The Beginner Photography Podcast

Manifesto Pt2 - To Be Half Way Decent at Photography You Must Dedicate All Of Your Time To It

• Raymond Hatfield

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#352 Today I cover Photography Manifesto Rule #2, To Be A Half Way Decent Photographer You Must Dedicate All of Your Available Time To It. That this does not mean focusing on it 24/7, instead I urge you to keep a photographical eye on in-between moments. 

THE BIG IDEAS

  • Story and Emotion Matter Most: Great photos are built on the ability to convey stories and emotions, not just technical perfection.
  • Dedicate Attention, Not Just Time: You grow as a photographer by consciously looking for moments, light, and composition in daily life—even without a camera in hand.
  • Tools Are Just Tools: Mastering your camera settings is valuable, but true artistry comes from seeing creatively and telling stories.
  • Critically Engage with Photography: Evaluating both your own and others’ photos deepens your understanding and improves your skills.

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Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Raymond Hatfield:

I asked you the beginner photography podcast community. What are those elements that go into making a great photo, right? Jim said story. He said, I will take a badly shot photo that tells a story over a perfect technical photo any day of the week. Steve said, freezing time to be able to capture that perfect action shot. Stephanie Robinson said, it's just one word, emotion. Did you notice something there? None of those photographers said, It's when I go out and shoot at f8. None of those photographers said, Oh, it's when I keep my ISO low.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to episode 352 of the Beginner Photography Podcast, brought to you by Cloud Spot, the All-in-one solution for photographers of all skill levels to deliver and sell your photos online. I'm your host, Raymond Hadfield, and today we are continuing our 10 part photography manifesto series. Now, if you haven't heard the Photography Manifesto overview episode where I break down what all 10 parts of the Photography Manifesto are. Be sure to check out episode 334. I put a link to that episode in the show notes to make it easier for you. Now, I created this Photography Manifesto because, to tell you the truth, I'm kind of fed up with what we're being told by, YouTubers or so called experts that have only been shooting for a year or two, but because they live in some tropical location, they can produce amazing photos every single time. Right? And they share these, these hacks and these tricks. And let me tell you something, using your sunglasses as a lens filter will not help you to become a better photographer. The photography manifesto will, that is my goal here. Now the photography manifesto was created with more than 10 years of professional photography experience and also some of the important takeaways that I've picked up from interviewing more than 300 world class guests, photographers here on the podcast. So with that, why don't we go ahead and just dive into what really matters in photography with photography manifesto item number two. So photography manifesto rule number one is the point of photography is to enrich the human experience. Now rule number two is what we're going to be talking about today. To be a halfway decent photographer, you must dedicate all of your time to it. Now, I can hear the collective groans from so many of you right now, from, miles away, all over the world, when I recorded this, technically in the past, from when you are hearing this. I can still hear it. And you're saying to yourself, Raymond, I have a job. Raymond, I have a job. two jobs. Raymond, I have a family. Raymond, I have responsibilities. Raymond, I have a sick parent or a kid that I look after. I can't possibly dedicate all of my time to photography. Well, that is what it takes. But I don't want you to confuse my words to mean to be a halfway decent photographer. You must ignore all of your other responsibilities. I want to challenge you to Now, I'm sure that you've heard this before, right? You, maybe you take a photo and somebody says something super arrogant like, Oh, wow, you know, what kind of camera do you have? It takes great photos. We've all heard this. As photographers, we know that so much goes into a great photo So, You know, much more than just buying the most expensive camera and then pressing a button, hoping for the best. To dedicate all of your time to photography does not have to mean holding the camera to your eye 24 hours a day, being ready at a moment's notice, taking photos, constantly. It is about thinking and seeing photographically in the gray areas, in the in between moments, right? Dedicating all of your time to photography means, paying attention photographically when you drive home in the evening, looking at the way that you can see the sunset through the trees, or maybe while you're out grocery shopping. Wow, look at all those repeating patterns there on the shelf. Maybe it's while you walk your dog. Oh, you see a squirrel running from, from this limb, and you can tell that it's going to jump from one branch to another, and then you anticipate that moment where the squirrel is perfectly, you know, jumping in the air in between those two branches. Dedicating all of your time to photography means intentionally paying attention in those in between moments. Here's the thing, depending on how new you are to photography, you may not understand all of these things yet. And if that's you, you're probably still learning the technical aspects of photography. What does this button do? What is this setting change? How come my photo is dark with these settings, but then with the same settings, it looks fine in these photos that I took earlier. and if that's you, you are in the weeds right now. You are