Holistic Guide To Photography - We are collectors

One thing amateur photographer always asks himself is Have I improved? That’s hard question to ask yourself. One good thing about photography is that you can track your skill improvement through your photos. But how are you going to do that, when you always shoot everything, everywhere? OK, some technical progress can be seen, but what about the thought process that goes into every photograph? That kind a improvement doesn’t come in days or weeks like technical does. One lightning workshop and you’ll know how to set 2 strobes and get descent portrait light.

But for IDEAS and VISION there are no workshops. You’ll need to figure them out by yourself.

So how to practice ideas and vision? For starters I’ll suggest you find a theme. I’ve chosen Bicycles since they are everywhere. Interesting shapes, colors and textures. Match it with environment and you get amazing number of interesting combinations that will never let you down. After you find a theme, start COLLECTING! First you will shoot everything, cause everything will be interesting. As time passes by, you’ll find it harder to get something new and you will have to look for new ideas and approaches to get something new and exciting to satisfy your collectors need.

Important tip:  Often as amateurs we can’t produce strong enough photos to stand on their own. It’s the truth. But if we can get couple of them on the same theme, they immediately make stronger impact to audience and have bigger value.

Positive thing about this approach is that it will develop you into a photographer that always want to try something different and will make your ideas more diverse in time.

Holistic Guide To Photography - Waiting game

Many street photographers talk about decisive moment and a lot of beginners (amateurs) think that a photographer is always in the right place at the right time … he is, but sometimes for hours.

It happens every now and then that you are walking casual, something magical happens and you get the shoot. In order for this to happen, you must have your senses tuned up, cause you need to predict the event. But you are not psychic are you? That’s the part where experience kicks in. Observing. After all, you are the director, the one that creates story. 

Example: Took this shoot from a balcony. Was on it for hours. Shadows are directed by sun, so in order for this shoot to happen I needed right subject at the right time. But I knew what I wanted … it was only a matter of time. Vision is everything.

Example: You see an interesting wall, light falls beautifully on it, creating nice shades but something is missing. So a good idea is to wait for something to happen there, right? It’s a good practice. A man can walk by, couple … and sometimes you can get really beautiful stuff.

One important thing to know as a beginner is that you can’t always get back home with bunch of good shoots. Sometimes you are just in the wrong place at the right time or right place at the wrong time. And it should not bother you, it should push you more. 

Photography is about time … years, decades.

But practice makes better. Go out and direct.

Holistic Guide To Photography - Idea

It’s really important to know what you want to shot. It is not necessary but walking out with some kind of idea in your head really helps a lot.

What it does is gives you a sens of accomplishment which is really important if you want to progress. You really don’t want to come home from shooting and feel like crap because you were all over the place, trying to photograph everything and nothing came out good.

#42: Don’t set unrealistic goals!

If you set you mind to a certain thing, you can work of that. Like for example, choose an item that is common in your place of living. 

When shooting something that is around you so much, you don’t have any excuses why you are not creating good photos. 

I am doing it with Bicycles. They are all around me. Interesting textures, colors, compositions and so on. Knowing that they are there, it allows me to dig deeper and to produce more complex photos, because I don’t feel any pressure. 

It is one of the best exercise you can do … why? Cause when you shot a bicycle once, you are going to want to shot the next one even better. And it is important to follow your progress and develop your VISION! 

Essentially, you want to open your mind and play with all the forms you can find on them or any other item you choose to be your thing.

You need to be realistic. Progress will not happen over night. Photography takes time. It needs time. Decades! But if you start in a good time, it could happen.

Let’s kill Delussions #2:

Q: I need to make a good photo every time I go out for shooting!

A: This is the first thing you need to get out of your way! It’s not going to happen. To many variables out there, and most of them you can’t control. And this really comes up with how high you set your standards. If you are realistic, it will be lot easier to achieve good photos in the beginning and it will get harder as you progress because your standards and expectations change.

Holistic Guide To Photography - Reason box

What is a Reason box?

When ever you want to share your photo or get someone to critique it, try to figure out how you feel about that particular photo. You need to form your own opinion about that photo, what you think are the strong points and what are the week ones. Reason box should obviously contain both.

Strong points: Moment, idea.

Weak points: Overexposed, composition.

Because photography is mostly subjective thing, some critiques will not make any sens, especially if you didn’t form your own opinion.

If you feel like that there are some weak points in the photo, you are recognizing it without a need for someone else to point them out and that is a step forward. And when someone critiques your photo mentioning some of the weak points you already figured out it is a conformation that your reasoning is right so next time you can figure out weak points on the spot and fix them.

Holistic Guide To Photography - Vision

The most important thing in photography is VISION!

Why is VISION that important?

Photo is just a consequence of you doing an automated process of pressing a shutter button. In order for a photo to make any sens you need to figure out in your head what do you want to take photo of, why do you want to take that particular photo and how are you going to present your VISION through that photo?

It might sound complicated but it’s a process that takes only couple of seconds and you are probably using it but you need to refine it and develop it even further.

#42: Geometry is the key!

How to develop your VISION?

First step is to become aware of your surroundings. Go on a walk without camera. That way you are not going to be busy trying to photograph everything and you can focus on things that are occurring around you all the time. Delicate balance of light & shadows, interesting play of colors & shapes, subjects that you thought were so ordinary will get new dimensions when viewed properly. 

So you need to get rid of the habit to do photography with no particular reason and get some vision behind the whole process. That is, if you want your photos to make any sens. 

Let’s kill Delusions #1:  

Q: Do I need an expensive camera and interesting place to make good photos?

A: I hear this a lot. I can’t take good photos cause I live in boring city and my camera is not so good. Well, if you read what I wrote above, it’s the visions that make photos, cameras just record them. So, it’s all you!