1. LEARNING TO WALK BEFORE YOU RUN
I titled this first article after the ye old proverb. Which means “You must master a basic skill before you are able to learn more complex things”. Photography like a lot of things in life has a pretty steep learning curve. Just look at the new generation of digital camera’s now with their complex menu’s and all the controls they offer. This can be confusing for an experienced photographer let alone a novice. So let’s take a minute to look at the digital era we're currently in. Although it is exciting with what digital cameras are capable of and the image quality they can produce. I believe in many ways they have made photography much more difficult to learn. Back in the film days a high quality SLR camera had controls for your aperture, shutter speed, ISO and metering. They had drive modes, auto focus, exposure compensation, flash, mirror lock up and a few others I won’t mention. Camera’s now have all these plus more, including complex menu selections. The good news is that almost half of your camera settings in your menu can be set once and you most likely won’t ever have to change them again. But learning and understanding what the changes do is important.
During my mentoring sessions with students one thing that I find common is they want skip mastering the basics, which is understanding your camera controls and how to use them. They want to go from being a novice to becoming Ansel Adams in a few short lessons. How can you learn to create great images if you don’t understand your tools and how to use them. This only creates barriers that will get in your way and prevent your creative side from coming out. I’ll give you one example of why mastering the basics is so important. See the image below I call “Into the Light”. I lived in the NW for years and upon many trips to the Redwoods always wanted to capture God rays streaming in through the fog. I had seen this done so well by other photographers, but never lucky enough to capture myself. On this particular trip I had a spent couple hours hiking the Damnation Creek trail head. It was foggy the entire morning with no sign of clearing so I decided to call it a day and headed back to my car. I packed everything up and started to leave, I got about a mile up the road and noticed the sun starting to peek through the fog. So I immediately turned the car around and went back to the trail head. I put my camera on my tripod, threw on my backpack and headed up the trail again. Confident this time I might finally get t hose god rays I had been in search of. Then after about another hour of hiking toward where I seen the sun starting to come out, I found nothing but fog. Frustrated at this point I decided put my camera back into my backpack, call it a day and headed back. Then as I started back down the trail I hiked maybe a quarter mile and as I came around this corner there was the scene you see below. So as fast as possible I set up my tripod, took off my pack, set up my camera and choose my settings. Then I composed my shot and got off three frames before the god rays were gone. I had done all this in just a little more than a minute, which was about how long the scene lasted. The only reason I could do it in an instant, is because I knew my camera and controls like their an extension of my own hand. One thing you will learn in landscape photography is that many times mother nature will only give you a sparse moment in time. So if you can't act quickly enough you will most likely miss the opportunity.
So let’s talk about learning to walk now and what is the best way to do that. First you must learn how to get out of Auto mode on your camera and learn to shoot in manual. This is most likely one of the scariest things for new photographers. The new breed of cameras now have a whole bunch of auto & scene modes built in to help you capture your image. So why not just let the camera do it for you? Because even though these modes work well, you lose control over your image creation. The camera is making most of the decisions for you, when you should be making them. It is those decisions and controls that you need to learn, if you want to take your photography to the next level.
So start by learning what the different controls are for and how to use them. Please do not skip this step because it is the most important one of all. You will not find one great photographer out there that has not done this. So you might be thinking what is best way to do that and there is no right or wrong answer to that question. Everyones learning ability and what works best for them is different for each person. Some prefer reading, some learn better from visual instruction like video’s. Others prefer hands on like personal instruction. So here are some of my suggestions. I would suggest starting some with free online instruction. There is Digital Photography School, Exposure guide, Petapixel.com, Learn basic Photography and Improve Photography. These are just a few available out there, try doing a google search and see what you can find.
If you prefer visual instruction consider some video tutorials. Lynda.com has lots of courses for beginners for a modest monthly cost. Skillshare has free online instruction, but there is a monthly fee for unlimited use. The one I would recommend is Kelby One. They have a huge amount of online video’s for beginners to experts. That cover just about anything you would ever want to learn about photography. They are little more expensive than most of other sites, but worth it if you want to learn from some of the best photographers in the world. Next is YouTube which has a lot of free online instruction as well. Last there is more books out there on the subject than I could ever list. So if you enjoy reading try Amazon.com. I would suggest trying one of the Canon, Nikon or Sony for Dummies series by Julie Adair King. There is a whole series written for each specific camera model which can be helpful.
Free online info, books and video’s are a great starting point, but then I would suggest maybe taking a photography course. Most local colleges offer them and the cost is usually modest. It’s worth mentioning that if you do take a college course, be careful which one you sign up for. A lot of them do teach camera basics, but they don’t always teach you how to apply those into your every day to day photography. I have had several students I mentored that said they learned more in those 3 hours then they learned in an entire course at their local college. Which brings me to one of the best way’s to learn. That is through private mentoring sessions with a professional or experienced photographer. One of the big advantages is that they usually just involve you or maybe a couple of students and the teacher. You get a lot more one on one attention and they can tailor their instruction to the area’s you need the most help in. It can help increase your learning curve over reading books and/or watching videos a lot.
Another option is a workshop by a Professional photographer. But I would caution you on taking one of these, especially if you just a beginner wanting to learn how to use your camera. Not that workshops are bad, by the contrary you can learn a lot in a workshop. From my experience though, the ones I have taken were not geared towards beginners. A lot of professionals will tell you they are, but most workshops have anywhere from 6-15 students in them. So they just don’t have enough time to spend with each student or can they tailor their instruction to what will benefit you the most. So if you do take a workshop, be selective and try to get recommendations from someone who has taken it before. That way you can find out if it is the kind of instruction that will give you the most bang for your buck.
Last but not least is look into joining a local Photography club. Most clubs have a fair amount of experienced photographers that are willing to help new students. If you happen to live in Utah and the Salt Lake City area I would recommend the Wasatch Camera club, where I am a member myself. There is also world wide organizations like Photographic Society of America (PSA). Another one to consider is Meetups which are getting popular. They are usually free and they give you the opportunity to meet other photographers in your area that share the same passion as you. Check your local area and see what is available.
Now last and in my opinion the most important part of learning is “PRACTICE”. I can’t stress enough how important practice is. Especially if you just took a photography course or spent time with a professional. You need to go out and practice everything you just learned. It’s so easy these days to caught up in day to day things that get in the way like work, family, kids, etc. Try and commit to at least one day each week for 2-3 hours. Everyone if they budget their time can find an extra 2-3 hours per week.
So remember start my setting small goals for yourself. Then as you achieve those goals you will find that each one stacks upon each other. Then as you start to see improvements in your work, your confidence will grow as well. Even as you start to learn and get comfortable with all your controls and how to use them, still continue to practice. Like the expression goes “Practice is the mother of all skills” and skills give birth to Mastery.
