Through my personal journey of photography, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. This list is a distillation of all the lessons I’ve learned so far. None of these are “right” or “wrong” — they are just opinions of mine that can hopefully spark some new ideas in you. Feel free to pick and choose what resonate with you, and throw away the rest.
Table of Contents
- “When in doubt, click.”
- Be selective about what you decide to photograph; but once you find something good, shoot the hell out of it
- Big cameras are overrated
- Don’t “take” photos, “make” photos
- Focus less on technical settings; focus more on composition and framing
- “Set it and forget it”
- What you subtract from a frame is more important than what you add to a frame
- The most important question to ask yourself in photography: “Why do I make photos?”
- Buy books, not gear
- Photography workshops are a better “bang-for-the-buck” experience than attending photography schools
- Aim to make 1 good photo a month, and 1 great photo a year
- More megapixels, more problems
- Some useful compositional tips
- The best investment for a photographer is a good pair of shoes
- Photograph what you’re afraid of
- Creativity is about constraints, not about having unlimited options
- It is hard to make a good body of work in exotic countries
- Seek to make connections, not photos
- “Shoot from the gut, edit with your brain”
- The point of photography isn’t to become a great photographer, but to live a great life
- Every photo you make is a self-portrait of yourself
- Have a strong visual anchor in your photo
- The 3 things that make a great photograph
- How to capture emotions
- Don’t crop your photos
- Share fewer photos on social media
- You can never get enough “likes” on social media
- Seek to unlearn photographic myths
- Do you like your own photos?
- Would a master photographer from the past shoot with an iPhone today?
- Don’t just take 1–2 photos of a scene (work the scene)
- Never compare yourself with others
- Aim to improve your photography by 1% everyday
- Aim to make complex photos, not complicated photos
- Distrust social media
- Print your work
- The journey is the reward
- Photograph everyday for 5 minutes, rather than photographing for 5 hours once a week
- The best camera is the most invisible camera
- Seek to have fewer people like your work
- Cross-pollinate your photography to be more creative
- If nobody else existed, would you still make photos?
- The photos you decide not to make are more important than the photos you do make.
- Photography is 90% editing your work (choosing your best photos) and 10% actually making photos.
- Aim to make one memorable photograph before you die
- Photograph like a child
- Aim to reduce the size of your camera
- “Creepiness is proportional to focal length.”
- The best “zoom” is “foot-zoom”
- When in doubt, drink more coffee
- A good way to judge your compositions: flip your photos upside down
- Be a flaneur
- The more time you spend on social media, the less satisfied you will be with your photography
- You are only as good as your last photo
- Aim for longevity in photography
- “If you aren’t busy being born, you’re busy dying.” – Bob Dylan
- Seek to know a few photographers very well, rather than many photographers superficially
- Apply the 80/20 rule in your photography
- Print your work as small 4×6’s to select your best photos
- There are no “good” or “bad” photos, but there are certainly “interesting” and “boring” photos
- Purge your photos once a year
- Aim to get one good photo from a thousand photos
- Make your own website portfolio
- Don’t be suckered by nostalgia from the past
- Train your eyes daily like a bodybuilder trains his body daily
- Be a lazy photographer
- Don’t “chimp”
- How to kill envy in photography
- Only take photos when you feel like it
- A question to ask yourself: “Is photography adding stress to my life, or removing stress from my life?”
- Shoot both horizontal and vertical photos
- Use minus-exposure compensation in harsh light
- A photographer’s best tool is his/her smile
- Shoot with your flash more often
- For portraits, put your subject’s eye in the direct center of the frame
- If someone criticizes your photo; remember, they aren’t criticizing you as a human being
- If you travel, always try to pack as light as possible
- “Kill your babies”
- Sequence your photos like a movie
- How can you turn your obstacles into an opportunity?
- Make interesting photos out of boring things
- Shoot RAW+JPEG
- Don’t buy a photography book you don’t plan on re-reading
- Bokeh is overrated
- Don’t just study photographers
- Don’t define your photography
- The more you give, the more you receive in return
- When shooting, look down, and look up
- Assume other photographers know better than you do
- Don’t trust photography editors who don’t know how to make photos themselves
- When conflicted between buying two cameras, buy neither
- Why do we take photos of strangers with cameras worth thousands of dollars, whereas we photograph our loved ones just with our iPhones?
- Don’t take photos of everything; know when to just enjoy the moment
- Start off shooting black and white, then transition into color later
- Post-processing, filters, and presets are not “cheating”
- Don’t think years, think decades
- Shoot everyday as if it were your last
- Give away your old gear
- Start your own photography blog
- Create your own list of 100 tips
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