5 Very Important Things!
Photo by Jim Begley
As you know, if you follow this blog, the talk of equipment can get hot and heavy! Well today I want to take the advice of a good friend Glenn Barlow and do something that is more important than talking about gear! I want to talk about what makes a good photographer and it definitely is not the camera!!! My good photo friend Rod Planck said it best, “Technique beats equipment every time” So let’s start this off with a little proof, the image above by Jim Begley, it was shot with an iPhone! So let’s get this thing started:
1. Learn the basics, really well. Know by heart what the aperture does for you besides exposure. Get a real feel for when you can use motion rendition to make a statement image! Spend time learning how your camera works, especially exposure. How does your exposure compensation dial work. Have you got the action of your shutter release down pat. Do you know at just what point the camera will fire? Can you fire your camera extremely smoothly? What direction do you turn your focusing ring to get to minimum focus distance? What is the minimum focus distance of each of your lenses. All of this and a lot more matters!
2. Look at all the good photography you can get your hands on! This is easy today, wonderful magazines, 500 Pix, great websites, and on and on. The best way to know what a great image is, is to look at a lot of them. The more you see great images the more quickly you will recognize them when you see them through the viewfinder!
3. Study with the best instructors you can find. Countless workshops are available, KelbyOne, great books by fantastic image makers all are available. Spend time with friends that are good shooters, learn from them. Join a good camera club, learn from them! I mean really; Joe McNally, Scott Kelby, Dave Black, some guy named Fortney, lots to do on Kelby One!
4. Figure out just what you want out of photography! Do you want to turn pro? Think twice about that! Do you want to be the best photographer in your club, your town, your state, America, shoot, the world???!!! Do you care what your photo buddies think of your work? Does how others see your work mean the difference in how you feel about your work? Let me give a little advice. First this is just what I’ve learned personally after 45 years of dedicating my heart and soul to my photography, but it is just my opinion!
Work hard to get as good as you can because you love it and get great joy out of the craft and the results. Be glad when others like your work, but don’t depend on that to make yourself happy. Do it for yourself, let others decide for themselves. Be cool with the results!
5. Enjoy the great fellowship with other photographers who will become some of your best friends and associates! The best part of the craft will be enjoying those that share your passion!
Do all that and photography will be good for you and to you!
Blessings,
the pilgrim
So, wasn’t that better than 1,000 word about Fuji! Couldn’t resist. You gotta go back and see the last comment on yesterday’s blog post, classic, my answer was cool too!!!!!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2014 at 6:57 pm
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Bill, great words …. I also like what Ansel had to say …
“Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust to your own reactions and convictions. Ask yourself: “Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream? Can I visualize a print – my own personal statement of what I feel and want to convey – from the subject before me?” — Ansel Adams
“A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” — Ansel Adams
Finally, I think that learning how to use a post processing package is essential to be able to fine tune the image. I realize that a lot of folks are very happy with a jpeg but I am a firm believer in the darkroom / software processing … once again looking to Ansel for guidance …
“The negative is comparable to the composer’s score and the print to its performance. Each performance differs in subtle ways.” — Ansel Adams
Thanks for the opportunity to contribute and once again thanks for a great post!
Mike, all great quotes and points, two thumbs up from me!
Great stuff Bill, thanks!
In the “heat” over gear discussions it is often lost that how to work the camera you have and knowing the photographic result of every change of every dial, wheel, or button is a far more essential need than who manufactured the camera.
I agree and have a funny story to share! Many years ago in the film age I helped run a photo event at my local state park. As art of the weekend people shot a roll of slide film, it was processed over night the attendees could enter four slides in a contest. We often judged as many as 800 slides on a few hours. At one weekend while judging the slides we came upon an image that was technically incredible, great color, tack sharp, just beautiful in every way. It wasn’t a particularly great image, but was stunning technically!
A big discussion took place among the four judges. One insisted it was made with Carl Zeiss glass, another insisted that it had to be a Leica lens made in Wetzler, Germany, yet another said he was sure it was a legendary Niikor lens from Japan!!! Needless to say after the winners were announced we found the lady whose image we had all been discussing! We told her that While her image did not Win we were very impressed. We the asked what she used to shoot the slide,and our teeth collectively fell out whe she announce she used her Yashica Electro 35!
At that time high end, serious shooters would not have even considered using a Yashica!!!! We all had to admit that we were equipment snobs and we learned a valuable lesson! One I have remembered and treasured to this day!
Great story.
I’m amazed on the flip side of that of people that come to a workshop for advanced skills. I was showing the guy next to me what it was and how to bracket photos with his camera and then the person next to me how to use their camera’s timer. Both cameras were Nikon D4s, seems to me if you’re going to invest that kind of money in a camera might want to spend a few minutes reading the manual.
Bill, great insight as always. Two months ago, as you know, I switched from Nkon to the Fuji XT1 system. With all the manual knobs, cool features, ect, it has taken me a full two months to begin to get a handle on this camera and finally start producing quality images that I am proud of. I’ve read the manual at least 4 times, and looked up countless little items almost daily. The more I understand this camera, lenses, and how to process the images, the better the final product is.
So what’s the point of my rambling? After all the hype about this system, I thought I would produce masterpieces immediately. Not so! It always takes work, diligence, and a passion to produce only quality work. Thanks to so many like you, it is starting to happen. I laugh when I read when someone buys a new system, tries it for a week or two, sells it at a great loss and then start over again with the latest greatest system. Let me add, I’ve taken over 5000 images with this system and although producing some nice images, the learning is an everyday event. Not masterered yet but finally gaining respect and confidence. Thanks!
Thanks Jim, it does take time but for you and I the investment is paying off!
There’s a big pot of golden advice in your post but I want to single out one thing: “Work hard to get as good as you can because you love it and get great joy out of the craft and the results. Be glad when others like your work, but don’t depend on that to make yourself happy. Do it for yourself, let others decide for themselves.”
Camera clubs can be a great experience — or the worst thing that ever happened to photography and photographers. Some hypercritical fuddy duddy will pick at images for often insignificant nits to the point of ruining enthusiasm. Yes, we should strive for the best images possible under the circumstances but we should also be realistic and enjoy the results which may be “good enough” in the real world we live in, not in the mind of a snobbish southbound end of a northbound equestrian mammal. (How many times have we heard, “I would have ______________” when if they really had they would have been lucky to wind up in ICU instead of the morgue due to the dangers involved!)
And often the critique is wrong, anyway. The late Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago said it best, “The only poll that counts is the one on election day.” For many years I made a living as a writer yet in the first year of law school my legal writing teaching assistant, far less experienced than I, brutally tore apart my work insisting on an inflexible orthodoxy that often didn’t work. Frankly, I “hated” her. But success is the best revenge. At the end of the year we had moot court before the Court of Appeals where I received high praise for writing a brief that was “refreshing, easy to read, easy to understand and sounded like someone was talking to, rather than at, us.” She was sitting in the front row at the time.
Oh…and to add…
I may not be the greatest photographer but I have a few good shots in my portfolio. One day a Spanish book publisher contacts me wanting to buy an image of two pronghorn mating — a hadly technically correct shot I took and posted as a gag. Having similarly sold an image of a bison taking a dump I was not totally freaked out but still the images that sold were not necessarily the “best.”