Did I Take That Photo?

When To Use New Tips and Techniques

You're going to be reading about a lot of different photography techniques in the coming months (years?) and before I even start sharing those with you I want to share what I consider to be the most important bit of information I know: Never do ANYTHING because someone says you "should" do it.

There will be a lot of different tips, tricks, and techniques that may help you improve your everyday photos. Some will resonate with you, others won't. Ideas having to do with children obviously aren't going to mean much to people who don't, for whatever reason, have children in their lives. You may find some techniques come naturally to you and are fun to work with while others are uncomfortable and you can't quite make them work. Still others may never get past the page--you may read them and think it's a total pile of dog doo for your taste in photography. That's fine.

As with everything in life, try some, keep some, discard some, and go on your merry way.

You may even decide you have no desire to do any of the stuff I talk about--that's really a great thing to know. Now you can look at your photos and say, "that was so much fun--I love how much fun I had taking those." Now, though, you know for sure you love the photos you take exactly the way they are and you have no desire to do it any differently.

The First Rule of Photography Is To Have Fun

When you stop having fun because you're taking photos or because you're trying to learn 10 different things to help your photos be better all at the same time or because you've suddenly decided it's up to you to take 300 photos today--STOP!

You don't have to stop taking them. You don't have to throw the camera off a bridge. You don't have to assign someone else the task. What you do have to do if you want to take better and better photos is figure out why you're not having fun anymore and back up a little.

For instance, if you read 10 of my blog posts on different techniques for taking pictures that are more fun, more interesting, more memorable, and you decided you were going to put all of them to good use on your next outing and now you have a headache, the reason may have something to do with brain overload. Perhaps for you, enjoying your day doesn't include taking a photography "test." Other people may find it exciting and challenging--good for them. If you don't, stop it. I don't try to master half a dozen techniques at a time. I may work on one for a dozen expeditions before I move on to another one. By the same token, I may try two or three on the same day but I don't expect great results from them (sometimes I get really lucky and a few turn out surprisingly good).

The important thing is to figure out what's making you unhappy and find some other way to do things. Maybe there really is something about taking any of the photos that's driving you nuts. Is there someone else in your group who really wants to do it? Maybe you've been doing it for so long it never occurred to you (or anyone else) that you don't have to be the official photographer.

Think it through, think about rational solutions (I say "rational" because making these decisions when in the midst of a desire to throw the camera off the bridge is frequently not the best time to decide whether or not your solution is one you'll want to live with tomorrow). After you decide what might work better for you, think about how to put it into practice for you.

If you're not having fun, you're not doing it the way that is for your highest and best. Life is really all about having fun whenever we can!