This is a question I keep asking myself, here’s my photographer’s point of view.
How can I be a better photographer?
There are two main areas we can work on to improve our photography:
-The technical side
-The creative side
Now the first area, the technical side is fairly easy to improve, it involves reading more books about photography, instruction manuals of all your cameras and flashes. Experiment and learn about studio lighting, maybe get a new lens that would have better optical capabilities. And of course in those days of digital technology don’t forget the post processing work. Some good photoshop course would help, 99% of those photos that impress you nowadays looked pretty basic right out of the camera!
Then the creative side, now this is more of a challenge, for it includes a lot of reading, but not just about photography, about anything else really! Go and see exhibitions, travel, talk to people, do some charity work. Understand your subject better, know as much as you can about it, whether it be people or landscape or whatever. Anything that can enlarge your vision, make you a better person will make you a better photographer.
and remember: practice makes perfect.
But the biggest challenge for most photographers I know is to recognise in the first place that they need to improve. It’s about recognising that we are not as good as we could be.
I’m a professional photographer, in the sense that the work that I do is of very high standard and I make a living out of it, but I am and always will be a true amateur at heart, someone who does it for the cheer love of the medium. I am passionate about photography, and because of that I always want to do more and to do it better.
Go practice.
Nico
PS: This is a photo of three friends, they share among them almost 2 centuries worth of life experience, come from 3 different countries, cultures and religions and are a great source of inspiration to me. And none of them can cook an omelette…but that will be the subject of another post 🙂
