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What is the most difficult type of photography???

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springbock

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Toronto, CA
Wildlife
Nature macro
Other macro
weddings
Street/candid
Portrait
Glamor
Sports/action
Other ones I missed

Whats your opinion boys and girls? I personally, think that nature photography is by far the most difficult and unpredictable there is! To capture BIF or IIF... or their brief stationary behavior in their natural environment is way harder than walking out the door and shooting pedestrians, or stationary buildings, or non moving landscapes, or weddings, or cars racing around a track or planes coming in for a landing, or sports players arriving at an absolute obvious predetermined action point! etc.

Tell me why you think your type of photography is harder that most others.

--
'The truth is rarely pure and never simple' Oscar Wilde
 
For me, and I stress it's my experience, BIF and in particular birds of prey in flight. The difficulty lies in tracking and focusing on something that you can't keep in your field of view, so C-AF doesn't really apply for the really high speed stuff as you can't track what you can't see in your fov.
--
Tony
667....Neighbour of the beast....Form is temporary, glass is permanent.
 
Forensic human evidence documentation.

--
Retired commercial photog - enjoying shooting for myself again.
Hoping to see/shoot as much as I can before the eyes and legs gives way

WOW you were able to do that without photoshop!!!!
 
First we would have to define: most difficult in what way?

Just to get a technically good (well balanced composition, in focus, well exposed) shot? To capture a startling image? To define a recognisable individual style? Or to make a lot of money out of it? Physically demanding or mentally stressful? To show something in a way we've never experienced it before?

I think the most difficult thing in photography is to create such a strong and instantly recognisable style, that you own that whole visual language (as many of the old masters did). Especially now that virtually all conceivable genres have become saturated with a whole range of clichés and standard aesthetics. Finding your own voice is the biggest challenge in any medium, I reckon. Sooo, in which genre of photography is this the most difficult to achieve?

I'm not sure I can give even an IMHO answer to that question.
 
For myself it's Photographing anything indoors or requiring flash. Being primarily an Outdoor Photographer I seldom use flash and just haven't mastered it yet. Shooting Outdoors, on the other hand, just comes naturally to me.

Oh, and one other thing...Shooting fighter jets in flight at an airshow. Rather difficult to track.

Greg

It Ain't Bragging If You Can Do It
 
springbock said:
Wildlife
Nature macro
Other macro
weddings
Street/candid
Portrait
Glamor
Sports/action
Other ones I missed
Click to expand...
Deap Sea Underwater Photojournalism is a bit tricky.
springbock said:
Tell me why you think your type of photography is harder that most others.
Click to expand...
But for me, posed weddings shots are tough for me - even when I'm using far better gear than what I have. I do fine with the candids, but posing large groups of people is just something I still need to work on.
springbock said:
--
'The truth is rarely pure and never simple' Oscar Wilde
Click to expand...
--
NHT
while ( ! ( succeed = try() ) );
 
My vote goes to travel photography because it really is almost all those categories you listed. Here's my link to a short show of my experience last year at the Kelowna Fall Wine Festival; in it you'll see, portrait (sort of), silhouettes, landscapes, distant views and close ups.

I think we take travel photography for granted, something we don't work as hard at as the photos, like macro were you spend time learning technique, etc or that is how we think. Naturally there is a lot of technique in travel photos; those techniques such low and available light, landscapes, nature, street, glamour, its all there.



--
An excellent lens lasts a lifetime, an excellent DSLR, not so long.
 
hmm, I can't like the slide show, which is weird as I have in the past.

--
An excellent lens lasts a lifetime, an excellent DSLR, not so long.
 
The long exposures, or stacking of many images....guiding and alignment issues, and the faint nature of the targets in my opinion make it the most difficult.

A close second can be the mother of the bride ;-)
 
Frig Socrates, I wasn't even thinking about embedded war photographers, although you made a darn good point!

But having said that... not everything photographic has to be so philosophical :-).

Your example is not something most of us will ever get a chance nor want a chance to experience.
Soenda said:
When they're shooting at you.

Seriously---getting well composed shots in the middle of a crisis, especially when you have reason to fear for yourself and other bystanders...I don't know how they do it.

--
http://www.pbase.com/soenda
Click to expand...
--
'The truth is rarely pure and never simple' Oscar Wilde
 
Nature macro, followed by pet photography. I just cannot get my pet hamster to stay still for a good shot!
 
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