The Beginner Photography Podcast

514: Master Control in Photography: Focus on What Matters

• Raymond Hatfield

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In this episode of the podcast, I focus on mastering what’s within your control in photography. I share personal stories about overcoming unexpected challenges, such as weather disruptions, to emphasize the importance of capturing meaningful moments. You'll learn the value of building expertise in manual camera settings, thorough preparation, and honing your skills with the gear you already own.
 
THE BIG IDEAS

  • Preparation and Adaptability: Prepare for your sessions but stay adaptable. Capture meaningful moments even when plans change.
  • Client Satisfaction Over Perfection: Clients value photos that reflect their true selves more than perfect settings.
  • Maximize Current Gear: Focus on developing your skills and making the most of the equipment you have.
  • Control What You Can: Concentrate on controllable factors like lighting and composition, freeing yourself from worrying about external elements.

PHOTOGRAPHY ACTION PLAN

  1. Master Manual Settings: Spend time daily practicing manual settings, adjusting aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Test these settings in various lighting conditions, recording your results to understand their impact.
  2. Prepare for Shoots: Create a detailed pre-session checklist: Ensure batteries are charged, memory cards are cleared, and camera settings are ready. Scout your shoot locations in advance to identify ideal shot angles and lighting scenarios.
  3. Improve Composition Skills: Dedicate weekly sessions to studying and practicing different composition techniques like the Rule of Thirds and Leading Lines. After each session, review and analyze your shots to learn what works and what needs improvement.
  4. Enhance Client Communication: Clearly discuss and agree on shot expectations with clients before the session to avoid any misunderstandings. Follow up with clients after the shoot to gather feedback and improve future sessions.
  5. Continuous Skill Development: Regularly engage in skill-building activities, such as taking online photography courses or watching instructional videos on challenging topics. Participate in photography challenges or projects to push your boundaries and expand your creative and technical abilities.

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Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Raymond Hatfield:

I would much rather have all of the talent in the world and only an iPhone than no talent and the most expensive gear. So imagine if you could build up your talent by focusing on things like composition, by learning new techniques, by looking at light, by getting out of auto mode, by learning what shutter speed does, by learning what aperture does, by learning how to use your camera's ISO dials and autofocus settings. Imagine how powerful you would be to build up those skills with an entry level camera, and then, when the time comes, purchase a flagship camera. Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatchfield. And today, I want to start off with a little story. So, maybe you can relate to this. a few weeks ago, our family went on a cruise. And, as the, family photographer that I am, it's kind of my job to capture all the fun memories and, everything that we do on board. But, when you can't get out of bed because the boat is rocking like a Rush concert in Toronto, you don't get to capture many of those memories. And, you just lay in bed, and try not to think about all the fun that everybody else is having, and everything that you're gonna leave home without capturing. So, my question to you is, do you ever feel, sometimes that, that the images that you create, that your photography is almost at the mercy of things that are entirely out of your control, in my case, it was the weather. The weather wouldn't cooperate. The boat was rocking like crazy. For you, it might be a subject that won't sit still, or even the cost of gear as photographers. It's easy for us to feel frustrated when we can't control these factors. And sometimes that frustration that we have can take the joy just right out of a shoot. But here's the thing that I want to focus on today. No pun intended. By focusing on the things that we can't control, what we're doing is that we're holding ourselves, when we let the unpredictable things, dictate, the results that we're able to achieve, that can keep us from picking up the camera entirely, right? If you go out and you have a really bad, shoot, nothing seems to go your way. The first thing that you're not going to want to do is pick up the camera and go out and shoot again, right? There can be some hesitation there. But when we focus too much on the things that are outside of our control, what we do is we lose sight of this. Incredible power that we have as photographers to create, to grow, to become the photographers that we want to be, right, to be able to adapt in those situations that are less than ideal. So in today's episode, What we're going to do is try to flip that mindset around. We're going to be diving into new approaches to help you focus on what you can control so that you can, create the photos that you are proud of, no matter the situation that you may find yourself in. So I'm going to share some practical tips of course, and some mindset shifts as well so that by the end of this episode, maybe you'll feel empowered to take charge of your own photography. That's the goal. So, before we get on into this episode, you know that this episode is brought to you by Cloudspot. With Cloudspot, you can sell your photos through prints, through products, and of course, digitals as well. Cloudspot. com You can easily set up a storefront in CloudSpot in minutes and start earning more with every gallery you send. So go ahead and grab your free forever account over at deliverphotos. com and only upgrade when you are ready. So this episode is really all about understanding the things that are in your