The Unknown Photographer
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The best advice I can give to
young photographers is— shoot more. People just starting out these days,
they just want to be good and successful right away. They want to use
iPhone apps to make it look like a Holga instead of getting a Holga and
finding the joy in a perfectly exposed roll of TriX that is perfectly
imperfect. They want to get the latest digital camera and land an
advertising job instead of learning to shoot with a Canon F1 and a 50mm
and chrome for 6 months, so they know what a 50 feels like, so it
becomes part of them. I shot for a year with a Canon Vi-L and a 35mm
lens without looking through the eyepiece just so I would always know
what a 35 feels like. That experience is IN me. It takes time to
develop those skills. Digital didn’t ruin photography, it just made it
seemingly a lot easier to do. An unskilled photographer can take a
good shot one out of 300 and a great one one out of 1,000. But it
doesn’t make you a great photographer.
Experience does. Learning does.
Being in different situations and finding the art in a shot—that makes
you great. Having all the talent in the world will not matter unless
you know how to calm a client down when the shoot is going bad and the
agency guy just stormed off set. So. Shoot a LOT. I mean, if you aren’t
shooting 1,000 frames a week—of everything—and learning how to edit
them down to your top 50 a week—and you can’t change your iso without
looking at the manual—well, it just isn’t going to work is it.
You will find more work from Brian Ash at: www.brianach.com
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