Photography Tips That Will Make You Think Twice

There are hot takes and there are hot takes. And coming in with the hottest of them all is travel photographer Roman Fox.

In his latest video, "How to Ruin Your Photography," Fox offers a series of tips that, if you didn't read the headline of the video, would make your photographer blood boil. Everything from pressing photographers to buy new gear if they feel like their photographs aren't up to scratch, to phones not being real cameras (OK, I can actually get on board with that one). If you didn't understand sarcasm, Fox delivers these tips in just enough of a believable tone that it could be serious advice. That's probably what makes it so fun to watch.

Going under that premise then, that everything he says we should do the opposite of, a couple of highlights are worth repeating.

He says that "If you don't know how to shoot in full manual exposure and you can't recite the exposure triangle for every single possible lighting condition, then you shouldn't call yourself a photographer." As a photographer who 90 percent of the time shoots in aperture priority, that one stings a bit. But then again, I'm coming from the background of a photojournalist whose primary goal is to get the shot, not fiddle with dialing it in as the moment is passing me by. Sure, if I'm shooting in a more controlled environment such as sports or portraiture, then I'll dial in manual settings, but at a protest I'm focused on not getting trampled or arrested. That said, I've worked with photographers who can walk into a room and accurately call out the Kelvin temperature I should set my white balance to in order to get accurate color that matches theirs, so people like this do exist.

And getting back to the point of acquiring more gear to improve your photography, I've often been an unfortunate victim of Gear Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.), and trust me when I say that it's absolutely much better to shoot with what you've got. It's about lighting and being there more than about the megapixels and burst speed. That said, in the age of increasing prices because of tariffs and global chip shortages making new cameras scarce, maybe now is the time to shake off the G.A.S. and just shoot.

There's a lot more advice that Fox delivers here with his tongue firmly in his cheek, so whether you want to cry with laughter or with horror, Fox's video is worth the watch so you can at least learn what not to do with your photography.