trying to keep your head above water. You are just trying to make a photo that isn't too bright or too dark and is hopefully in focus. And I get it. I've been there. We've all been there. You're going to get past this point, but if that's where you're at right now, Then what you need help with is, is camera settings. So again, if that's where you're at, you can head to perfect camera settings. com. I want you to grab my free camera settings guide, 10 popular types of photography with my personal and professional photos as examples, as well as the camera settings that I used so that you can have an idea as far as where to start with your camera settings. So again, If you want it, grab it. It's free. PerfectCameraSettings. com. Again, PerfectCameraSettings. com. But if that is you, if that is where you're at, trying to learn your camera settings, that is not photography. Photography is storytelling. What you are trying to do is learn how to use the tool that you will then later go on to tell stories with. Anybody who has gone through that struggle and has come out the other end Meaning, you could walk into just about any lighting situation and be able to capture a base exposure. They will tell you that being able to do that, being able to capture a basic exposure, doesn't make a great photograph. What it makes is a document. But in that moment, that right there, when you realize that, Oh, I'm able to, to go to the park and capture a basic exposure. a basic exposure. It's not too bright. It's not too dark. I'm able to take some photos indoors and capture a basic exposure. It's not too bright. It's not too dark. I'm able to, go to, I don't know, an amusement park with my family or, you know, whatever, and be able to capture a basic exposure and not worry about, oh, is it going to be too dark? Do I have the right this? Do I have the right that? If that's where you're at and you realize, wow, these photos that are coming out aren't, great photographs, just because they're not too bright or too dark. They're just documents that starts one of the most exciting times in your photography journey. Because you now know how to use your camera as a tool. You don't look at the camera as, the creator of art. You look at the camera as a tool for you to be able to tell those stories, right? It's like when you have a hammer and everything looks like a nail. Meaning, when you know that your camera, you can use it to tell stories rather than just create an exposure. You start looking at the world differently, more like how your camera would see it. So suddenly, you're going to go out and you start exposing for highlights to, maybe add some, contrast and some drama to your images, rather than just setting your light meter to the center, again, for what your camera thinks is, quote unquote, properly exposed. That's when you start playing around with your camera, taking a photo of your dog from down low and discovering, Oh, wow, cool. It makes my dog look like a giant, right? Like a giant dog, dog, giant Clifford. So rather than just carelessly taking photos of your kid's soccer game, like you were doing before, because I know what I'm doing now I can get that, proper exposure. Now you decide to just wait an extra two seconds Until your child decides to go in and actually kick the ball. Running doesn't look particularly exciting, I gotta say. But when they kick the ball, wow. So suddenly, you realize. Oh, you're getting more keepers than ever before. And it's not just because your settings look good. You're realizing that it is more than that. It is more than just your settings. It's all the little details that make such a huge difference. It is the composition. It is the moment it is getting creative with how you see the world based on how your camera sees the world. Light, but here's the thing you're not going to get any of that until you start to pay attention. So here's what I did. I asked you the beginner photography podcast community. What are those elements that go into making a great photo, right? What are the elements? What are the ingredients? Jim said story. He said, I will take a badly shot photo that tells a story over a perfect technical photo. Any day of the week. Steve said, freezing time to be able to capture that perfect action shot. Now, this month's Community Spotlight interview guest Stephanie Robinson said, it's just one word, emotion. Adam said, it's the interaction with your subject. There's something about it that brings an extra layer of calmness and enjoyment that reminds me why I love taking photos. And Jessica shared a photo of a bubble on her counter that she found after he, she had, finished washing the dishes. And then she said, sometimes it's just looking at something mundane with a different perspective. Did you notice something there? None of those photographers said, It's when I go out and shoot at f8. None of those photographers said, Oh, it's when I keep my ISO low. None of those photographers said, It's when I keep my shutter speed above 1, 125th of a second. It's because they know that the truth is to be a decent photographer, you need to dedicate all of your time to photography, but you don't need a camera in your hand to dedicate time to photography. Growing up. I want to tell you a story here real quick. Growing up. I, uh, I would get car sick pretty easily. I was so much fun to go on road trips with, right? And, in fact, I still do get, pretty carsick, but over time I have developed tools to, lessen my chances of getting carsick. And one of those tools that I developed was just to stare out of the front window, all the way at the horizon, right? And while my stepsister was just blissfully reading away at her teen bot magazine and, obsessively writing every Backstreet Boys name onto her notebook with hearts all over, over and over again. I couldn't take my eyes off the road. Plus everybody knows that NSYNC was the far superior boy