Photography Zen

by dr_shivan Wed Apr 21, 2010 5:53 pm

Never do photography to become famous.
Enjoy what you are shooting.
Prepare well for your shooting, realizing that your battery isn’t charge when you’re setting up for that sunrise shoot is too late!
Always take one warm garment more than you actually need with you
Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions while you are shooting
Set goals you can achieve
Write tips about photography, because writing is also learning
Never go shooting without a tripod
Be pleased with the little prosperities
Build relationships with potential photo buddies
Watch the place you want to shoot first with your heart then with the camera
Always stay calm
Know that you tend to overestimate yourself
Perspective is the killer
Dedicate yourself to photography, but never browbeat yourself too much
Take part in a photography community
Keep your camera clean
Never compare yourself to others in a better or worse context
Find your own style of photography
Try to compose more and to hit the shutter less
Seek out and learn to accept critique on your images
Do something different to recover creativity
Get inspiration from the work of other photographers
Criticize honestly but respectfully
Get feedback from your lady
Don’t copy other photographer’s style
Be bold
Take care of the golden ratio
Read books about photography
To give a landscape photograph the extra boost, integrate a person (maybe yourself)
Every shooting situation is different than you expect
Pay attention to s-curves and lines (not model's S-curves)
Always shoot in RAW
Keep your sensor clean, so you can save some work cleaning your image in post production
Discover the things you think are beautiful
It takes time to become a good photographer
The best equipment is that what you have now
You can’t take photographs of everything
Break the rules of photography knowingly, but not your camera
Pay attention to the different way that light falls on different parts of your scene
The eye moves to the point of contrast
Clouds increase the atmosphere of a landscape
Accept praise and say “thank you”
You are not your camera
Ask a question at the end of your comment on a photo to get a ping-pong conversation with the photographer
Do a review of your archives on a regular basis, the longer you photograph – the more diamonds are hidden there
Always clarify what the eyecatcher (focal point) will be in your image
No image is better than a bad one
Everyone has to start somewhere
Your opinion about photography is important!
Leave a funny but thoughtful comment
Speak about your experiences with your photo buddies
Limit your photograph to the substance
Participate in Photocontests
Post processing = Optimizing your image to the best result
Shoot exposure latitudes as often as possible
Use photomatix as seldom as possible, HDR’s always have a synthetic flavor
Always remember what brought you to photography
Never shoot a person who doensn’t want to be photographed
Always turn arround, sometimes the better image is behind you
It’s who’s behind the camera, not the camera
Mistakes are allowed! The more mistakes you make, the more you learn!
If you have an idea and immediately you think : No, this is not going to work – Do it anyway. When in doubt – always shoot.
Understand and look to your histogramm while shooting. It delivers very important information about your image
Know your camera, because searching the menu button in the night is time you don’t want to waste
Shoot as often as possible
Believe in yourself
Don’t be afraid of getting dirty
Pay attention to qualitiy in your image
Your photographs are a personal map of your psyche
Re-check your ISO-Settings. It’s aweful to detect the wrong settings on your screen.
Be thankful for long and thoughtful comments on your images
Never trust your LCD. Normally it is brighter and sharper as the original image.
Provide for enough disc space, because it’s cheap and you will need it.
Learn to enjoy beautful moments when you don’t have a camera with you.
Always arrive at least half an hour earlier before sunrise / sundown, composing in a hurry is a bad thing.
Try to amplify your mental and physical limits. Takes some extra shots when you think “it’s enough”
Pay attention to structures in the sky and wait until they fit into structures in the foreground
Visit the same place as often as possible. Light never shows the same mountain.
Print your images in big size. You will love it.
Calibrate your monitor. Working with a monitor that is not accurate is like being together with someone you can’t trust. It always ends badly.
Don’t think about what others may say about your image. If you like it, it’s worth publishing.
Never address reproaches to yourself. Learn from your mistakes and look forward, not backward.
Fight your laziness ! Creativitiy comes after discipline.
Ask yourself : What do you want to express in your images ?
Always try to think outside the box, collect new ideas about photographs you could do and ask yourself : Why not?
Search for a mentor.
Photography is never a waste of time.
Every community has it’s downsides. Don’t leave it out of an emotional response.
There will always be people who will not like what you are doing.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was right when he said that “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
A better camera doesn’t guarantee better images.
Always have printing in mind when you postprocess your images.
Photography is fair : You gain publicity with the quality of your images. Unless the images are stolen, there is no way of cheating yourself higher.