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I often watch people with cameras as they take photos. It can be a fun or frustrating experience. Sitting back and watching something like this almost makes one want to call our Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and tell him to forget a flag amendment, make one to keep cameras out of the hands of idiots.
Yep, the world is full of people who have no idea what they are doing with a camera. What is worse is that some of them don't even know why they are taking pictures other than a spouse or someone handed them the thing and said "use it".
On the other end of the spectrum are those to whom using a camera is and act of loving. They know their camera better than their lover.(maybe this is why so many great shooters seem to have relationship troubles) Anyway, they are comfortable with the whole process of taking pictures. They are comfortable and know their gear and their results show it.
Every one of us started out knowing nothing about photography but somehow we got bit by the photo bug. It could be worse, it might have been bowling or raising those weird hairless cats. But, photography is its own kind of torture. No sooner do you get really comfortable with a camera/lens/film combination than it breaks/gets lost/goes out of production. So, you break in a new one and go on, all the while getting older and turning into one of the 'old timers' who talks of the old 'wonderflex' of long ago, saying thing like "nothing in the world takes pictures that good anymore."
Reality is that what we have now is probably sharper and can take better photos than we ever thought even 10 years ago, much less the camera of our youth. But there is one factor that makes that old relic stand out in memory-it was comfortable.
For whatever reason the camera was comfortable to use and because of that you felt your images were better(whether they were or not). If you were good or talented the images probably were better than with another camera. After all, if you really enjoy a particular piece of gear you will use it more often and get even more familiar with it, and you can't help getting better results.
That is how you keep getting better. Find what you like, what feels good to you and learn to use it. Learn it well so you are very comfortable with it. In this case familiarity doesn't breed contempt, it breeds better images just as it fosters confidence.
Put an unfamiliar camera in the hands of any top photographer and they can still get good results. But put their favorite in their hands and the results will improve immediately. We like what feels good to us and we work better with it.
We get better results.
So, how to get really familiar with our cameras?
First, instead of making excuses for your gear, make images. Get out and use the darn thing. You may not have the latest $2000 lens but that shouldn't stop you. Make do with what you have. Really learn to use it. And I mean USE it. Not sit at home and read spec sheets or magazine articles. Go out and photograph. The only way to get comfortable with a camera is to actually use the thing to take pictures, look at the results and then take more pictures. Over and over and over again.
Ever wonder how Cartier-Bresson got so many good pictures? First, he didn't brand hop all the time. Nor did he constantly change his camera. He found a camera he liked and learned, really learned how to use it. No excuses. He went out and took pictures. Over and over until using the camera was second nature.
Learn to use your camera and get very familiar with it and your photography will improve. A lot of the creative energy will be freed when you don't have to stop and think 'which way do I turn the focus ring to get closer?'. When your gear is comfortable you will be and your results will get better and better, even if you don't recognize it right away.
And yes, some images will be technically sharper with a new L or ED series lens, but if you are uncomfortable with it and unfamiliar with it you will get a bunch of technically sharper images that just are not as good as you were doing-until you get familiar with your new glass. Eugene Smith never shot with a 80-200 ED zoom and he did pretty well. But I bet he would have jumped for joy if he had one. And, he would have worked with it until its handling was second nature.
So, get comfortable with your gear and you will get better results.
Second, choose and use one main film. With so many excellent films on the market today it is difficult to make a bad choice. Also, if you film hop every other month you will never get really familiar with what you use and the questions will still remain. Learn what your film will do in overcast, dim light, bright light, with light or dark skin, blue eyes, reflective leaf surfaces, etc., etc. By staying with one film for 6 months or a year you will begin to know what it actually does. That is worth more than all the camera magazine reviews ever printed.
Actually knowing what your film will do, how it performs in various conditions, takes a lot of worry out of shooting. It adds to your comfort and makes for better photos. Then after you are very familiar with this film you have a frame of reference when trying another film. You have a solid performer to compare it to. When you know what your normal film will do you can easily compare another to it. When you aren't certain what your normal film will do you are easily led to another produce thinking it must be better because you read it, heard it or thought you saw it in one test. Unfamiliarity brings doubt and doubt infects your photography like the plague.
If you are going to change films, change after a solid comparison with what you know works. Change because, for whatever reason, you know the new one gives you something the old one didn't and you actually like how pictures look on the new film.
That last part is very important. YOU like how the pictures look. Not Outdoor Photographer, Peterson's, Photo Techniques or your local camera club guru. You are the only one who can decide if you like how your pictures look. Any decent consumer grade 35mm camera today with major brand film can give excellent results. But, do you really think the pictures look good when you are away from the influence and opinions of your 'friends'?
This is the biggest step in getting better as a photographer. Learning to trust your own judgment. Learning to trust it based on your own knowledge. If you know little your judgment is probably not too mature. Know too much and you might get confused. But, after learning what quality is, technical quality, you can easily judge whether or not your technical quality measures up.
How about composition? Never mind all the 'rules'. Do your photos 'sing'? Do they elicit reactions from those who look at them?(other than 'are you drunk? or what the heck is it?) I mean a positive response. Not necessarily that everyone likes the pictures, but that they are good. Again, looking at quality images will help a lot here.
Look at good work and take what makes it good into your images. Don't copy, just learn. And like it or not, we all copy as we learn. But with effort we move beyond that stage, we get better and better. We mature in our vision and expression. We learn what quality is and refuse to settle for mediocrity in our images. We don't copy, we learn and move into the realm of shooting the world with our own vision.
Finally, we become photographers, no longer idiots with a camera.
We learn to be comfortable with our tools and use them to express our vision. I don't believe anyone can really make excellent images consistently if they are not comfortable with their tools. Camera, film and vision. They work together.
Even if you spend your life working to get good with photography, find you are very comfortable with your tools and can put together a good image, you have to remember one thing.
Some people are just better at some things than other people.
No matter how hard you try, you won't be Cartier-Bresson. You won't be Edward Weston. You won't be David Muench.
Get comfortable with your gear. Hone your craft. Learn what fine quality really is. Learn to trust your vision. You will get better an better. Then just being you, with your unique vision, will be enough.
Information on attached image: Most who drive from Delta, Utah on the way to Great Basin National Park take the trip as fast as they can. The Great American Desert doesn't appeal to them. It is hot, dry and dangerous. Most seem to look at the scenery and wonder what there is to look at. Part of the process in improving ones self as a photographer is learning to 'see' wherever we are. We aren't always successful, but when we are the results are worth it.
On a dry lakebed I worked with the early morning light to get an image I enjoy. Few visit the area other than driving through to another destination. But beauty is found almost anywhere if you look. I was lucky enough to be here when conditions were favorable and capture it on film. I had been by the lakebed before but never got an image I really liked. But as time goes on and I continue to shoot I seem to get luckier and this time I got an image worth the effort.