The Five Stages of Amateur Photography

Never heard of the Five Stages of Amateur Photography?

That’s not surprising. I hadn’t either before I made the term up a moment ago, and they are actually really just a synopsis of my own photographic journey. But it is conceivable that with tens of millions of photographers out there uploading with abandon to the instawebz there may be one or possibly two others who have had a similar experience. That’s all you need for a social theory, isn’t it?

The Five Stages I have identified are:

  

• The Awakening Artist: or, I just realized that my phone camera doesn’t really take good photos
• The Gear Snob: or, I just realized there is no way my f4-5.6 kit lens can take a decent photo
• The Newbie Prosumer: or, I just realized I could make money out of these photos
• The Crushed Soul: or, I just realized it wasn’t the kit lens after all
• The True Enthusiast: or, I just realized I'd rather just take photos of this landscape/bug/model/building

I will present detailed examinations of each of these in coming posts, at irregular intervals.

Obviously, this list applies to the photographer who has developed photography as a hobby or pastime rather than as a career. A young punk or tree-changer fresh out of the photography academy will have a different arc. These phases are for the unplanned blossoming of the photographic artist and several easily identifiable stages that they may go through.

At least, they were for me.