WHY YOU ARENT TAKING BETTER PHOTOS

You might be saying to yourself I take better photos than you. I take better photos than everybody, my photos are fine, I'm happy with my photos.

And that's all well and good.? You may be taking better photos than me, you might not be.

The point of this post is to maybe bring some thoughts to light that might ultimately help improve your photo quality.

It might bring some awareness to some things that you're doing that you had no idea that you're doing, or it might just enlighten you to some topics or some issues that make you think on a whole new level.

So the first thing I wanna talk about is social media. Social media can be an incredibly powerful tool to build connections and be a part of a community, and it's amazing for that.

But it can also be detrimental to your own creative process.

If you, like me, follow a lot of? incredible photographers on your socials, and you see stunning photos every day it can be inspiring to begin with but over time it can be easy to start judging your own work as less compared to theirs. The grass always seems greener on the other side but that really undermine your own creativity as much as it can inspire you.

It's just good sometimes to just take a break, just stop. Stop scrolling through the photos, stop looking at all these immaculate images of far away places so you don’t feel inadequate in what you are posting.

Next up is a little something I started doing about a year ago and it has really been a transformative thing for me.

We all know that digital cameras are amazing. Shooting rapid fire at 10, 20, 30 frames a second, grabbing hundred of shots and picking out the one you want, is incredible. In the days of film cameras you didn’t get 20 frames a second, you got ONE. And you got maybe 24 or 36 shots per roll of film. And you made every one count.

So about a year ago I started using smaller memory cards in my R5’s. I actually went looking for the smallest cards I could find so I had less space for shots. And immediately I started being more careful, more precise, with each frame I took. It was amazing. I really had to think about what I was doing even more than I did before.

A little disclaimer here. I don’t shoot this way ALL the time. With client work you still have to make sure you get everything and digital is great for that. But if Im working on personal projects I will drop in that small SD card and it really slows me down and makes me think about my own creative process.

Over the last few months I've had a few friends and followers contact me asking me to look at their photos

and ask if I can recommend anything to make them better.

While I’m always happy to help others, the thing is, I don't have all the answers, I'm still learning myself.

And that’s a good thing because I see it like I will always be learning. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with my skill level. I always want to be pushing for that next level. I don't think anyone should be like boom, nailed it, super happy, no more learning needed.

Another thing that’s both a positive and a negative is gear.

Normally, we go to a job, and we take a range of options. Maybe we take 2 camera bodies, maybe we take a few? lenses as well just in case. And for a paid job it’s good to cover all bases.

It’s nice to have all that don’t get me wrong. But sometimes it can make it too easy.

So more and more, when I go out, I purposefully try leave things behind.

On my recent trip to London I took one camera and just a 16mm and my 50mm and I used my 50mm for 95% of my shots. Because I wanted to see how I could find solutions on the go, in the moment, with less choice and really makes you understand and get the best out of the gear you have.

So there you go, a couple of random thoughts I had over morning coffee.

Let me know your thoughts on any of that. Have a great day!