control and understanding the things that are not in our control. And once we do that, we're going to be able to find clarity as photographers. We're going to find it easier or maybe not easier, but definitely less, stressful when we're out shooting. Because, I'll tell ya, as a, wedding photographer for many years, the thought of rain was always difficult, Oh, it could be raining, it could start snowing, you know, all these things. And then that really limits what you can and can't shoot, especially if you had all these ideas. But we, we don't control the weather, right? So what we have to do is we have to one, again, determine the things that are in our control and determine the things that are not in our control so that we can better prepare ourselves. So now when I was in film school, our, producing teacher said this quote and it has stuck with me for the past 17, 18 years or so. And that quote is that failing to prepare is preparing to fail. to fail. Now, what that means is that we need to take control of the things that we are, that are within our control. If we want to fail succeed and I think that we can all kind of understand that idea, right? If we want to make something happen, we have to put ourselves in a position to make that happen. But again, there's a lot of things that are completely out of our control. So this brings us to kind of part one of this episode, which is to embrace the things that are uncontrollable. So within photography, you know, when we go out and we shoot, it really starts before we even pick up the camera, pack our bags and, get in the car and head out. We really start with this idea of what it is that we want to capture. Maybe you want to capture, a beautiful morning scene, you know, in a serene location. Maybe you have a family shoot coming up and you got this idea. You really want to capture images that are just full of connection. Or maybe you have an engagement shoot or a wedding and you just really want to capture the love that people have for each other. Maybe you're going out, into nature and you want to capture, images of birds or bears, who knows all of those things. Are not in our control, right? So we have to figure out all the things that are completely unpredictable and uncontrollable. So number one is the weather. So growing up in California, the weather was pretty predictable, for eight months of the year, at least where I lived. The weather was balmy most of the time. And then the winter, it was just kind of wet, a little bit dark, cloudy, maybe a little windy. That was pretty much it. it was a great, consistent, location to live in as far as weather goes moving out to Indiana. I have to keep an umbrella in the car in the winter. One day this isn't even a story that I'm going to get into here, but there was one day It was like a hundred degrees. It was hot. It was beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. went to a mall I left my sunroof open because it was beautiful outside I went inside the mall for 15 minutes and when I came out It had rained so much that the parking lot had flooded, and my car had flooded as well. Tyler, if you're listening, you were there, you saw it, you know it happened. It was the craziest thing ever, and he was just like, Yeah, that's, that's Indiana, that's what happens here in Indiana. Completely uncontrollable, I couldn't have known that that was going to happen, right? So the weather, of course, is one thing. There's also things that come up that are completely unexpected, such as like, just weird Interruptions during a shoot. I've been to a park to shoot an engagement session where dogs were fighting with each other. And of course, that takes away your attention from what's going on. It can kind of break that flow that you have going. And then there's also things like the rising cost of gear, which mentioned earlier, we don't control the cost of gear, we can, control what gear it is that we, buy, but we can't control what the cost of that gear is. We also don't control things such as how people are going to act, their wardrobe choices, right? All of these things. We don't control this. You can show up to a shoot and think this couple's gonna be so great. It's gonna be awesome. We're gonna have a great time. Again, I'm gonna capture him just full of connection and that's not gonna work. Again, I've had this happen before. A couple got into a fight just trying to get there that now they're just like trying to survive And they're putting on this really fake smile the entire time so we can't really control their emotions. These are things that we have influence over, but we can't control them 100 percent ourselves Nothing takes the sail, takes the wind out of your sails as when you, you show up to an engagement session excited, like you're ready to go, and then the couple gets outta their car, the family gets outta their car and they're not in the mood at all. Or the dude is just like, what are we doing here? What's this? Or they're constantly checking their phone, like, yeah, the game's on. I was really hoping to watch it today. I've been in this situation and again. It feels like a major, setback, right? I'm sure that you've been there too. So, what I want to encourage you to do is think of these setbacks as simply part of the creative process. Because if we cannot control the weather, if we cannot control uncooperative subjects. If we cannot control the cost of, gear and, interruptions that we may have during a shoot, we have to reframe the way that we think about them. Because if we can't control it, then there's no point in worrying about it. Then there's no point in getting upset about it. Right? My son came home, the other day and, he's still in elementary school. So they're learning about emotional intelligence. And, he told me that he was asked a question, and the question is asking yourself, do you have any control? And if you do have control, then why worry about it? Because you can take control and, influence it in the way that. You want it to go. And if the answer is no, you don't have any