I apologize for sending the same email twice yesterday; the first email I sent to
you didn't appear as sent.
Here's today's email.
It's different, and I intend only to send it once.
When most of us make pictures, we don't begin by making the camera.
We leave the camera making to someone else; we buy the camera.
After all, no one expects a photographer or any other craftsperson to make the tools of their craft.
That'd be a waste of our time because it would take away valuable time from
creating photographs.
If we did this, we would be busier than necessary and not be working with leverage.
When we work with leverage, we work efficiently and effectively.
A good question to evaluate
whether we're working with leverage is, "What are we busy doing?"
Are we busy making pictures without fully understanding camera operation, composition, and light?
If we are, we're taking more pictures than we need to to get the one we want or spending more time in editing software or the darkroom trying to get our pictures to look the way we want them to.
Either way, we're busier than we need to be and need to apply some leverage as soon as we can.
Usually, this leverage involves learning what we're doing as photographers to understand the relationships between camera operation, composition, and light.
When we leverage our learning, we stop being busier than necessary when
making pictures.
We're more efficient and effective in getting the pictures we want because we've become better photographers and know what we're doing when it comes to camera operation, composition, and light.
It's often easier for us to commit to being busy than commit ourselves to being it is to be productive.
When we're busy, we may feel morally superior distraction.
We're off the hook when we're busy because it creates the
illusion of productivity.
We get to use our busy-ness to hide from things we should be doing but would rather not.
On the flip side, productive can be scary because we take responsibility for producing something of value; like a photograph.
When we buy someone else's skill and time, we commit differently because we're leveraging their skills to help us do what we want.
Figuring out what to do is easy.
If we wanna be better photographers, what's the most cost-effective, direct, and quickest way to get it done the best possible way?
After a long time of not knowing what I was doing as a photographer, creating many pictures I was less than thrilled with, not understanding what I was doing wrong, and feeling frustrated by trying to learn myself, I decided to leverage the help of photography teachers.
That was the best way to become a better photographer; maybe it is for you, too.
If we're serious about becoming better photographers, we need to evaluate ourselves to see if we're creating intentional pictures that communicate what needs to be communicated efficiently and effectively; that means understanding camera operation, composition, and light.
If we struggle with that, we need to leverage someone to help us.
Based on my experience learning photography and the photographers I've worked with and helped become better
photographers, leveraging the skills of a skilled teacher is one of the best things we can do to become the photographers we want to be.
We effectively and efficiently make the best pictures on our best days.
If most of our days don't go that way, it's time to invest time and energy in acquiring the skills needed so our days do go that way.
We've gotta be smart about the tools we use and the people we hire.
Those are
investments worth making.
We need to find the camera and teacher and figure out how to work with them.
As photographers, the most important thing we can leverage to get the best pictures we can is our understanding of camera operation, composition, and light.
In other words, we make the pictures, let someone else make the camera we use, and then leverage a teacher's skills to teach us how to become better photographers who create the best pictures possible.
The Introduction To Photography class starts soon.
More ways to study and practice photography with me are below.
Call me if you need help determining the best course for you.
I'll help you be a better photographer—study and practice photography with me.
Currently scheduled classes are below.
Smaller classes mean better learning, so class
sizes are limited to 5 participants plus me.
But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker, so sign up soon.
And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group classes? Private in-person lessons suited to your schedule are always an option.
And remember, we learn and improve by doing, so practice making at least one picture daily.
