No matter what genre you shoot, there are some fundamental pieces of advice that will make you a better photographer. This fantastic video tutorial features an experienced photographer sharing some important bits of advice that will improve your images and help you focus on what really matters so you can find more enjoyment from your craft.
Coming to you from Justin Mott, this awesome video tutorial discusses a range of great advice that will make you a better photographer. A few ideas I found particularly salient were working on photo stories instead of individual images and exercising patience. Any photographer can create a single good image, but the mark of a true professional or seasoned hobbyist is the ability to consistently create compelling photos and to develop a connection through a series of shots. This is part of the reason why so many professionals constantly advocate for undertaking personal projects where you can explore your creativity. Similarly, in an age where we are used to instant gratification, it can be tough to be patient and wait for the light to develop over a landscape or a person to walk into frame in just the right way, but you'll often be rewarded with a more memorable photo. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Mott.
This guy is full of hot air! He is just trying to sell his schools making money off you making you think it will make you better at photography. People go to college for 2, 4, 6 or even 8 years and spend thousands getting theory about this that and the other with your head full of this and that. I have watched the trend over the many years first they may start the selling and then like now everyone has tours with groups a many because of mainly access to a place where you may get an image like theirs $$ and more $$ on your part maybe you will sell and maybe not. In all his talking he never looks you in the eye and even if he did he has his hand in your pocket.
The bottom line first you have to have the eye and see what others do not. You need just a point and shoot or low cost camera and use just auto mode, let the camera do all the figuring while you capture what your eye sees. Do a simple walkabout, go on a drive and stop when you see it and the capture. A trip to the zoo will help you with animals and birds. It is the framing you do and the story you saw that you see when send to the big computer screen not yet spending $ on prints. Remember also not till someone says that looks good or someone goes WOW! There is a difference between a tourist photo and an image that tells the story of the tourist and the place. Forget the triangle of light your mind and your eye have to see the capture to get that image. To me it is playtime, think of it as that and not the money you may dream of from it.
If it can be done with a film camera without the wiss bag of a computer programs the better.
You have to have the joy of it of what you desire to capture. First as a hobbyist you will find that genre that you feel good with as you research the many. Enough said!
Frist not a pro but a gift giver!
Example: I got into Milky Ways and I like to go to a wedding capital island to do it. Every 5 days before and after a new moon that overlap a weekend I am the only one on the driftwood beach or any place around the island from February to November with a camera even for sunrise or sunset for everyone is sleeping or sleeping in or eating dinner. You find family's fishing or just star watching or surf. But not one wedding photographer with the bride and groom on some driftwood or around some. Wedding photographers love bright lights and hate dark places. But if they had been a hobbyist they would have learned you do not need bright lights to capture people on a dark beach or even driftwood. 1 and 2 no flash used just looks like it 3. a couple sat watching a offshore storm before 4. you do not need a flash to photo a tortoise on a dark beach.
Greetings from Saigon. I think the underlying theme of being better at anything you do is practice. I tell my students that over and over again. You can't try something once or twice and think you're ready for whatever it is you think you are ready for...without practice. As you said, you will take a lot of "not-as-good-as-you-think-they-are photos" that could have been better edited, better composed, and just better prepared for if you had practiced this effort over and over again so it becomes second nature. Anyway, congrats on your upgraded home, and condolences for your little buddy. Your presentation makes me want another cup of coffee! Hahaha!