control, then why worry about it? So no matter what the answer is, whether you do have control over something or you don't, the answer to that is then, well, then why worry about it? Because if you don't have control, then. Worrying is just wasting your own mental, energy. This energy that, again, I'm suggesting trying to reframe these things that we cannot control, these setbacks as part of our creative process. Suddenly, when you encounter a situation where you show up and, again, I don't know why I'm gonna keep using this example. Maybe a couple just got into an argument and, like, they're not thrilled. This is now a part of the creative process that you need to try to overcome, okay? So, how can you lighten the mood? How can you, get them, to connect with each other more. How can you still get images that will show off their love for each other, the connection that they have, the bond in an artful and beautiful way. How are you going to do that? You need to be able to take these things that are out of your control and reframe them into, again, a part of your creative process. Now that sounds. really easy, right? That sounds like, oh, yeah, I should just, you know, if somebody shows up and they're in a bad mood, I should just, be able to reframe this and have a real good time and joke with them so that then they can get into a good mood But again, we're still not in control of their mood. We're not in control of somebody else's mood We see that it's raining outside. We think this is terrible We reframe this setback as part of the creative process and now suddenly hmm Well, it did rain on their wedding day. So I'm gonna have to feature this What if I backlight them while they're in the middle of a kiss and it's just this beautiful rain coming down behind them and it looks like they're dancing and kissing in the rain when really maybe they're under an awning and they're not getting rained upon but the way that you frame it can make it look like they're out there having this magical whimsical time on their wedding day when it actually rained right, but we don't control whether it rains or not What we have to do is lean into these uncontrollables and again use this as an opportunity to think differently and to problem solve so How do we do that? Right? Well, I think we have to first think about what are the things that that are in our control, right? So the first step in this process is, well, it's part two, which is to shift our focus to the things that are in our control. I'm gonna put myself in your position, right? You are relatively new photographer. You're looking maybe to do your first family session. You want to go out, you've already, connected with this couple or this family and you're going to go out to the park. But guess what? You get out there and for some reason your camera's just not taking the photos that you were hoping that it was going to. It is focusing on the wrong spot. A lot of the images look darker than what they should be, or maybe it's blurry for some of the photos. The first thing that I'm going to say, I guess, is that, when your camera is in auto mode, you don't control anything. So again, that's another reason why it is so incredibly important to get out of auto and into another mode, such as manual, so that you can now increase the number of things that you do have control over so that you can start getting the photos. that you want to get, right? So what are the things that we can do before this session to ensure that we are ready, that we can do our best? Again, we cannot control their mood, we cannot control the weather, we cannot control the outfits that they bring, but what we can do is we can prepare our gear, we can make sure the batteries are charged, we can make sure that we have an extra battery, we can make sure that our memory card is already formatted and that it's clean and that there's nothing else on it so that we're ready to just start shooting. We can practice. Making adjustments to our camera before the shoot so that we know exactly what we need to do. We can pre visualize photos that we would like to be able to get and I've had this happen to me before as well, where you show up and it's beautiful outside, but you can see that clouds are coming in. And that the light is going to start changing quickly, or you schedule it just a bit too late, you know, for golden hour and golden hour is almost done. We're about to go into blue hour. And the amount of available light that you have is running out quick. And again, you don't control that, right? So we can pre visualize the shots that we want to get so that we can be quick and efficient. If we run into, an issue like that, where again, we're late or the light is changing quickly or something like that, we can research the environment in which we are going to be shooting. If you're going to be shooting at a park, or if you're going to be shooting at a venue, or if you're going to be shooting at a location that you've never been before, you can go research that spot. You can go see what it's all about. And then you can take that list of pre visualized shots and then kind of pair them up with different locations so that again, you can be ready to go. You can look very well prepared, and just being in that situation where you are well prepared, where you do look like you know exactly what you're talking about, even when you're struggling sometimes. That can change their, a family or a couple, their, moods around as well. Because there's nothing worse than, thinking, Oh, I'm gonna be here for an hour and an hour and a half. This dude's not gonna know what he wants. We're gonna be walking around all over the place. I just wanted to watch the game today. That's all that I wanted to do and now I have to be out here with this dude or this woman who has no idea what she's doing and this is taking forever. ever, right? When you say that you got your stuff, when you can show that you got, your stuff taken care of, that can help influence the mood of the rest of the shoot. Another thing that you can control is just planning