A Five Minute Campfire Read
Slow down for a few minutes. The world can wait. Most photographers raise the camera too soon. They see a mountain, a tree, a deer, or a sunset and immediately start pushing buttons.
Ironically, that hurry is often what costs them the photograph.
Put The Camera Down
One of the best habits I ever learned was to leave the camera hanging from my shoulder. I walk for a while and simply pay attention. Many times the photograph changes before I ever touch the camera. Light moves… Clouds shift… A little breeze can change everything.
Ask Yourself One Question
Before I raise the camera, I ask myself one simple question.
What made me stop?
If I cannot answer that, the viewer probably won’t know either. A scene may have a hundred interesting things in it. A good photograph usually needs one.
Learn To Watch The Light
Most people look at objects. Photographers learn to look at light. Light creates shape. Light creates mood. Light tells the eye where to go. I’ve walked away from beautiful subjects because the light wasn’t there. I’ve also made wonderful photographs of ordinary things because the light was perfect.
Remove The Noise
Real life is messy. Photography is an exercise in deciding what belongs and what doesn’t.
Take a few steps. Move left… Move right… Get lower… Get higher.
Many times the best improvement isn’t a better camera.
It’s a better position.
Slow Down
The older I get, the more I believe speed is the enemy of creativity. Every single time I got in a hurry, it cost me. Sometimes I lost the photograph. Sometimes I missed the experience that would have become the photograph.
Patience has given far more back to me than rushing ever did.
Final Thoughts
Before you raise the camera, take a moment. Look at the light. Look at the relationships. Look at what really matters.
Then make the photograph…. make that Photograph so “simple” the viewer understands it right away.
A picture records a moment. A Photograph can suck you in and leave you breathless. You can’t look away. Reading a scene before shooting isn’t about being slower. It’s about being present.
Enhance your calm… and the photograph will follow.
