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Photography

Owned by Nathan Wailes
Last updated: Mar 25, 2018
4 min read

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I got into photography my freshman year of college because: 1) I figured that becoming a photographer for the newspaper would encourage me to go to lots of events on campus and get to know lots of people, and 2) I liked the process of photography, as it felt a lot like hunting/shooting a rifle (which I enjoyed for reasons unknown to me; maybe the movies/TV I watched growing up). if the pen is mightier than the sword, it truly seems to be the case that the cam is mightier than the gun. i myself don't hunt but i've spent time around people who do and so I'll add hunting analogies to each part of this b/c i really think it's a good analogy.


Some general steps that may improve your photography

Step 1: Get the best equipment you can (preferably spend $2k+).
- i.e. a DSLR and good lenses with a variety of focal lengths (zoom)
- ordinarily-mundane pictures will suddenly look amazing
- this is analogous to riflery b/c an inaccurate rifle will severely limit you, no matter how good a shot you are. For example, I've read that those beat-up AK-47s that you see rebels lugging around are very durable, but they're nowhere near as accurate as the M-16s that US troops use. Similarly, my old Canon a510 pocket-camera was way more durable than a modern DSLR, but it won't be able to produce images of anywhere near the same quality.

Step 2: Find interesting subject material.
- if you want to get famous, go to a war zone
- emotional, unusual, human subject material is usually the best. if you can't get all three in one picture, two out of three is usually pretty good too.
- analogy to riflery/hunting: i know a guy who goes from maine to upstate NY to hunt deer b/c the pickings are better. some people travel around the world to africa.

Step 3: Be willing to use uncomfortable methods to get a good shot.
- ex: getting an interesting angle even if you draw attention to yourself
- ex: asking strangers if you can take their pictures
- ex: staging photographs
- analogy to hunting: guys sit in tree stands in the cold for hours before dawn to get an advantage (that's uncomfortable)

Step 4: Take a LOT of pictures (hundreds if not thousands).
- when professional photographers are taking pictures of models, they'll take hundreds/thousands of pictures to get a single image.
- analogy to hunting: you need to spend a lot of time out in the field before you can expect to get good results

Step 5: Choose one photograph to display out of a hundred that you take.
- I, like most people, used to post every single picture I took, but eventually I came to the conclusion that this diluted the effect of each picture on the viewer (e.g. when I post 20 variations of an image, the best image of the set won't hit someone the same way that it would if it was presented by itself).
- analogy to hunting: hunters may kill a whole bunch of deer but only take the very best one to the taxidermist to have mounted.

Step 6: Make the photograph look better with Photoshop ($) or GIMP (free).
- most photographs look better if you sharpen them a little
- many photographs look better if you crop them a little/lot
- many photographs look better if you mess with the brightness/contrast
- analogy to hunting: take the animal you want mounted to a GOOD taxidermist and it'll look like it's still alive; take it to a bad taxidermist and it'll look like junk.

Step 7: When presenting the photograph with others, try to minimize repetition.
- analogy: in a movie, each scene should have an essential role to play in the progression of the film; no scene should be extraneous.
- analogy to hunting: having a bunch of different animals mounted in your home will be more visually interesting than having a bunch of the same animal.

Step 8: If necessary, include a caption to explain to the viewer the context of the picture.
- a lot of pictures will seem much more interesting when people know the story behind them
- analogy to hunting: being able to tell the story behind each mounted animal is more interesting than just displaying some animal you found at a garage sale.

Other advice

  • don't use flash
  • if your shot is liable to blur (e.g. you're shooting at night, or at something far away), steady the camera on anything you can that won't wobble. press it up against a wall or a lamppost or a tree, rest it on top of a fence or a car's roof. this technique is also very useful when shooting rifles.
  • if you're going to be doing street shooting, practice snap shots: keep your camera in a ready position (right hand ready to snap a shot, left hand under the lens, camera near your chest) and then practice rapidly raising the camera to your eye and taking a photo of something you've just spotted (it could be anything; a person, a bug, whatever). the goal is to 1) eliminate any hesitation about raising the camera and taking a picture of something, and 2) get your body to memorize the "groove" of rapidly raising the camera, zooming in on something, focusing the camera (if necessary), and taking the shot. when i went to spain i did this hundreds of times to get myself in the groove, and it worked well. not coincidentally, people do this with guns as well:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbkGGgR8PWE

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