Words of wisdom

Bassit

Bassit

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What would you say was the best tip or piece of advice you have ever been given that you found to be a good learning tool or still find essential to your photography.

An example of which is when i first started playing golf, i was told by an elderly gentleman to gently press my club to the ground before any warm up shots or my actual shot, this is a tip i still use today and has helped my golf a lot.

There are a lot of very good photographers on this forum and i'm sure a lot of wisdom between you all.

So, how about giving us beginners a snippet of that wisdom. :thumbs:
 
Don't worry about making mistakes and don't stress out when you do, you learn as much by doing something wrong as you do by doing it right, if not more. Mistakes are valuable learning tools, don't let them be a source of frustration. :)
 
Best piece of advice I've received in a long time - "Don't take yourself too seriously"
 
PMN said:
Surely never pick up a camera again was the best advice you've ever been given?
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I don't consider it words of wisdom because it was given by you...
 
"Always take the shot", regret it later may-be but shoot.

In the fifty odd years I've been taking photographs, its the few times I DIDN'T shoot or bother taking a camera that I remember. "Oh the lights not good enough", or "The composition wouldn't be right". And yes, I have photographed death, and put the camera down and saved a life once. Its been a long time since I last thought of either occasion, but I still say "Shoot first, regret at leisure".
 
Any shot is better than no shot.
 
Try to deconstruct a shot you like, how it was done, where the light and shadow is, the composition etc
If you understand how the elements you like were done, you can work on something similar
 
Not really a word of wisdom, But have fun.

I hated working on a project I had little or no interest in at college. I just wanted to get out in the fields and take photos. This made me hate photography for a while, I lost passion for what I loved. It's not been till recent I've actually enjoyed and had fun taking photos.
 
Said to me when I was much younger: "Photography is painting with light".

One might argue the toss, but I reckon that if you take on board the sentiment and think about the light and how you work with it to get a picture, then you start taking pictures instead of snaps.

Much more recently and distilled & paraphrased from a selection of posts on these boards: "Stop looking at the pixels and look at the picture"
 
The thing that helped me most with my composition was someone telling me to take my time and check exactly what is and isn't in the frame.

Helped a lot... I don't think I've got a natural gift for composition so it's the one thing I really have to think about.
 
The thing I suffered from which a lot of newbies do, was to just look at what I was photographing, rather than seeing the whole frame. Shooting with a wlf slowed me down and the habit to look round the frame stuck.
 
John Mc said:
Not really a word of wisdom, But have fun.

I hated working on a project I had little or no interest in at college. I just wanted to get out in the fields and take photos. This made me hate photography for a while, I lost passion for what I loved. It's not been till recent I've actually enjoyed and had fun taking photos.
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Agree totally I lost sight of that for quite a while, it became a laborious job forgot that I got into photography because I love it.
 
This by my tech when I was complaining about dust in one of my lenses...
"The only way to keep your gear looking like new is to wrap it in plastic, put it in it's box and put the box in a cupboard and leave it there.
When you come back in 10 years it will still be like the day you bought it.
You won't have any photos, but your gear will still look good.
Now, get out and use it for what it was meant for."

You know what, he was right.
 
weybourne said:
Said to me when I was much younger: "Photography is painting with light".

One might argue the toss, but I reckon that if you take on board the sentiment and think about the light and how you work with it to get a picture, then you start taking pictures instead of snaps.

Much more recently and distilled & paraphrased from a selection of posts on these boards: "Stop looking at the pixels and look at the picture"
Click to expand...

Graphos is drawing, not painting.

Best advice, keep both eyes open, then you'll know when to duck.
 
Steve Smith said:
Yes. That works with everything.


Steve.
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It was given in the context of scientific research by Andre Geim, the 2010 Nobel prize winner in physics who came up with the foundations for lots of his most successful research after mucking about in his lab on a friday afternoon.

:thumbs:
 
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