[shuttertalk]

There's a well known quotation: "Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. -- T.H. Huxley"

I think it can be applied to digital photography as well. I may not be an expert at shooting macros, but it's good to read up on and familiarise yourself with different things.

Where do you stand? Are you comfortable with dabbling in one area of photograpy, or do you like to give everything a try? Or do you find yourself dabbling in everything, but being a master of none?

[Kombisaurus]

I just follow my interests... Which usually means I dabble a bit in a lot of things (and would like to get good at all of them), but usually come back to a couple of areas where I feel like I know what I'm doing and can get what I'm after in a way I can enjoy.

I'm easily distracted though, so it's great that there are so many different types of photography to keep me interested. If I'm out shooting a landscape and a butterfly flies past, I'm likely to follow it and completely forget what I was doing.
The shots I end up with might be duds, but if I had fun chasing the butterfly and trying to get the shots then it was a successful day
I can see myself randomly wandering from area to area in photography as time goes on. Not so much to "master" each area, just to enjoy it for what it offers and make the most of what I'm doing at the time.

The day I stop enjoying photography is the day I put my camera away to gather dust. I *only* do it because I enjoy it and it satisfies a need in me.

I love the fact I can simply do whatever I like with photography. Nobody is paying me, I don't have to meet with anybody else's standards or approval, it gets me outside into the sunshine, and I'm beginning to produce some work that is getting closer to the kinds of photos I actually enjoy viewing. I think that freedom is quite important for developing artistic expression. I've got a long way to go, but it's an exciting and I think worthwhile journey.

Cheers
Adrian

[slejhamer]

I much prefer dabbling in lots of things, and learning as much as I can in as short a time as possible. Some hobbies take much longer (guitar) and others can be learned quickly (how to build my own PVR.) Like Adrian, I do them for enjoyment, not to master a subject. I too get easily distracted, and would be bored focusing on one thing.

[Irma]

I have learned a lot of thing during my life, from been incharge of cooking a dinner to feed 30 people to play carpenter and build a bed or a table or write a web page. It is really a wide spectrum of things I have learned. Some of them as hobbies and some others because of the need to learn them. Sometimes I regreat not to be expert at something... whatever... but sometimes I think I would have just missed the fun to have learned so many things... Then again I think, the important thing is learning... whatever... but keep learning. About photography... I just want to learn to take decent pictures

[EnglishBob]

I just like to get competant at anything I try.... for the most part I succeed, though skateboarding, skiing and snowbaording have always eluded me! :o