band, right? Well, anyway, we went on many car trips, growing up. We went to mountains, we went to lakes, we went to beaches. We went to, I don't know, unique locations, whatever. and I realized that I would have a completely different experience of our trip than she did. Just because I saw things that. She never did. From wildlife to, I don't know, interesting cars or road signs, roadside stops, police activity. just views, just views. Today, I still love to drive so that I can, see those things. and when you're the passenger, I understand, you can get bored. You're just sitting there. And it's easy to just look at your phone, and before you know it, you've missed the whole trip, and you're at your destination, and, maybe that's the goal for you, I don't know. But, I love seeing an overpass, up ahead, and seeing a plane in the sky, and seeing that the plane lines up directly over the overpass. I don't know why, it's just, compositionally it looks photographically interesting, you know? Do I take a photo of it? No, because I'm driving. I love when I'm driving and I see deer in a fog blanketed field, in the morning as the sun comes up. Do I take a photo of that? Typically not, because, again, I'm driving. I also love being at a, stoplight. cause at that time, you know, you can, look around you instead of just mostly straight ahead, you know, and I love to watch somebody who is, clearly in a hurry to cross the street and just paying attention to like, oh, when are they going to be, right in the center of the crosswalk, right? Paying attention to the timing of their steps and then the symmetry of the road and the buildings on each side. you know, and do I take a photo of that? I don't know. Maybe sometimes, you know, if it's a long light, while the car stopped. Yeah. But as I said earlier, photography is it's just storytelling. You have to tell a story and to have a story to tell. You have to know what that story is. Otherwise, all you're doing is you're just hoping for the best, imagine having the best pen in the world. Imagine having the best paper in the world. the best desk in the world, the best view from your desk in the world. Those elements aren't going to create the best story in the world. No matter what you write down on that paper, maybe those tools can help you get into the zone or, play some, small part in, in being able to help you, achieve clarity while you're trying to tell a story, but those tools aren't going to manufacture the story themselves. Now, next month's Photography Manifesto rule is moment matters most, not camera settings. And we're going to be talking a lot more about story, but I want to say here, so I guess what I'm saying there is that we're not going to dive into story a ton here, but to know the story, yeah, you have to see it with your eyes. And that means that you have to pay attention to these things to develop a muscle for doing so. The more that you look for anticipation, the more you're going to see it. The more you're going to look at composition, the more you're going to see it. Symmetry, the more you're going to see it. And it's more than just paying attention to the world around you. Yeah. However, I do think that that is the, the biggest one, right? It's also about inserting photography into other aspects of your life as well. Maybe when you get in the car, you know, to go to the gym, do what you're doing right now. Listen to photographers talk about photography. When you're at home, maybe rather than turning off the brain, and, just turning on the TV, maybe you can thumb through a photo book. I mean, do you know how much effort it takes, mental energy, that goes into designing, publishing, and sharing a photo book? It's not just like a short blog post that, some photographer posts on their website that is designed to get you to buy a piece of gear or sign up for a coaching program. Photobooks are the meat of what you are looking for. You know, in some photobooks, they have no words, and they just encourage you to just take in the photos. I love that because it forces you to ask, do I like this photo? It forces you to ask yes or no. It forces you to ask, why do I feel that way? It forces you to ask, what specifically about the photo do I like or don't like? It forces you to ask, what is the photographer trying to say here? it forces you to figure out how could they have more effectively How could they more effectively said what they're trying to say with this photo? And it forces you to ask, if I were trying to tell this story, how would I have taken this photo? Photo books engage you mentally in the process of photo making. Many times I have gone out to shoot and I thought I did a great job. Until I got home and I look at the photos on my computer and then I realize, how did I not see a trash can right in the middle of the frame or, I was shooting into the light wrong or, you know, maybe it just wasn't an interesting photo. I don't know, but sometimes you have to be removed from the image creation portion of the process to be able to build new pathways in how you would approach, photography, and photographing a subject. And to me, if you're not going to be shooting, it means that you have to fill the gray areas with photography related stuff, but know this, not all photography related stuff is equal, meaning just because it has something to do with photography does not mean that it's necessarily going to be beneficial. And in fact, it can be harmful. Now, the most productive thing that you can do as a photographer to get better at photography is shoot. There's no doubt about it. What do I say? The more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. That is the most productive thing you could do to be a better photographer. The second most productive thing you could do to be a better photographer is just simply paying attention to the world photographically. Again, paying attention to light, paying