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Its never too late to start photography - But avoid these 7 mistakes · Wildlife and Adventure Photography

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and uh welcome to another uh podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now uh my name's Graham Elliott, and I put this one together more for people who are coming to photography later in life.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's not to exclude anyone.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I do know that for a lot of people, photography is one of those things that when you're working full time, it's just too far down the list of priorities to really get much attention.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: But when things change, as you get older, maybe family's moved out, maybe you're retiring, whatever it is, but you find more time on your hands.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those occasions where you can hopefully start to do things that you really want to do for a long time.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So this podcast is aimed in your direction, if uh that applies to you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what I want to do is talk about seven things, seven traps that it's very easy to fall into.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And um, if you've listened to my previous three podcasts, um, I've actually spoken about uh what gear to buy, which which is the most important part of your setup and the kind of things to think about.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've also spoken about how some people improve while others don't.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe those uh those podcasts will be of interest to you as well.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: But in this one, I'm going to talk about these seven traps.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll get straight into it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one is to think that you need to need to understand everything before you start.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that because modern cameras can be really intimidating, unless you're somebody who loves lots of menus and lots and lots of detailed stuff to go through.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll put my hand up.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of those people.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when I learned photography, back when I was in my teens, I started doing it.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it was manual, it was film cameras, it was everything was manual pretty much.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So there wasn't that much to learn, to be honest.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: You needed to understand the basics of photography, and fundamentally, they haven't really changed with the move to digital.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: But picking up a digital camera now, there are pages and pages of menus.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the important thing to remember is that you don't need to understand all of it.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, what you're likely to find is there are some areas of photography that you will need to know because you'll use them daily, you'll change them daily, and other settings you might change once, and that's it, or you might even might not even touch them at all.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: So the trap that some people fall into is to think that once they've understood all of this stuff: menus, autofocus modes, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, raw files, editing software, whatever it might be, then they'll go out and start taking photographs.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I can guarantee you that that is going to be a very frustrating uh path to go down.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is to learn enough to take the next photograph and then build from there.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there is absolutely nothing wrong with sticking the camera in auto and going off and taking photographs because if you're getting photographs that you like, that's encouraging.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: You can be experimenting with a bit of composition because you've got fairly simple composition available to you when you're shooting in auto.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you've built up a little bit of confidence there, you can then start to explore some of the other things.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I recommend you look at some sort of training course that just takes you from no knowledge through all the basics so that you can understand at least which aspects of the camera are the ones that you need to understand, and which are the things that are less important, and maybe you don't even touch.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: You may not, and and I will guarantee you there are going to be some menu settings that you will never touch at all.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's trap number one.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you definitely don't need to understand everything, and I really encourage you to uh not get intimidated, stick the thing in auto, um, switch it on, take some photographs, see how you go, and and move from there.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: The next trap is buying equipment instead of building experience.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So this very much ties in with what I've said previously, definitely in the uh the two podcast episodes idea on buying your camera gear, buying your camera setup.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: The problem with photography for anybody is that it's very easy to spend a lot more money than you really need to on gear that will deliver what you you actually need it to deliver.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Most people will tend to buy cameras and other equipment which is way more um featured, let's say, than they actually need.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a belief that if you buy the right camera, you'll be able to take the photographs you want.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally challenge that belief because photography is mostly about understanding how a camera works, understanding how to get certain results, and once you know that, you can pretty much pick up anything as long as it has the basic controls, you can pick up anything, any camera, and still get the kind of results you're looking for.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the results have less to do with the camera gear than the person who is operating the camera.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that old adage that the most important part of any camera system is the 12 inches behind the viewfinder, at least that was the adage I grew up with when I was learning.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: That is really, really important.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the traps that people tend to fall into, particularly beginners, is you buy too much, you buy the wrong things, you don't get the results you're looking for, so you start upgrading, and you end up spending more time researching equipment than you do actually using it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where just getting out and shooting photographs is really important because what experience tells you is what equipment you need, and the equipment doesn't give you experience.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: The experience comes from taking photographs, it's from trying to achieve a certain result.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Often it's from not achieving that result, and then you have to look at what went wrong and what's missing.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as you do that again and again, as you review your critique, like I spoke about in the last uh podcast episode, you'll start to see where the shortcomings are for you, where you're lacking education, and also where the limitations of the camera are.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And when you change the camera, what you are remedying are the limitations of your current setup.