ELT notes

As much as I love photography, it hasn't crossed my mind to go to a formal course. Maybe not yet. But with the wealth of information online and my enthusiasm to explore on my own I don't see room for a formal course in the near future.

I have been shooting photographs every day for about 300 days now. Following the Dailyshoot prompts has given me some pleasant surprises. I have learnt quite a lot informally and I think it is a good idea to continue documenting it. Here is an illustrated summary of my photo discoveries.

-Overdoing it doesn't always render a better shot. The first one may be your best one.

-Prompts make me take pictures I woudn't otherwise have taken.

-It's a good idea to priorize fluency over accuracy. Do it fast. It's not about the best shot ever, but a fair enough shot. Play on. You'll take another one tomorrow.

-The photographer is more important than the camera. People do incredible things with an iPhone. I don't have an equipment with plenty of options. So I tend to get more carried away by composition than by technical aspects of aperture, focus and overall quality of the photo.

-Think light, then shoot. Even when you've found the cutest photo subject.

-Be there. Your photo can be in that place you walk by every every day. Notice the details.

-The trivial is as good a photo subject as a work of art. Shooting daily, you learn to photograph anything in front of you. Point of view does it.

Re-reading what I just wrote, I find it sounds a bit like rules. I do not know if there are rules to learn informally. Certainly there are patterns shaping in what I do. Experimenting daily you find beliefs about learning emerging quickly. This post is about jotting down those ideas before they are challenged by future learning. This is what works for me now.

I do have one rule. One rule only I am sure to follow: keep it up.