Taking pictures. Nowaday taking photos has become a very common hobby. I started when I was a boy and although I had not acquired high technical skills, I have been not far from doing it professionally. They are a lot of different activities: portrait, reportage of events, landscape, macro photography. It is difficult to name them all. I think most of the amateurs just want a way to remember people and good times. For that matter photos are powerful tools. I wouldn't have been able to recognize some people if I had not occasionally see them on photos I had shouted. I also enjoy watching again some beautiful landscapes or happy events. As a hobbyist who wants to make some interessant pictures, I think I have done a lot of errors. One of them was to persist trying to copy some good picture made by a professional photographs. Of course you can become very good at it and if you find pleasure in it then why not? It is interesting to try. As an amateur you can ask yourself who should use your photos. This is the beginning of professionalism. So far , I haven't done such a work. So what study should I make before starting shooting? What questions should I try to answer? This is a list of possible questions: -- Do I want to publish (it is very easy to do it with internet) -- Do I want to sell the photos. -- Who is likely to use or buy my photos. -- What kind of photos I am able to do or what kind I have to learn to? -- What time will I spend for each project. I don't think it is always good to ask myself such questions, but it is good to do it sometimes. On the internet I have noticed that an image can be good when having a small size and bad when big but the contrary is also true. Some pictures need special care, but today it has become more easy thank's to the computer algorithms. I mean: in the old times you could not have got a good result without the help of a professional photo lab. You don't get what you see all the time. You can even be amazed to get a good picture. I think, it is one of the reason explaining why it is so difficult to be a good professional: you must have a good experience and you must have learned from it. Some body might also teach you. I restarted lately to make photos and I choose to take pictures of places I visit the most: the coast and around my town. But should I only think to take something beautiful? What would be interesting to shot and whom for?