Want to take better photos without spending a fortune on better camera equipment and investing in training materials? I’ve got you covered.
Just one piece of advice
If there’s a single piece of advice I would give to anyone aspiring to get better, it’s simply this: create new photos NON-STOP. As many as you possibly can, as often as possible.
BE PROLIFIC.
Let’s talk about CLAY POTS
Have you ever heard the story of the competing teams that made clay pots? Two groups of people are tasked with making clay pots and they’ll be scored on who makes the best, but they’re told to work two different ways.
Team A - “Focus on making the single absolute best pot you can. Make it perfect.”
Team B - “Make as many pots as you possibly can.”
Who do you think made the best pots?
That’s right, Team B.
Why? Because team A never got enough practice to improve. They were too stuck on trying to get it right the first time that they never got the valuable lessons of past experience.
So practice, practice, practice.
You’re not the least bit surprised, right? Of course not. Occam’s Razor.
What about education?
But what about training and education? They are massively helpful, there’s no question, but they do absolutely nothing for you without practice. Just like building muscle in the gym, knowledge only comes from exercise and putting what you’ve learned to work.
Education is only valuable if you use it.
You’ll find that nothing else will help you start to understand your images as much as making many, many more. Then going back to study what you’ve made.
Think about how you can improve them, and think about what you’re doing well and doing right, so you can do even more of that.
Repetition leads to improvement.
Sure, you can look at the work of others for inspiration, but then you should look back on the images you made yourself and think “ah, I wish I would have…” and “it really would have been better if…” These are things you will start to see with clarity the more you produce and the more you review what you’ve done. Those are the thoughts that train you and take you to the next place.
Review your images, then improve upon them.
You’ll also go through phases as your interests shift. You may be really into one photographic style now, and years later you’ll look back and think “those are kinda gross.” But it was a necessary step to developing your vision, so dive all the way in to whatever you really like now and explore it, enjoy it, get the most out of it.
Pursue your interests, use that excitement to make more photos.
So, what does that look like?
I’ve got some examples for you coming up in the next post.
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