for backup ideas. What if it does rain? What if your battery dies? What if your camera dies? What if, you know, one spot in particular that you want to take a photo is under construction now. What are you going to do? These are the things that are under your control. The key here is, staying resilient. It is not giving up. It is not allowing yourself to get discouraged because once you let that happen, It's all over. It's all over. When you have a family in front of you, and the kids are just acting up, it's not going very well. Or, the mom has one pose that she goes to every single time and it just looks so fake, when the rest of her family is, you know, natural and having fun. And you're like, what is going on here? You cannot Give up, right? What you have to try to do is be open to improvising, trying something new, because the first time you have that happen to you, and you have this couple that, or again, this mom who keeps going to the same pose every single time. And then surprise, surprise, when you deliver the photos, she's like, wow, I was really looking for more variety. And it's like, Hmm, you know, you think to yourself, well, that's not a me problem. That's a you problem. Right? In some way, it is your fault as a photographer, because you can be in control of the communication that you have with your couples, with your subjects, families, whatever, to try to learn exactly what it is that they want. And if they want a mix of camera wear, not camera wear photos, if they want a mix of looks and poses and variety, then, well, now it's on you. To prepare for those things and try to get those. If you don't do any of that, then yeah, it's on you. If you don't prepare, it's on you. If you do prepare and then they still don't like them, well, their opinion of your work is not up to you and you can't control that. You have to be in the mindset. That you are going to be able to capture something, right? You have to, be able to build that muscle, strengthen that muscle to be able to find inspiration in unexpected places. I once had an engagement session. I actually, decided to plan four engagement sessions in one day. and it was going to be back to back to back. I would have 15 minutes between each engagement session. and to make it easier, I just did them all in one location. It was actually like engagement mini sessions. Okay. That's why to make it easier on myself, it was all on one location. But I, I booked all of these like two months in advance. I looked forward to a calendar and I was like, okay, when are peak fall colors? That's going to be at the end of October. Okay. Sounds good. So I planned for fall mini sessions to be like the last week of October. And I booked out all these sessions and I thought, okay, great. This is going to be awesome. And the week before crazy windy. All the trees lost their leaves. So we get out here and it just sticks. All right. So now I've sold beautiful fall engagement sessions. And what happened is there's no beautiful fall leaves. It's just, it just sticks. So now I had to stay in that mindset of, okay, I still have to be able to deliver something beautiful to this couple. I can't just say, sorry guys. And then refund, for engagement sessions. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to make it the best that I can. And that comes down to preparation. So I knew that, once it was really windy and everything started losing its leaves, I had to figure out how to make the best of it. I knew that all the couples would be coming in some sort of like fall themed outfit because I was in control of my communication and I called them and I said, Hey, wear something fall, wear something with color, reds, greens, yellows. That's good stuff, wear that sort of stuff. And, they all did, which was great. So, in my head, what I did was I planned on using by pre visualizing shots with a longer lens. So that it wasn't as, wide and environmental to show all these naked trees. It was tighter. It was more focused on their connection and their love and, who they are together as a couple. Now, were they the beautiful fall engagement photos that I was hoping for and maybe they were hoping for? No, but Did they love them? Yeah, they so absolutely loved them because it showed off who they were. If I went in and didn't change my game plan, and like I said, just took these wide environmental photos of just stick trees, it wouldn't have been as beautiful. They wouldn't have enjoyed them as much. So I had to take control of the types of images that I wanted to capture and then be able to deliver those to them, But in those moments, it is really tough. It is really tough to get there. And know the types of photos that you could have got if the wind, waited a few days. So, I know how hard it can be to stay in that mindset of stay positive, fix these problems. because essentially you just turned into a firefighter by putting out all of these uncontrollable fires that are going on around you and try to save them so that you can capture these great photos. But when you do stay positive and you do focus on the things that you can control then You know that at the end of the day, if the photos didn't turn out well, you did literally the best that you could, which is all that you can ask for. Another thing that we can't control is again, cost of gear, price of gear, what gear we have, because otherwise we would just. All by the best gear right away. And then this wouldn't be an issue, but it's not, there are legitimate financial, decisions that have to be made when it comes to photography. If this is just a hobby for you, it doesn't make sense to spend, several thousand dollars if. You're just getting into it, but you think to yourself, okay, well, if I can, if I have to buy the entry level gear, that's fine. I can get into it later. I'll be able to buy, the higher end gear, I guess, more professional gear, But in like the beginner photography podcast, Facebook group, I have. I've seen photographers post photos and say things like sorry it was only taken with a, Nikon D3200 