Let me start by saying, many who are interested in photography always want to know if they should buy a real camera or not… the answer is simple: if you are interested in photography, and you are not happy with your phone, for whatever reason, buying a “real” camera, could be an interesting way to continue exploring your photography hobby.
One myth of getting a “real” camera is that it’s always about getting “better quality” pictures. While that is often true, getting a real camera isn’t just about getting a higher quality picture. A major reason for the real camera is also to give you something to think about with regards to your photography. And in thinking about it, you may find that there are things you would like to do with the camera that become part of your personal style or exploration of photography.
I think that if you focus only on the “quality” aspect of the hardware you start to miss out on the bigger picture of being a photographer. Quality is one of those things that tends to even out quite a bit over time. Even today a lot of the latest cellphones can take great pictures when conditions allow for it.
That is why I started www.learnphotographyskills.com. I really wanted to expand on the skills that photographers can have instead of focusing solely on the quality of the camera. A lot of the information that is out there is more about gear than skills.
And a lot of the skills that are shown out there, are not real skills. Skills are not necessarily a thing that is super entertaining. But when you go on these websites such as Instagram, there’s a very strong focus on entertainment and attention grabbing. Just because something is entertaining, doesn’t make it good or correct. Should you waste time trying to learn or understand silly skills that are just used to get likes on Instagram? Or should you invest in getting real knowledge that is going to allow you to create your own concepts?
It’s a chicken before the egg situation. If all you do is seek out the end results, you’re putting the chicken before the egg. But you can’t make your own chickens, if you don’t learn about the egg. You know what I mean? Getting real skills is getting eggs. When you invest in skills, you’ll have the ability to create your own concepts that people can find entertaining rather than just chimping out and doing a monkey see monkey do copycat of some junk you saw on Instagram.
Not everyone will agree with me on that, in fact, many people will find it annoying. The reason is usually because they don’t have the skills, and they know they don’t. So, if the world is based on skills, they lose. Therefore, these people will often advocate against learning skills, against investing in your hobby, against real active participation in the learning process. These people who think like this are everywhere. They’re on Youtube, they’re on Instagram, they’re on Facebook. They thrive on these platforms where thought is minimized, and action is maximized. Action without thought is the survival characteristic of people on social media.
If you really want to get good at any subject, it’s important to realize that it’s not an overnight kind of thing. You’ve got to have a fundamental understanding of the subject as your foundation. Having a strong foundation allows you to grow in more directions than you would without that foundation. That helps you be a better problem solver when you’re out there in the field.
People often think photography is “easy”. Well, imagine the stress of having to photograph something that is only going to happen once in a lifetime? Such as a wedding or maybe a championship match between two baseball teams. And what are you going to tell your boss when he asks if you got a shot of the player hitting a home run, but you missed it because your shutter speed was wrong? You can’t rewind the clock. You can’t undo. You can’t try again. There’s only ONE SHOT in photography, and that’s what makes photography hard. And that’s why you need to make sure your skills are rock solid if you want to be a photographer.
If you want to start on this journey, check out my Manual Mode Bootcamp. It could be the thing that changes your life!
