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I often get questions about how I took one picture or another.
Perhaps the most common is this one:
"I'm a beginner, and it would really help me learn if you could tell me
what camera settings you had when you took that picture."
This is, perhaps, the worst possible question a student can ask,
and conversely, it's the most irresponsible one a teacher can answer.
This dispels the old saying that "there is no such thing as a stupid
question." There definitely is such a thing, but it's not because the
student should know the answer to it; it's because the student is looking
for the quick solution to an otherwise trickier problem, and the teacher
is doing a disservice by answering that question.
If you peel away the "technical" aspects to photography, the real
meat of the craft can only be learned through exhaustive, repetitive
experimentation. Most photo "teachers" tell their students early on
to find the unique view that no one else has seen. But people unfamiliar
with photography have yet to develop artistic fundamentals, to understand
and appreciate the nuanced differences of various artistic styles and how
to build upon them in order to ultimately come up with uniqueness.
Indeed, this is how creativity is learned in other fields in the arts.
Musicians learn their craft by playing music written by others,
painters learn by emulating the masters, and authors learn by reading
and emulating the works of other writers. The process of copying
others' works is a series of experiments, and it's the combination of
attempts and failures in emulating others that helps you develop your
own style and unique vision.
But what about that "technique" thing? Sure, you need to understand
the basic physics involved—shutter speed, aperture, ISO settings—but
those are very simple concepts (no, really!) and while you need to
learn them eventually, don't regard them as barriers to creative
learning. In fact, when attempting to emulate other photos, it's the
very process of experimentation and eventually "landing" on the final
outcome that helps you evolve as a photographer. Yes, it takes time and
deliberation. But that's what you sign up for in the creative arts. There
is no shortcut to improving artistic skill.
Below is a series of tutorials that cover various photography techniques,
but as you may understand now, I am not a "paint by the numbers" sort of
teacher. I give instruction on methods that can be applied using the
most basic fundamentals of photography. I do not teach fundamentals;
you should already know how to push the button and basic functions of
your camera.
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