or, uh, Canon T7i. These entry level cameras. But they're apologizing for the camera that it was taken with. And that's something that we cannot allow ourselves to do because it doesn't make sense to, complain about the gear that we don't have. It is easier to take a phenomenal photo than ever before. Today's entry level cameras are far superior technologically to anything that we ever had with film. The trap that we get ourselves in is that we look at the images of professional photographers who are more than likely using flagship cameras and say, wow, these are incredible images. I wish I could take images like that. It must be the camera, right? They're clearly taking it with this really expensive camera. It must be the camera, but what we are completely discounting is the years of practice that it took to get there. And many of it is just with those entry level cameras that you may have, instead of focusing on the things that you can't, such as, possibly afford new gear, we need to control the things that we can control things such as, mastering your technique. Experimenting with things such as composition. You can do that with your cell phone experimenting and learning about light so that you can get out there and be more visually aware so that you can see light so that you can use light so that you can capture better images than with just simply a more expensive camera because I will tell you I would much rather have all of the talent in the world And only an iPhone than no talent and the most expensive gear and the talent I am in control of. So imagine if you could build up your talent by, again, focusing on things like composition, by learning new techniques, by looking at light, by getting out of auto mode, by learning what shutter speed does, by learning what aperture does, by learning how to use your camera's ISO dials and autofocus settings. Imagine how powerful you would be to build up those skills. With an entry level camera, and then, when the time comes, purchase a flagship camera. So now you have the gear and the talent, and that goes back to if you fail to prepare, prepare to fail. You're preparing for success by focusing on mastering the techniques, experimenting with composition, learning about lighting. So that when the time comes, To perform and you do decide to invest in more expensive gear. You're now prepared for success. That's like that other quote, luck is when preparation meets opportunity. How many times have you looked at a photo and said, wow, that dude was lucky or like, what a great photo. That person was in the right place at the right time. How many beautiful sunsets have you seen in your life? How many amazing. How many moments have you witnessed? How many times has your child laughed and it has just been so beautiful? How many times have you went on a trip and seen something new and unique and you want to share these things with the world, but you didn't have either the interest in photography at the time or, any skills related to photography? I'm guessing quite a bit, unless you grew up with a camera in your hand. I'm guessing you've seen a lot of amazing things in your life that you don't have great photos of. You would consider that unlucky. Wow, I saw this great thing, I didn't get a photo of it. That would be in the unlucky corner. So now, as time goes on, as you are now interested in photography, you decide to prepare yourself mentally by, again, learning about camera settings, by learning what your camera can do, focusing on composition, learning about lighting. That's the preparation part. So now you're prepared. You know what it takes to take a great photo, and then You meet opportunity, a beautiful sunset, a photo of your grandchild, laughing, Something incredible that you want to share with the world. And now you have this opportunity in front of you and you have the preparation of the work that you put into learning photography. And now you're going to capture an image that is incredible that people are going to say, wow, that's amazing. That right there is what luck truly is when preparation meets opportunity. So I know that, shooting an auto, it seems easy. I'll let the camera figure out what, how it's going to take a photo. But when you leave your camera in auto, you're leaving so much out of your control and not only that your camera is going to take the exact same photo that everybody else with that camera is going to take. There's going to be nothing unique about it. You're not putting yourself into the photo at all. That is why learning manual is so, so, so important. But I know how difficult it can be to, know what camera settings to use. When do you use this aperture over that aperture? How do you know what shutter speed is too high or too low? How do I determine what ISO I should use if it's only kind of cloudy outside? I wanted to help you out by creating a free guide for you to download, which is actually our most popular guide ever. It is called picture, perfect camera settings in it. I share photos, personal and professional photos of mine of more than 10 different types of photography and the settings that I used for each one and how to know which settings to change and when and why. So if you're looking to take control of something in photography, and you're still shooting in auto. Then I highly recommend that you download this free guide to get you started so that again you can start taking control. So as we start to kind of wind down here, I want to leave you with a very, very practical tip that helped me immensely. What we need to do is figure out how to stay focused on the things that we can control because it is great to understand. Okay. Yeah I know that I can control my camera. I know that I can control the communication that I have with people. I know that I control what time I wake up to go out and photograph a beautiful sunrise. I know that I can control all these things. I know that I can't control, people's attitudes or their outfits or whatever, but then when you show up to shoot, man, it sure feels like the burden of everything