South Stack, Wales

Yeah, that title would catch my eye too. For a couple reasons. First, I’m always wondering if there is some little tip I can pull quickly from an article or because nobody in their right mind should think they’re a great photographer. In the end there are certainly a few things you can do to learn to get better pictures but as Tim Shuff at Adventure Kayak pointed out in his last article, most of all you just have to be there.

For my part I just love taking pictures. It’s fun for me personally and the act of taking pictures enhances my experiences. Looking at the world through the frame of a camera lens focuses my view of the world around me. I tend to see more than I would otherwise and I often remember more of what I saw later. It also gives me place to hide when I’m not feeling social, and at times it gives me a way to be social when I don’t quite know how to interact. For me a camera has become a bit of a life device. If simply the act of taking pictures is fun for you, you will take lots of pictures, which accidentally will make you a better photographer.

Traveling in Israel recently I had the chance to relive a bit of my youth. Jeff, Hadas & Zohar are all camera crazy. So am I. So when we were tripping around the countryside we were stopping constantly to take pictures. Between us we captured hundreds of images. The truck would pull to the side of the road and we would all unload and buzz around snapping away and chatting about what we were doing and why. We were sharing the giddy joy of being together with a group of people all excited by a shared passion. It was wonderful. I’d not lived that for years. When I was a teenager my small group of nerdy friends all fancied ourselves filmmakers. Instead of riding our bikes around raising hell, we were renting video cameras, or borrowing cheap film cameras. We spend our lazy summers writing awful scripts and filming bad science fiction movies or looking for that next “cool” locale. Sure, in the end it was all just play. Cameras were an excuse for kids a bit too old to pretend to hold onto play a bit longer. Looking back though, I know it made all of us better photographers. Something we all have held onto to varying degrees. We spent many hours and endless days seeing our world in a frame. We learned what an old super 8 film camera could do, and what it couldn’t. We learned about lighting, texture, framing and many other details. Not with books or classes but by simply wasting a lot of film.

These days I occasionally make money taking pictures. Most of the time it feels sort of strange when I know I’m on a project. At first I used to get all weirded out by doing it for money. Suddenly I’d try to be a “real” photographer. (or at least what I imagined a real photographer to be.) The result was usually not all that great. I’d fiddle too much and would totally forget why I did it in the first place. I wouldn’t trust myself or accept that getting hired in the first place meant they trusted my work. So I’d suck. To be fair the client wouldn’t know the difference, but I did. I could have done much better work had I relaxed and just did my thing. Over time I learned to relax and find personal enjoyment in commercial work. These days I sort of relish in having really boring or repetitious subjects and trying to make a “silk purse out of a sows ear” which is so much of what commercial work is about. I’ve come to realize that limitation forces creativity which again improves my ability. It’s just going to school.

It also helps to know why you are taking pictures in the first place. Do you really want to publish them? Ok, well most of us don’t feel like we are all that great and know we won’t be published. Still, if you ever do get an offer that’s a bad time to start digging through your photos for the right shots. Often you just don’t have them, simply because you hadn’t thought about it. It may be silly, but one thing I’ve learned from commercial work is to see where the text will go in the frame. Think about all those articles in Sea Kayaker or the ads you see. They need images that have room for text. If your images are always full to the brim with noise, they won’t work. I’ve seen expedition paddlers who are great photographers struggle for article shots simply because they never thought of those types of uses. Just as a film producer always needs “establishment” shots, a photographer always needs title and ad shots. Photos that tell the story and leave plenty of room for text. Ok so that’s not your goal. However, learning to “leave room” also helps you to learn to keep your focus on the subject. Cluttered images kill the subject. If for no other reason than an exercise it can be good practice and good fun just creating an assignment for yourself and then going out and shooting to it. Cover shot please. Ok, you’ve got 24 hours to get 4 good cover shots. . Vertical, lots of text space. Enjoy!

Like anyone I take lots of family snapshots. Most of them are pretty bad from an “artsy” stand point. Kids, dogs, and grandmas are just pics. Of course I can’t help but get a bit artsy/framey with my family pics at times. On the other hand, taking family snaps gives you experiences in working with less than cooperative subjects and with capturing life moments in a way they will be remembered just by the image. Family snaps are after all, photo journalism in its purest form. You’re images are reporting on an important experience in the life of your family. Don’t discount family snaps. In fact always offer to be the “camera person”. Here’s a great place to work with moving subjects, bad lighting (why are family events always backlit!??), drunk uncles and whatever mayhem will arise. Family snaps are good for you.

