Many times in life, the greatest insights arrive when you’re least expecting them.
I jump in the shower, invariably some great idea pops into my head. (I should post a
Driving in the car prompts ideas too. Always when I can’t write them down.
I was on my way to the office this morning when this whole photography line of thinking merged with lessons on life. I couldn’t stop the process as one thought rolled into another.
Just as I pulled into my parking space, idea #10 had come to a conclusion. If only I can remember them all until I get upstairs!
“The Elder” was trying to make me forget them all, but I fought hard to remember. I whipped open the laptop and hastily wrote them down here.
Like a divine inspiration, consider these the 10 Photography Commandments for Better Living:
1.Thou Shall Keep Good Focus
When we don’t see things clearly, it’s hard to tell the good things from the bad, the important stuff from the trivial.
When our focus is skewed, we could be looking at the most lovely scene and still remark,
“What am I looking at here?”
When our shots are unfocused, we meet with little success. No award was ever offered for an unfocused photograph, nor for an unfocused life.
However, laser-sharp focus, such as Bill Gates had for putting a computer on every desktop is rewarded handsomely.
In photos and in the daily tasks of life, the greater your focus on the subject at hand, the greater your results will be.
Stay focused.
2. Thou Shall Operate in Manual Mode
Most modern cameras come with an auto mode which lets the camera’s brain make changes to the exposure, lens opening, shutter speed, ambient light, and color. This lets the camera create what it believes will be the best possible photo based on the information pre-programmed.
Most times, it does a fine job.
But when presented with a difficult situation, such as trying to take a selfie by the window with the bright sun beaming in from behind you, it gets confused.
Machines, robots, automation are great for many situations but are always limited by the number of pre-programmed data points they can reference to make a decision.
The human mind stores infinitely more data points and is more highly skilled at taking all factors into consideration.
But the human mind is also lazy.
We love when “others” will do the thinking for us. Automation to the rescue!
But for optimal results in the most challenging situations, nothing beats the human mind
when it endeavors to think for itself.
What things are you leaving to chance, to others, putting on ‘”auto-pilot” hoping for a automatic solution to your problems?
Sometimes, though we hate to do it, we have to take hold of the wheel and steer the course that’s best. We have to turn off the auto mode, study up, and figure things out for ourselves. Or ask an expert for advice.
In photography and in in life, operating in full manual mode is sometimes required.
Be ready!
3. Thou Shall Be Mindful of Filters
Cameras have filters. People have filters.
Filters alter our sensory perception.
Orange gel filters can be put over a camera lens or flash to “warm up” a scene. This makes
People perceptions are filtered by our past experiences.
Perhaps something a parent or teacher said when we were small that stuck with us.
Good or bad experiences color our thinking.
Much of the prejudice in the world comes from people’s perception of others. Their “filters”.
These “filters” at work are not reality.
When things are not as we’d like in our life, it’s important to consider what filters might be at work. How are our beliefs (which are merely filters) influencing our perception of reality?
In my teen years, I was burdened with poor self-esteem, as many kids are. That “filter” colored all my interactions with others. Since I didn’t have a high opinion of myself very much back
Only later did I find out that everyone has there own filters. How we see things is not
how others see things. My filter is different from your filter, at different times too.
Filters (beliefs) can be put on and off at any time to create the vision that best suits the situation for us.
What filters (beliefs) might you be needing to get rid of? And what filters could you adopt to help make what you see and experience better?
4. Thou Shall Be Mindful Of Speed
If the shutter speed is high enough, say 1/2000 of a second, I can take a good, sharp photo of a passing bicyclist. If my shutter speed was too slow, say 1/60 of a second, that same bicyclist would be just a blur in my photo. That photo would not be a success.
Speed Matters – shutter speed is one of the three critical elements of photography, along with aperture (lens size opening) and ISO (a film or digital sensor’s sensitivity to light).
Life is this way too.
Those who are quick to make decisions often prevail and succeed.
Sure they may fail more often, but failure IS a necessary component to success.
The biographies of the most successful people in history are packed with pages full of failures that came before their successes.
Abe Lincoln failed miserably and often before becoming one of the most successful presidents of the United States.
Jack Canfield’s book, “Chicken Soup for the Soul” failed to convince publishers to print it 26 times before it became the bedrock of his phenomenally successful, multi-million dollar business empire.
In marketing circles, the term, “money loves speed” is used to inspire folks to act quickly, do something and see, rather than wait till all the stars align to make a decision.
Old folks on their deathbed most often regret the opportunities they failed to act on.
“I shouldn’t have waited”‘ they bemoan.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of a little company called “Facebook” offers this advice,
“Move fast and break things. Unless you’re breaking stuff, you’re not moving fast enough.”
Most of us move too slow. What are you not moving fast enough on in your life?
Most times faster is better
5. Beware the WYSIWYG!
What You See Is What You Get.
Through what lens are you viewing your life?
Sometimes life calls for a telephoto lens which lets us see things far a
Sometimes life needs us to use a wide-angle lens to see the bigger picture of how our actions and circumstances all fit together with the world around us.
If we look too far down the road, we can’t see the possible ambushes just off to the side.
If we’re using a wide-angle lens to view the world, always focused on every element in the scene, we can’t stay focused on our goals.
Life calls for an adjustable zoom lens. A lens that can be changed to let us clearly see near and also far, whenever each is appropriate.
Knowing when to use which, wide angle or full zoom, is a skill we acquire over time.
When things aren’t going as you wish in life, its important to understand which lens setting you are using.
Then, try out the other settings as well and see if the scene of your life improves.
