Most photographers hit a ceiling not because they lack technical skill, but because they keep doing the same things over and over. Breaking out of that pattern is what separates a one-trick shooter from someone who can walk into any situation and come away with something worth showing.
Coming to you from Sean Dalton, this practical video makes the case that versatility, what Dalton calls being "multifaceted," is the single most important quality a photographer can develop. He filmed much of it on location in Hong Kong, which gives the advice real texture. The first tip he covers is one of the most straightforward: shoot everything. Not randomly, but intentionally follow whatever style genuinely interests you at a given moment. Dalton traces his own path from still life and coffee shop work to travel, landscape, and portrait photography, and explains how each obsession built transferable skills that shaped the next phase. Letting yourself pivot isn't a lack of focus. It's how you actually build range.
The second tip is about light, specifically your relationship with all of it, not just golden hour. Dalton argues that knowing how to work in harsh midday sun, flat overcast skies, and nighttime environments is what gives you options when conditions aren't ideal. Several of the images he captured at night, including a standout reflection shot through a bus window, came directly from experimenting with techniques he'd just learned.
Two more tips in the video are worth paying close attention to. The first is about photography crutches: habits like always shooting wide open, always finding symmetry, or always working at eye level. These aren't inherently bad, but leaning on them constantly means you stop making real decisions. The second is a shooting framework Dalton calls "shooting in sets," where every scene gets at least four distinct approaches: a wide establishing shot, a midground shot, a tight detail shot, and an abstract or texture image. He walks through a specific set he captured on a rainy night in Hong Kong, showing how one unremarkable street corner became four genuinely different images, including one shot at a half-second shutter speed while tracking a pedestrian. The results speak for themselves, and the method is something you can apply immediately the next time you're out.
What ties all of this together is curiosity. Dalton's final point is that the photographers who stay sharp over time are the ones who keep approaching their craft like they're still learning, because they are. It's easy to get comfortable with what works. The problem is that comfort and growth rarely coexist.
Check out the video above for the full breakdown from Dalton, including the complete Hong Kong photo sets and his walkthrough of the shooting-in-sets method in action.
1 Comment
This is more for the hobbyist where one has a primary job and can go and play with the light where as a pro has one genre that pays the bills.
I have been at it since the mid 70's with film but I was in the US Navy and traveled all over like a tourist with low cost travel to many local places. It will add your photo eye has to be trained on what others do not see, like when you show another photographer (a snapper) and they say "I did not see that" or "When and where was that?" With that eye of sight/seeing you have a camera close with a lens that is mainly a telephoto lens where you do not have to change to another that waists time. Another is most times you do not get anywhere fast for all the stops you make or you have to have meals like breakfast or dinner at off times. Example I like to do Milky Way's where in June and July it is from blue hour to blue hour and then before and after sunsets and rises then an added more in the morning walk for critters like birds and insects all busy and hungry. Another is moonrise and sets the day before (I learned) the full moon reason you get more light on the subject foreground and learn using an app at your location that a full moon rises and sets in the same location every month giving you the spot for a lunar eclipse to prepare a location to setup at for the whole eclipse or just the full.
You will have many apps from weather to those for milky way starts and end. One that you will use the most is TPE that lets you see also the terranean with say a mountain in the view so a moon or sunset or rise can show when and where.
A point here is you can look at place and make a calendar with a place for every day of a month of the year. and every time on a drive or walk your photo eye is seeing it where everyone else pays no attention to future happenings and only seen by you.
PhotoPills has so many help things you can plan with example for MW's there is a night AR that lets you see the direction or where it will rise but to verify before getting there and if it a long June/July night you can have many location mapped out and even better having reflectors or glow tape on the ground of other locations so faster find. All this and SS info for camera and lens mm with two different selections.
Useful is Planit Pro that has the add of local tides, ever try to read the tide info in the paper like is the starting info, you may want a clean morning beach before the walkers come. Also when using any lens it will give you its coverage with a selection of mm when capturing say the moon at good size for to see as for the foreground combined and if doing a panorama how many layers to capture with one lens when doing a multilayer pano and how many layers needed.
Planit Live will put on the spot you plan to go to now or in the future showing buildings or mountains and the real time for a sunrise/set for the location.
All this and your photo eye gets turbo charged with just a drive by looking at a spot or on a walkabout.
Some times you get nowhere fast for all the stops.
All this is what a hobbyist can do and still have a job or the pro looking for a business who wants a certain image or set of images.
All photographers are Mad Scientist of Light Capture and having as many tools to find and plan.
Also knowing just looking what can be done with an image in post to get what is also seen in ones mind for knowing your many Image Editors and what can be done it is like having a camera that has ISO Invariance allows for a lower ISO giving low noise but in post just increasing the exposure getting a bright image from a dark also bringing out shadows or if like this person is using a Sony where it has D-Range Optimizer that in auto can bring out shadows but in jpeg images but RAW image can be edited in IEDT Edit to get the same shadow affects that other camera makers do not have. Just extra Info something to play with if you have a Sony so few have this info.
Last if you can find a Mod 1 or Mod 2 Sony ask if it has the play memories on it mainly the " Digital Filter" app allowing selecting the sky and foreground separately in camera each with any camera setting you can think of and put together in camera with a RAW or jpeg or both in an output to an SD card, no need for carrying around filters and /or holders. Again just info for the mind the A7RM2 is real good for this. Hope you are not dizzy yet!