Most photographers don't have a gear problem. They have a thinking problem, and this video lays out 18 principles that cut straight to the root of it.
Coming to you from Justin Mott, this no-nonsense video runs through a lightning round of guiding photography principles that Mott calls the foundation of how he approaches the craft. He wastes no time on sentiment. The list opens with a deceptively simple directive: show people something new, either something they've never seen, or something familiar shown in a way they haven't seen it. From there, Mott gets into light, explaining that your eye always travels to the brightest part of an image, which means a blown-out white sky eating up half the frame is working against you before you've even thought about composition. He pushes hard on the idea that light sets mood, and that fighting for the right light is non-negotiable.
Several of the principles hit on habits that are genuinely hard to break. Slowing down, for instance. Mott points out that most people shoot too fast, pressing the shutter before they've thought about what they're actually trying to do, or even why they went out to shoot in the first place. He also addresses the relationship between a shooter and their subject directly: earn your space, don't force access, build trust first. When you do that, you move freely within that space and get better moments without the discomfort or the intrusion. Principle eight, simplicity wins, is one that applies regardless of what or where you shoot. What you leave out of a frame matters more than what you put in.
A few of the later principles are where things get more demanding. Mott's point about editing yourself is easy to misread. He's not talking about color correction in Lightroom. He means culling, sequencing, and making hard calls about your own work, and then, annually, bringing in someone you trust to review it. His reasoning is blunt: most people are bad editors of their own work, and that makes them worse at the craft overall. He also takes aim at the habit of over-explaining images verbally, whether in captions or in conversation. If you're narrating what a photo is supposed to mean, the image isn't doing its job. Principle 16 is a push against imposter syndrome specifically, the idea that storytelling and documentary work are only for working professionals. Mott's position is straightforward: find a story you care about, chase it, and build something. The only condition he puts on it is to do it ethically.
The final few principles cover contests, portfolios, and studying work rather than follower counts, and Mott commits to building a resource list of photographers worth studying for his community members. Check out the video above for the full breakdown from Mott.
1 Comment
Yes all have a place in your captures! BUT it is the "Photographers Eye" it is something that has to gained but not planed so to speak. Yes there are many planned captures where you follow weather, sun and moon positions etc. that we all follow and do! Have you ever been on a trip to some where and if you could just stop and capture something unplanned but it just caught your eye (s). And you are in no hurry to get somewhere. Mainly it is also like just going to the store or a doctor appointment and say you see some birds feeding in some water along the road but you did not have your camera or you did have it but could not stop, how many days after do you think about what you saw but had no capture.
I think many pros get stuck on their genre day in and out and never just see what's around and the eye never see's or gets trained.
Example I was with my brother (the real photographer) on a drive through the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania during the October fall and if we stopped at every thing we saw we would of never got there. Like stopping to capture a Doe that was right next to the car. Staying at a hotel and walking around back and looking up and seeing the stars where the Milky Way is and capturing what no one believes but say you PS 'ed it. You drive for 10 hours check in to a hotel and the whole day was full of clouds but you go to sleep set your alarm for when the MW is to rise and open the door and all is clear with star all about spend half the night under and just walking looking for foregrounds and even stay for few days for the nights. Lastly your driving back to your campground after dinner somewhere and you see the moon rising over the island village and you have your new 200-600mm telephoto and camera in the back seat and pull over, after asking your wife, pull over and stop some miles away and capture a dirty moon over a lit town.
That is the fun of the photo eye you see and just go for it with no planning! Even if you have Genre you work at take time to just see, back in the 70's (film days) I was in Spain at the zoo and saw someone who looked like Doc on gun smoke, in Italy, the island of Capri and I was walking by a stairway down to a swimming place a great distance down and the swimmers looked like they were floating in mid air the water was so clear the photo went into the ships cruise book and many wanted a copy, You have to learn/train to see what others do not see also to be a photographer.