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: If the problem is down to education, it doesn't matter what camera you're using, you are going to come back again and again to the same problem.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it is really important to get familiar enough with a camera that you realize where it's letting you down, where you do need a certain feature or set of features in order to achieve the results you want.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because honestly, most cameras these days will deliver what most people are looking for.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: As you get more specialist, yeah, there are definitely going to be things you need, but you'll know that through experience, and you'll be very, very clear on what the specifications are of whatever you need, whether it's a body or a lens or something else.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I absolutely recommend that whatever you're using, spend time experimenting with it, spend time shooting photographs, look at the kind of photographs you want to be shooting, understand what that photographer did to get that result, and then replicate that with the kit that you have.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you're able to replicate it, then you don't need to change your kit.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the key thing.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you can save yourself a whole load of a whole load of money and regret and all these other things.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: The next thing is to is not to try to learn everything at once.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I spoke about this last time.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And this I understand that this is particularly frustrating if you're just starting out because all of a sudden there's lots and lots of things you could be looking at to improve what you're what you're doing.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the temptation is to try and do everything in one go, and it really doesn't work.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Where that takes you is you get overloaded.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're feeling overloaded, overwhelmed by all of these things, you're really confused about what you should be doing first and why you're getting a certain result, and it's not what you wanted, all of that stuff.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: What I really strongly recommend that you do is step back and just go back to some basics and really understand them.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, an important basic to understand is the exposure triangle because that shows you the relationship between the light capturing aspects of your camera, the aperture and the shutter speed, and also how ISO sits into the whole equation.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And once you understand that, then you begin to understand that that is a really solid base to start moving on from.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then you can look at modes in the camera, how can the camera do some of the heavy lifting for you?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can understand how the camera's metering.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that will obviously impact what the exposure ends up like, um, how the um the uh autofocus points are set up, and what kind of autofocus points work for you, all that kind of thing.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: But do them one at a time, and I would I would definitely start probably in that sequence actually, exposure triangle, um, exposure metering in your camera and what the options are, which is a really easy thing to pick up.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the same with shutter speed, these are very simple things.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Where people make mistakes is that they start jumping onto things like YouTube, where there's lots and lots of free stuff around.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So look at uh YouTube videos about exposure, they'll look at videos about composition, um, autofocus tutorials, lightroom tutorials, Photoshop tutorials, wildlife photography tutorials.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And before long, it starts to feel like homework, and also there's no coherent thread to it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: You're just jumping from one thing to another.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem when you are beginning to learn something, and this is anything, is that there are certain things you know you don't know, but there are also things you don't know that you don't know.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why starting with some sort of structured program, structured education is really important because it will take you through all of the basics, all of the basic stuff that you need to know, and then that sets you up so that when you do go back to things like YouTube videos, you already know where you're coming from.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And what you're looking for in a YouTube video is just to understand something very, very specific, but you understand the context of where that particular thing sits.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the bottom line here is don't try to become an expert photographer, just try to become a little bit better than you were last week and just move one small step at a time.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Trap number four is comparing yourself with photographers who've been doing it for years.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a great way to really undermine your self-confidence, it's a great way to really kill your enthusiasm for photography because a lot of the images you're going to be looking at on Instagram or um in books or wherever it might be are from photographers who've been doing it for years and they've made lots and lots of mistakes.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But and and I've made lots of mistakes, but I tend not to put those on Instagram too often.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, obviously, what I'll put up there is the stuff that I'm quite happy with.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That I'm I'm you know pleased with the results I've got.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So every time you look at a photograph that somebody has posted, remember that's probably the result of years of screwing up, probably thousands of images they've messed up.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um I think it's famous photographer said that I forget which one it is now, but he said it's your first, I think it was your first 10,000 photographs or your worst.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that's what photography is.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Most of it, or for a good number of it, particularly with digital, where we people get less selective about what they're shooting, you can shoot a load of photographs.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you look back at them later, you'll realize just how awful they are.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's no composition about it, there's no thought, the exposure's off, or the subjects underexposed or overexposed, the backgrounds burnt out, all these kind of things.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And we all have to go through those mistakes to understand, for example, how you correct a burnt-out background.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you learn that because you were really pleased with the image, apart from that aspect of it.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there were two or three things that were wrong with it, but you identify them and then you correct them.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: So when it compares, when it comes to looking at other people's photographs, I'm not saying that don't look, don't look at them, I'm saying do look at them, but look at them from the perspective of what's possible, look at them from the perspective of what are you aspiring to produce?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: What are the photographs that you really like when you go onto Instagram?