Often, our problems are not as awful as we think. It’s just that we are viewing them too closely (telephoto lens) or with too many distractions in the scene (wide-angle lens).
6. Honor Thy ISO
In “the Elder’s” day, photography used a plastic film coated with silver halide particles. This was called a “negative”. The size of these particles on the film determined how sensitive the film negative would be to light.
Bigger particles meant low-light situations could be captured. But the trade-off was,
the final photo would appear grainy, not as clear, because of the larger silver halide particles used.
The film’s sensitivity to light was rated using the term ISO.
200 ISO produces a very nice photo with the lighting you would naturally find outdoors.
Graininess would be imperceptible, even if the photo were enlarged significantly.
800 ISO would allow you to take a properly exposed photo indoors with limited light. But the resulting photo would seem a bit grainy. This grainy effect would become significantly more distracting with enlargement.
For ease and convenience, modern digital cameras adopted the same ISO rating system. But now, since
So a digital camera’s 200 ISO corresponds to the 200 ISO of the former film negative.
Still though, the more sensitive to light, the more grainy the resulting photo.
Our lives are like that too.
The more sensitive we are to the input of others, the more unclear our results will seem.
People who are less sensitive, are often described as “a bull in a china shop”. To re-quote Mark Zuckerberg, they “move fast and break things”.
Sometimes it is important to be sensitive to others though. When kids are sick, when death takes the ones we
Other times, like when we’re starting a business, or creating art, it’s important to NOT be so sensitive.
The important thing to know is that in cameras we can adjust the ISO, the sensitivity. And we humans we can adjust our sensitivity too. And we should.
7. Thou Shall Look Beyond The Obvious
Photos can be made better after they’re taken. Events in your life can be made better too.
We are surrounded every day by great photos in magazines, billboards, TV, Instagram, Facebook
Most modern photos have been enhanced by filters or editing software like Photoshop.
I originally thought I was a horrible photographer. I studied photography and bought an expensive DSLR. My pictures still looked like crap compared to the ones I’d seen online.
“What gives?” I thought.
Then I met a photographer online who clued me in. “All the photos you see have been Photoshop enhanced”, he said.
So I set off to learn Photoshop. Lo and behold my “photography” got better. I knew the trick now!
A friend once invited me to shoot a local fashion show. It was my first time and it was a disaster. Or so I thought when I uploaded the pictures upon arriving home.
The photo compositions were good, some great actually, but because it was indoors at night, the lighting was a bit dim. No flash was allowed.
So I had to crank up the ISO on my camera to 1600 ISO. This resulted in
To this day, many of the photos from that event are the most popular in my portfolio.
Sometimes things go wrong. In photography and in life. Fortunately, there are tools out there to fix things. Counseling, therapy, books are all available to help us fix the things we often don’t even know need fixing.
Like photos, we see tons of people walking around each day that look great. We think they all just popped out that way.
But in reality, everyone is all F#cked up! They put on the happy filter and walk out the door each day with a myriad of problems secretly tucked away in their pocket.
Everything is not as it appears. And everything can be made better.
8. Thou Must Taketh Many Shots
The bride and groom will spend thousands of dollars to have their special day photographed. Maybe the professional photographer will present them with 200 fine images afterward. And those images will have been enhanced, edited with Photoshop or
What won’t be seen are the 1500 other photos that were taken. The one where the groom’s eyes were open, but the bride blinked. Not in there.
These “bad” photos never get shown to the bride and groom.
Point is, in photography and in life, you have to take a lot of shots to succeed. And everyone only shows their successes. They hide the screw-ups if at all possible.
Many try something once and when it doesn’t turn out as planned, they give up.
Babe Ruth is one of the most recognized names in sports because he once held the record for the most home runs in baseball. That’s what everyone knows.
But the hidden secret behind his success hitting home runs, is that he had one of the highest strikeout percentage too!
Babe succeeded where others failed because he swung the bat…a lot!
We only see the success though. The media constantly focuses on the success, not the effort.
We only see the good photographs too.
We don’t want to, but we gotta suck more before we can be great. Babe wasn’t afraid to suck sometimes to get the big payoffs later. Most successful people are this way.
Natural talent is rare.
Most successful people you and I see and admire are hiding a thousand failures in the closet. Millions of photos are deleted from memory cards each day. We only get to see the good ones.
You’re good too. You just gotta suck more, try more, to be great.
What do you wish you were great at?
Start getting better right now by doing it more right now. Get the sucking part out
of the way quickly so you can be great that much sooner.
9. Thou Shall Have FUN
Any professional photographer will tell you, no matter how good they are at shooting a particular thing, be it landscapes or portraits or products, they eventually get bored with it.
They stagnate, creatively and emotionally.
Many break out of this by going back to where they started. Just having fun!
They shoot something different, not to be great at it, but be inspired to be great again by feeling the excitement that first drew them to the profession.
Folks like us have to do this too.
So often we get stuck in the work/home/family routine that we forget it’s important to play too. Even if just for 15 to 30 minutes a day. We need to clear our headspace. To laugh, love, give, dare.
We have to take a lot of shots, just for the fun of it!
10. Thou Shall Practice The Fundamentals Often
Many times, through boredom with routine, we fall into careless ruts; taking shortcuts, cutting corners, going too fast, doing things for no other reason than “because that’s how we’ve always done them”.
It’s important to revisit the fundamentals periodically to insure that we’re operating at our best. Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players of all time, credits much of his success to spending more time on the court practicing the basics than anyone else.
More talent doesn’t always win, but more practice often does.
Bow your heads now and pray…pray for the strength to do better day by day.
Wise words from “The ElderBob” aka “The Shutterbug Shaman”
“Bene Vivere!”