going wrong. It's like, It is rests on your shoulders, even if it is completely out of your control. So the most practical exercise that I can give you to stay focused on what you can control is this before. You decide to go out and shoot, whether it be a session for a family, a couple, or whether you're just going out and, you have a family vacation to a new location, and you're hoping to capture some great memories of your family and, you know, have a good time. What you need to do is write down what are the things that you cannot control. And then write down what are the things that you can control. So on my cruise that I took with my family, the things that I would write down is what can I not control? I know that I cannot control the weather. I can't control if it's rainy. I can't control if it's sunny. I can't control if it's cloud cover. I can't control if it's windy. I can't control if our boat, decides to, go right into hurricane. I can't control those things. So I can't control the weather condition. I also can't control the mood and the energy of everybody else. We have young kids. Sometimes they get tired. Sometimes they get cranky. Sometimes they get hungry because they don't want to get out of the pool and, go get some delicious cruise pizza. I can't control unexpected interruptions. I can't control if we have safety briefing. I can't control somebody walking into my frame. I can't control these things. I can't control, the lighting changes outside. I can't control the direction of the sun. Man, how many photos would have been so much better if, the sun was in a different position and not hitting my kids right in the face and they're giving me the squinty eye? Oh my gosh, but I can't control it. Those things. And now, so you write that on half of a piece of paper and then the other half of the piece of paper, what are the things that you can control? Well, I know that I can ensure my gear is ready to go. I can make sure that my camera's charged. I can make sure that I have my, weather resistant lens on the camera, just in case I get some splashes from the pool. I can, control. That my memory card is backed up and clean and ready to go each day. I can control, the ideas that I want for my photos. I can control, maybe gatherings because it was a family vacation, it wasn't just my family. It was my wife's family and it was, my family, my mom, and my aunt as well, I can control the idea of wanting to capture, different pairings of people, and how I want to capture those photos. I can control whether we have a different location, because guess what, even though this spot in the front of the boat looks all Titanic y, because of the wind, the hair is just blowing in everybody's face, and it doesn't look good, maybe we'll go to the back. I can control my own mindset and be flexible, you know, I spent an entire day in bed, I did not get out of bed at all, but I had to stay positive, because there's nothing, there's nothing that I could do about that, so what I did instead was I just, I just, cold through some of the photos that I had taken on the days previous and I still made progress that day, even if it wasn't actually taking additional photos and I can control things like the communication, Hey babe, today, you know, talking to my wife today, I want to make sure that we get a few photos such as X, Y and Z. let me know what your plans are so that we can coordinate, maybe tonight's elegant night It'd be great to get this type of photo on this night So that there's no unexpected Changes, or it feels like nothing's just coming up out of the blue. I can control all of those things. And then again, before you go out and shoot, you look at this piece of paper and say, okay, these are the things that I can't control. These are the things that I can control so that. Like I said earlier, when the poo starts to hit the fan, you can take that mental, inventory in your head and say, Ugh, you know what, I can't control this. I can't control this thing right now. So, what I can do is either live with it. Or I can readjust and turn it into something that I can control. Or if something does go wrong, you say, Oh, wow, I was actually 100 percent in control of this next time. I either need to be better about this or this is 100 percent my fault. And I'm just going to sulk in the pain of knowing that I missed, the shot or something like that, but again, just that practice right there makes it so, so, so, so much more easy for you to go out and capture photos that you're going to be happy with, to make the act of photography feel more fun, feel more engaging, feel more productive, And when that happens, you're more likely to share your photos with friends and family. You're more likely to, do something with them, turn them into a book, get a few prints made up. and again, just share those images with yourself, your family, with the world, however you want to, because photography will be so much more personally. And at the end of the day, that is my goal in photography is that I would love for photography to be a part of my life that fulfills me. And a lot of that comes down to the mood that I'm in. It comes down to the mindset that I have. And again, if you go out and maybe you're the same way, if you're using photography purely as a hobby and not as a revenue or a business, then you know that going out and having a good time in photography is incredible, like it is such an incredible feeling. And it's 100 percent your mood and your mindset. So when you can get those things right, you're going to have a great day. Again, before I leave, I don't think I mentioned it earlier. Grab my, free guide on picture perfect camera settings, which you can do by heading over to perfect camera settings. com Again, that is perfect camera settings. com to grab your free guide right now. Now focus on the things that you can control, completely ignore the things that you cannot control, and you will be a happier photographer. That is it for today until next week. Remember the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.