attention to composition, paying attention to symmetry, paying attention to timing. The third is just to look at photo books and to critique images that you see all around you. Right. Look at the photo books, critique those images. Look on social media, you know, whatever, critique those images. Maybe not out loud to that person, but it's asking yourself those questions that I brought up earlier. Do you like this photo? Yes or no? Why do you feel that way? What is it specifically about the photo that you do or don't like, you know, and so forth. What are they trying to say here? How would I take this photo if I was trying to tell this, same story? Now the fourth, it's doing exactly what you're doing right now and listening to conversations with photographers. Maybe it's listening to a, you know, me and a photography guest. It could be, watching some sort of photography round table on YouTube. It could be watching a photographer actually going out and shooting, just hearing their thoughts, that thought process. So whether it's a conversation with multiple photographers or just a conversation that the photographer is having with you, but a distant, and I mean a distant fifth. And in fact, I don't find it, particularly helpful at all. I think that it is a plague on our photography community. It is gear reviews, watching gear reviews. And this is what I'm talking about. Not all photography stuff is related equal. Even though gear reviews might be shared by photographers, it doesn't mean that it's necessarily beneficial. And listen, here's the thing. Any camera that you buy that isn't more than 15 years old, it's going to take amazing photographs when you tell it what to do. Watching gear reviews for gear that I don't know. You can neither afford, nor were you going to purchase in the first place is one of the biggest wastes of time in photography. I know how fun it is to lust over new gear. I know how cool it is to see how far tech has got us. I still to this day shoot with an X Pro2, Fuji X Pro2. When the X Pro3 came out, you better believe I wanted it. I, lusted after it. I watched all those videos of photographers shooting with it. But it's not helpful. Well, okay, hold on, let me put an asterisk on that statement because actually, gear reviews, can be useful when you know what you need in photography and you know what your current camera is missing and here's the kicker and you're ready to invest in a new camera or lens or piece of gear if you have a camera and it is not broken and you're not actively looking to purchase a new camera at the moment and you're watching gear reviews congratulations you are waffling away your time of doing anything productive in photography. If you're not in the market for a new camera, who cares how many frames per second the new Sony or Canon or whatever shoots? If you've been shooting for less than a year, why are you watching the third review video on a wide angle full frame lens that somebody said has a mild vignette? p By the time you're actually in the market for such a lens, a new version is going to be out. And then you're going to have to do research on that. Learning about what camera system has the best autofocus while your camera sets sits on a shelf is not going to help you on your journey to becoming a better photographer. It's not. Full stop. Shooting well. Even if it's just the the dew on the grass outside in the morning. Looking at how the light from your lamp in the living room casts a rather hard light on your dog while, uh, they're sleeping under it. That will. Reading photo books will. Questioning your own photos and the photos of others will. Watching to see what camera overheats after it's been under a heat lamp will not. So hopefully you can now see that you don't need to have a camera glued to your face 24 hours a day to dedicate all of your time to photography, photography, storytelling. The creative process is often more mental than it is physical. As a wedding photographer, I found that, um, if I went into the day with an idea of say, how I wanted to shoot, what I was looking for, what the final product would look like, the day would be so much easier because, you know, rather than just being reactionary to what happened around me, I would use my camera as the tool that it is to create. What I put together in my head. And in that scenario, the camera is the least important part of the image. Because guess what? Everybody there is going to have an iPhone. Every photo that they take is going to be technically properly exposed because that's what iPhones do. they just take the same photo. So start paying attention to light, start paying attention to shadow, start paying attention. to moment and when something is going to happen. Start paying attention to composition and the viewpoint of where your camera is when you point it at your subject. None of these require you to have a camera in your hand. Just the eyes that you use to see and the brain that you use to come up with ideas. This. This. is how you dedicate all of your time to becoming a better photographer. You can do it. I know it. Stop watching gear reviews. Start shooting. Start paying attention to the world photographically. Start looking at photo books. Start critiquing your images, looking at the images of the world around you and keep listening to conversations with photographers. That is it for this week. That is it for this manifesto week. Until next time. The more that you see the world around you and envision the photo in your head. The better of a photographer you will be when you pick up your camera, which is right now, you're gonna go pick up your camera. You're gonna go take a photo. I don't care what it is. Go take a photo. All right. Talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to the Beginner Photography Podcast. If you enjoy the show, consider leaving a review in iTunes. Keep shooting and we'll see you next week.