About two years ago now, my wife gave me an acoustic guitar for an anniversary present, which started me into a whole new art form that I had very little knowledge about. I played around a little with music and a keyboard while in college, but never really put any dedication into it. A friend of mine and I thought it was the coolest thing to replicate a passage of a Depeche Mode song. Since shortly after getting the guitar, I have been taking lessons regularly and probably not practicing as much as I should. All along the way I constantly remind myself just how darn difficult this is, yet I enjoy it very much. My fingers are constantly stumbling over each other, trying to remember this cord shape and trying to come close to a smooth transition to another cord shape. Then above all, trying to learn to develop some sense of rhythm. To date, I am still pretty much focused on just trying to replicate (in a very poor rendition typically) something another musician has already done. Much of it I am sure sounds pretty mechanical at times.
I think learning about photography takes a lot less physical coordination than learning guitar, but I often think about the similar development PROCESS in learning them both. For example; consider these possible phases;

• Stimulation of interest; admiring others doing something and just wondering how someone could create something so beautiful
• Beginning the journey; picking up basic tools (guitar/camera) and start educating yourself on learning how it works.. learning the basic ‘lingo’
• Commitment; you realize that nothing is going to be handed to you on a silver platter, nothing is going to ‘come natural’ and if you are going to get close to those you admire in Step 1, it is going to take some work on your part. This of course is all a function of the time allocated to such a venture and how much you have dedicated elsewhere.
• Copy-catting; ok – everyone has heard how you need to develop your own style, add your own spin to things you do, but chances are you needed to figure out systematically how some others did what they did, and be able to replicate it in some form or another. Throw away the “rules” once you have mastered them.
• Gear Lust; so you have learned a little bit about this new ‘thing’ you are into and starting to learn about some of the fancier tools out there. I never realized just how many guitar manufacturers there were until I subscribed to a couple acoustic guitar magazines. I am also starting to learn about the wide range of quality and costs involved. For someone just wanting to buy a camera, the choices are equally as overwhelming. I think for both – it comes down to what is it you want the tool to do, and what particular piece of gear will enable you to do that. There is an old saying often tossed around – pair a good photographer with a disposable camera, and likely the result is better than a poor photographer with an expensive camera. Same holds true with a guitar I imagine. I already own a few cameras, I imagine the guitars will start accumulating as well.
• Artistic freedom; eventually you may stop caring about how others have done things, perhaps even throw out conventional approaches all together – and simply do something in a way you enjoy, and start creating within, expressing yourself. It is kind of hard to explain how this happens, it just does. Anyone that has been here knows what I am referring to.
• Saturation; I hope everyone goes through this and it is not just me. Quite often I just feel dead creatively and need to take a break. Sometimes this break can last quite a long time and something sparks you to come back – perhaps returning back to that ‘stimulation of interest’ phase.

These are just a few to reflect upon. I have noticed many similarities between trying to learn a musical instrument and phases I have been through with photography.    My fingers just never ached this much while pressing the shutter.