, is having a “good eye.” You need a good sense of what a good picture should look like. This takes a lot of experience and training. If you submit a portfolio of some photos, the school might be able to evaluate your ability to do this.</p>
<p>I agree with having a good “eye.” It is not the equipment, but the photographer. A good photographer should be able to excel with anything – a disposable camera, a point and shoot, a film camera, an SLR…etc.</p>
<p>I looked at all of your photos and honestly, a lot of the ones with people in them look like snapshots (rather than photographs). I would encourage you to think about what you are trying to capture…what emotions? etc. I think you do have some good compositions though.</p>
<p>yes, at first, i just wanted to record the life, than i found i am interested in photography… so do you think i can get a major in photography according to there pictures?</p>
<p>I think with most creative fields it’s less a question of how ‘good’ or ‘talented’ you are and much more of how interested and determined you are. I’ve heard many artists and art teachers say that they’ve found ‘talent’ to be more of an obstacle than anything else. Despite the gospel of genius that surrounds artistic work, what constitutes ‘good’ at 16 is hardly what constitutes ‘good’ at 36. You’d be surprised at how bad a lot of artists’ early work was. Though, common sense still applies. You probably shouldn’t switch your major to photography without having taken at least one photography class. Though I’m not familiar with u of arizona, most of the american universities i looked at didn’t require require you to submit portfolios for intro art classes. I guess the question might be how difficult it is to take a class outside of your declared major before deciding to change it. </p>
<p>One of my professors is on the admissions comittee for my school (it’s an art school). He’s complained more than once that all the photography applicants apply with portfolios on film, black and white or polaroid. He’s yet to see work done on a crappy webcam or cameraphone despite their ubiquity and he found that a little disappointing. So i guess, on that account, you shouldn’t be too concerned with your equipment. </p>
<p>There are also lots of different fields that photographers work in and across: reportage, fashion, advertising, fine art etc. I’d STRONGLY recommend looking at some books on photography. There are quite a few picture anthologies floating around with the works of photographers working in different areas. It’s worth the effort to see what kind of images you’re interested in and perhaps interested in making. The gamut runs from dorothea lange, man ray and daguerre to walead beshty, annie lebovitz and nick knight. Also if you’re literarily inclined you may also want to take a look at the history of photography as well as some of the theory around it. People like susan sontag, roland barthes, walter benjamin and john berger had a lot of interesting things to say that could change the way you make photos and think about images in general.</p>
<p>Do you know what kind of photographer you want to be? If you major in photography, then you will most likely come out with a fine arts degree and you will have to take all kinds of other art classes, like drawing and design. Have you taken any studio art classes? If you want to be a photojournalist, then you should look at a journalism major with a concentration in photojournalism. There is a lot more to being a photojournalist than just taking the photos because they don’t necessarily send a reporter out with you so you need to come back with the story too, especially now that newspapers have fallen on hard economic times. If you want to do portraiture, then perhaps photography in a trade school setting is better although you can certainly learn portraiture in a fine arts program.</p>
<p>I have been a professional photographer for about 10 years and I am getting ready to retire/quit. Everyone and their brother has a digital SLR camera now so they are taking their own pictures. I mostly do sports action photos and some senior portraits. It has been a lot of fun but it is a lot of work, more tedious than you would think and doesn’t pay very well unless you are someone like Annie Liebovitz, and I believe even she has had to file bankruptcy. </p>
<p>The equipment you have now doesn’t matter. If you have manual settings, you can work on your composition and exposure. Look at a lot of other photographers’ work and decide what kind of work you want to do. You can still be a photographer if you major in finance. Are you a people person? I think you really need to be for most types of photography but you need to be technically minded too.</p>
<p>I want to be a photographer that can take good photos for skateboard and rock band, and I can use photography to show my emotions and thinking to the world. I think every art or music have this effect…I want to find a work that makes me happy, I think it is much fun to work as a photographer than a financial analyst or a boss of a company, although I can make much more money if I major in Finance. I just need enough money to keep me alive, I don’t need to buy some expensive things like LV, ipads…</p>
<p>OK, but don’t you have to submit a portfolio to be accepted to the School of Fine Arts at AZ? With those two types of photography, you probably are limited with your equipment because you need a camera with a very high ISO and a very fast lens, 2.8 at a minimum but the technique is not that difficult to learn. The exposure on both of them can be tricky because of the lighting but easily compensated for. As far as showing your emotions through your work, are you generally a creative person? I went into photography because my whole life, people have told me I should be a photographer because I really have a good “eye” for it which is not really quantifiable. I do more event work though. I consider the type of photography I do more of a craft than an art.</p>
<p>My problem is that I don’t know if i have a portfolio, I just learned by myself, I don’t know if my photos are good enough to become a portfolio…I don’t know any professional photographer in my life.</p>
<p>I think you need to take a couple of photo classes and see what you think! I don’t believe you can really decide if it’s for you before you do that.</p>
<p>^agree, many first-year students do not declare their major until the end of 2nd year. Since you will be a freshman at U of AZ, you have some time to take a couple electives in photo (Photo I, Photo II, Digital or B & W…see what they offer). There’s no need to decide on a photo major at this point. You can build on the actual portfolio with the courses you’ll take (save all your images and back them up with external hard drive or archival disc). Generally, once you submit the paperwork to declare a photo major (to the art dept)., then faculty will review your portfolio, and also look at grades you’ve earned in the art dept. courses. So you have plenty of time to explore your interest in photo, and build on a portfolio. FYI, you may have to get a signature/waiver to be able to take the photo courses initially, but be persistent and email the photo instructor telling them that you would appreciate being able to take their course and explore this interest further at UAZ.</p>
<p>There is no reason to change majors immediately. If you want to learn photography then take some classes. The idea of taking photo’s of rock bands and skaters is a far cry from the time that you will spend in the studio, darkroom, and on the computer working on the photo’s. Most people that become photographers start out taking photo’s as soon as they can get their hands on a camera. If you have a camera and have been taking a bunch of photo’s then you should have a bunch to show for it. If you don’t, then get out and start taking some.</p>
<p>One good reason for going to college is learning how to make money. Learning business and finance so that you can take over your family business is a good idea. The way that the vast majority of photographers make a living is by doing weddings and other jobs that are very boring. That is not creative at all. If you learn some business then you will be better able to learn how to make money as an art photographer.</p>