Remember too that the best shot is not always “the best shot”. When I want to tell a story I’m always debating the images. You see that here all the time. Each day I pick a photo or graphic thingy. The image sets a tone for what I’m on about. I’ll always remember an email I got a couple years back. I had used a blurry badly lit shot of Gryphon for an article about Canoecopia. The email said something like, “You can take a crap shot and make it look better than my good ones.”. That was quite a compliment. But really, I was simply choosing something to tell a story and not choosing a “great” photograph. That photo was a crap shot. It was the subject that made it viable. There was a time when I would have just deleted it. Now I’ve come to realize that sometimes those crap shots tell the story better than a well thought out image. The lesson is don’t discard “bad” pictures out of hand. While you might not sell it or even show friends, there may be a time when that nasty photo might be perfect for telling a story.

Limit yourself. Ansel Adams was always returning to Yosemite. You’d think Yosemite would provide a lifetimes worth of subjects, but that’s not completely true. There are some trademark spots, and then there are miles of wilderness. Adams talked once about how the same places changed endlessly under their environment. He shot and re-shot the same bits. This trained him to see the subtle variations. He also spent a lot of time shooting “nothing” and finding ways to make nothing something. The best way to do that is to keep shooting in the same limited area. Endlessly. Sometimes you have to stare at a stone a long time before you see it move. We may feel there is nothing new around us to shoot and that’s the challenge; Make the “same” new. I know it can seem boring and frustrating at times, but just keep snapping. Let you mind wander. Use the force, Luke! Just shoot.

Cheat. I’m sorry, but I really get annoyed by all the purist dogma behind photography. I was reading an article the other day about a renowned photographer who uses civil war era gear to produce authentic plates. He charges thousands. Great. To be fair, the craftsmanship and labor are amazing. If you realize the work he went through you can really appreciate the shots. Yet I couldn’t help but think how easily those shots could be replicated with a little Photoshop “*uckery” (as Amy Winehouse would say). Go ahead, Photoshop your images to your hearts delight. At least if your goal is simply telling a story or passing on an emotion. We never criticized a photographer for their work in the dark room, and Photoshop is simply the modern dark room. One thing I take advantage of quite often is creative cropping. When I’m out on the water or in other circumstances and I don’t have time to frame a shot I just shoot the whole dam thing. I always use the  highest quality settings I can so I have freedom to crop. Then when I get back home I can get the image into Photoshop and set it up the way I would have liked to at the time. If you shoot in “Camera RAW’ format you’ll have a lot of leeway with size, lighting and so forth to go back and make the shot you saw but didn’t have time to set up. At some point if you’re interested I’ll do another article on practical cheats that help me get an occasional decent shot.

Oh, and be aware of preconception. You know that bit where people say they want “original” images? Yeah well that’s fine but they have preconceived notions of what “original” means. Take the shot I used today. Yeah, I like the shot but I also see how “class room” it is. There is a reason more people listen to Beyonce than Tom Waits. We spend our whole lives learning what “great” is. It colors our perceptions. Remember you take pictures first for yourself. If no one else likes it and you do. . . screw ‘em.  Joining those photographer discussion groups where you review each other can be a double edged sword.  Don’t let others or your own preconceptions lead your eye. Stick with what feels right to you.

More than anything, you just have to be there. An adventure photographer can shoot a mountain or the sea and impress. Their shots are not always “great” by technical terms. However they are shots of people and places we want to see. Paparazzi take lots of bad pictures of stars and make lots of money. They don’t have to be good, they just have to be there. The more you’re out with your camera the better shots you’ll get, the more you’ll learn, the better you’ll become. It’s really that simple. It doesn’t matter what camera you have. Work with it. Find it’s personality. I have 3 cameras I work with and each has its own, “Thang”. Sometimes I put the Canon away and get out the compact or even the iPhone because I know they will treat the world differently. It’s true, you’re not going to get a poster print from a lower quality camera, but on the other hand how many posters are you printing? These days budget won’t hold you back. Thank god! The advent of digital brings a bit power to the people as it were. Now you can experiment to your heart’s content without worrying about development cost. Isn’t that wonderful!?

Lastly I just want to reiterate one thing. If you love taking pictures for your own sake you’ll be fine. You’ll shoot and learn and improve. But if your main focus is to make big bucks, win contests and publish you may just be screwed. Why? Because you are up against people who just love to take pictures. In the end, they usually win.

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