You’ve probably heard photographers say things like “If you want to get better in photography, you better start shooting” and “Get to know the gear you have. A better <choose the piece of equipment you want to buy> doesn’t give you better pictures” . Why would they say that? New gear is fun!
The reason for saying such things is that a good photo first of all needs a vision. Seeing is required before anything. If you don’t see it, you can’t shoot it. Incidentally perhaps you capture something, but there’s no consistency. And gear doesn’t help in any way. Because of that, a good photographer can get good results even with limited hardware.
Can you develop such a vision? Much has been debated about this topic. Nature versus nurture. Here’s a couple of links where vision is discussed:
Lighting essentials: 5 things to do to land assignment photography
Pixsylated’s list of LIDLIPS (Lessons I Didn’t Learn In Photography School)
Chase Jarvis: kader attia: it comes from within, Creativity in the new economy and Free photos and artistic vision
Chase Jarvis recently has started bestc.am, where the general idea is that the best camera you have, is the camera you have with you. For most people that will be a phone with a camera (like the iPhone).
One of the ways to raise your awareness, develop your skills, learn to use your gear and learn about workflow is to shoot lotsa photos. For instance, at least one photo per day.
On this idea this website was born during a chat session. I mean, you can shoot an image every day and then what? Well, you join mySplitSecond and you upload your daily image and enjoy what others are doing. Invite your friends, make new friends along the way and have fun shooting.
Cheers,
PS: If you remember the movie “Full metal Jacket” there’s one chant that applies here: ”This is my rifle camera. There are many like it but this one is mine. My rifle camera is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my rifle camera is useless. Without my rifle camera I am useless. I must fireshoot my rifle camera true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy competitor, who is trying to kill beat me. I must shoot better than him before he shoots me. I will. Before God <choose prefered deity> I swear this creed: my rifle camera and myself are defenders of my country business, we are the masters of our enemy competitors, we are the saviors of my life. So be it, until there is no enemy competitors, but peace. Amen.”
Okay, parts of the quote have been changed, but it’s true nonetheless (except for the killing part methinks).