Don't Make My Biggest Photography Mistake

If you're making this one mistake, you are most likely never ever going to be a great photographer!

This is the mistake that I made at university. I watched many fellow students make it too. None of us who made this error went on to become terrific photographers. Rather we either made an okay living or quit working in photography and went on to do something else instead.

The individuals who didn't make this mistake had a tendency, usually, to become much better photographers and have more success.

I ought to clarify that I was good at university. I was the 'go to' guy. If a teacher wasn't available (and even if they were) people would regularly see me for my opinion or to ask me technical questions. If somebody desired to know how to accomplish a certain effect or discover why what they had done hadn't worked, I was frequently first on their list of people to consult. I even had people come to me to check whether something a professor had said was accurate!

For the first two semesters at university my grades were fantastic. For those first 6 months I'm quite sure I came top in every exam. Then things began to change. Other individuals, people who understood less about photography than I did, began to creep up the rankings. Quickly I wasn't leading anymore. And as the months went on my grades slipped until I became despondent and uninspired. I quit trying.

So that was the key? What made the others gain greater grades while mine just fell?

It wasn't like I didn't put in the effort. I read the reading list and learned more and more about photography. I took in every little thing I was told. But my photography didn't improve any. By the time I left university I was little better than I was when I started.

The error I made was easy to make. I spent too much time reading the guides and not nearly enough time taking photographs.

You see photography is not a book subject. Sure if you're excellent at science and technology there's a lot to discover. The science is exciting. Learning all those obscure Photoshop techniques can take hundreds of hours and more. It's easy to get totally sidetracked by the technical.

You do need some technical knowledge. You have to understand how your selection of aperture influences the depth of field within your photographs. You are required to know the best ways to make use of depth of field to isolate the point of interest from the surroundings. You have to understand exactly what the controls on your camera do and how to best use them. Understanding about flash lighting could be vital. Even learning about composition is important. But eventually the only thing that will make you a great photographer is getting out and taking photographs.

Spend more time taking photos than reviewing books. Take pictures of every little thing you see. Talk with individuals. Offer your time for free to every charity, NGO, neighborhood band and small company you can in order to learn your trade. Ask good looking friends if you can take their pictures. Ask ugly friends if you can take their portraits too. Simply get out there and snap.

Photography is not about books. Photography is instinctive. Your brain needs a whole lot of time to develop a 'feel' for what looks good and what doesn't.

Do not make my mistake. If you want to become a good photographer do not bury your head in books. Instead, become a better photographer by taking photos.

Click here to read more articles by James Somerset or visit his YouTube Channel.

Will Your Digital Camera Get You Fired?

Okay, so I never really thought about this before but digital cameras have a privacy flaw that most people are unaware of - and it could get you fired! I discovered it when I was asked by a friend whether it was possible to recover some images they had accidently deleted. As a bit of a computer nerd, I knew this was easily possible. So I got out some software and recovered not only the photographs they wanted but many more - including some that had been taken over a year before!

What if you sold your camera and it ended up disclosing the most intimate details of your personal life in spite of your confidence that you had deleted any embarrassing pictures and movies that you may have taken? You might have heard the story of the man who sold his digital camera in a yard sale only to see previously erased 'bedroom pictures' recovered and shown to lots of people. I don't know whether his boss was one of them but imagine if you were a health care professional, a teacher, a local community leader - those sort of photos could cause you an amazing amount of problems.

Facebook has personal privacy settings. We could modify them and limit, to some degree, who can see our photographs and personal information. But have you ever considered your digital camera? Modern cameras are more than just image recording gadgets. Some can record sound and video along with still images. Lots of modern cameras can record location info through the use of Global Positioning Satellites.

Exactly what lots of people have no idea about is that the removable memory cards that fit inside cameras do not delete the photos you've taken when you press the 'Delete' button (or however it's labeled on your camera). This video (which is a little tongue-in-cheek) shows you exactly how it's possible for someone to recover previously erased photographs (and movies) from a deleted, formatted memory card:

What he does is worrying, isn't it!

You see when we push that button we believe we are erasing our pictures. What actually happens is that it's marked as being erased (rather than actually being erased). The camera viewscreen never shown it to you again but it stays on the memory card for an indefinite period of time. Sitting there, waiting to be 'un-erased' by anyone with the right software.

Most of the time this is fine. Few of us take photographs that could affect our jobs or lives. But there's a trend amongst teenagers and couples to spice up their sex lives by making their own very explicit pictures and videos. If these pictures continue to be exclusive, within a happy relationship, it's difficult to see any problem. However consider what happens if the images become public property or are found by friends, relatives or bosses?

Looking after our digital privacy is something we need to become more wise about in our electronically co-joined world. Are you confident that you can get rid of images and videos from a camera memory card?

Would you like to see how simple it is for someone to recover a long ago deleted photograph from a memory card? This video will show you:

It's potentially frightening and extends past anything you might get up to in the bed room. Digital data is everywhere and the method of un-deleting shown in the video applies equally to company secrets, patient information, confidential papers and reports and messages from loved ones. The ubiquitousness of flash memory chips in modern gadgets suggests that having a personal life may be something we've lost forever.

Further Reading: consider why you need to protect digital information. Is it for yourself, your clients, your job or all of the above? That will give you a direction - do you talk to your IT department or make a trip to the local bookstore to browse around the computer section for titles about protecting your privacy?

There's an article on the photography.incyder.info website that gives the links to the software that was used in the video above (don't worry, it's free). Click here to read it (it has full instructions and more advanced information than that found in the video.