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: Say, is there a particular photographer and you really love their work?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing to do there is to start understanding how they got that result, and then you begin to replicate that yourself, and you learn what you need to learn in order to produce those results.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: But that's the only thing I would use other people's work for to inspire, get inspiration from them, and then copy what they're doing, basically.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So don't compare yourself with other people because in most circumstances you will be very disappointed.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just compare your work with what you did last week or a month ago or two months ago and look at how you've improved.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe there's a mistake you keep repeating and you just suddenly notice a pattern.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do it that way, that's the most important thing you can do.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, trap number five is being afraid of technology.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, look, um some of us are a little bit older and we're not so wildly enthusiastic about new technology as we used to be.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things to really understand about technology is it's all learnable.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are an older person, older is over 30, um, coming to photography, what can we actually bring to the party?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm definitely over 30, so we tend to have a bit more patience because we've been through that impatient part of our lives where we just we just need to get things done and it all blows up in our face, and we've one way or another, we've had to learn a little bit of patience, so we bring that to the table.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: We've got life experience, we've had to deal with all sorts of issues and you know get through them, even though at the time it may have felt like we were never going to do so, but we got through them.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: We most of us have probably developed to a greater or a lesser extent the ability to observe, and that is really important for photographers.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: That one of the most important things you can do as a photographer is be a good observer, so it has nothing to do with the camera gear at all.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually seeing what's there before you even pick up the camera, and that forms, in fact, the first module in my composition course.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's essentially putting the camera down and starting to look around and learn to be an observer.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So older people tend to be a little bit better at that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: We tend to have more discipline because we've learned that.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: We've gone through the impatient thing, we've realized that to improve, it's not about riding that wave of enthusiasm that you get when you start something new, but it's about developing habits, it's about shooting photographs every day or every couple of days and just turning up and doing it again and again and again.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that discipline is what really drives in improvement because we're we're committed to it, we're there for the long haul.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: We also have a much clearer sense of what interests us because, again, it's very easy.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's certainly, and I speak as a behavioral profiler, there are certain people who tend to get distracted all the time because they love new things.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: We call it pretty shiny syndrome.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as you get older, that will still be there, but also hopefully you've learned a bit more discipline and you are clearer on the things that give you a deeper interest, not the more trivial interest that lasts five minutes and then they're gone again.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: So once you know what interests you, again, that makes you more likely to keep turning up and learning that craft, for want of a better word.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing is hopefully, and and this is again sitting underneath this podcast, is that you've got more time to devote to photography, which means you've got more time to put aside and just learn it, just make those mistakes, practice, and gradually improve.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it also gives you gives you more time to learn the technology that you need to know.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And as I said earlier, you don't need to know all of it for sure.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't need to become a technology expert, you just need to learn the technology that helps you to take the photographs you want to take.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um the trap number six is being afraid to get it wrong.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And here, honestly, the the big thing here, and this is true of anything, is just embrace getting it wrong because you will get it wrong.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you come back to um you know, baby learning to walk.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: Does it give up after falling over the first time?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Does it give up after the 30th time?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: No, they just keep getting up until they can walk.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the important thing.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be afraid about getting it wrong.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: You will produce badly exposed images, you're gonna have images where the focus is wrong, you're gonna have poor composition, you're gonna get the settings wrong, you're gonna end up deleting photographs that don't work.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, the bad photographs or what you regard as bad are essential to help you to become a good photographer because the thing to do with them is to look at them objectively and look at what went wrong and just ask yourself, what do I need to learn in order to not repeat this particular mistake again or at least repeat it less often?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that is it, it's just to keep turning up, it's to be objective, it's not to beat yourself up, it's it's to just to basically embrace failures and treat them for what they are, which is learning experiences.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are opportunities to learn, and what those photographs that you probably wouldn't want to share with someone, what they're doing you is doing to you, I should say, is showing you where you need to improve, and that is immensely valuable.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, trap number seven is waiting for the perfect moment to take photography seriously.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I mean what I mean by that is people say, when I've got more time, I'll do it when I've bought a better camera, when I finished learning the basics, when I go on that big holiday.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: That isn't where you're going to improve as a photographer.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the best time to start building your photography experience is before you feel ready.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's to basically get out and just start using the camera.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Even if, as I've said earlier, if you just pop it in auto mode, autofocus, and you just get out there, but you're using the camera.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So think about places you can go.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It might be your local area, could be your garden, could be around your house, there might be park or parks near you, there could be birds.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us have birds flying around, it could be taking photographs of your family, your pets, the local streets, basically anything that gives you the opportunity to practice.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the most important thing is to pick up the camera and go out and start taking photographs.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Photography is a lot like swimming in one sense, in that you can read all about swimming, you can read book after book, you can watch YouTube video after YouTube video.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of it all, can you swim?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, the answer is no, because the only way you really learn to swim is to get in the water and start having a go.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: And photography is exactly the same.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: You can watch video after video, you can look at books, whatever it is you're doing to learn about photography.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: But until you pick that camera up and you start going out, taking photographs and having a look at them, you will not learn photography and you will never start producing the kind of photographs that got you interested in the first place, the kind of things that inspired you in um the first case.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: So when you start your photography later in life, it definitely does not mean you're behind.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: What you're doing is you're simply at the beginning of your own photographic journey.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember um so in my 30s, I I moved to Australia.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: I bought myself a big 900cc motorbike, um, and I'd learnt to ride a motorbike six months earlier, and I took off around the country, and it took me four and a half months to get all the way around Australia.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember being on an island, island in off the coast of Queensland, and there was um an Australian author, I think, and I didn't know him, but on the headstone, it just happened to be there.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm going to paraphrase this because I can't remember the exact quote, but it's something about we all march to the beat of our own drummer.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what I took from that is that it's very easy to compare ourselves to other people, particularly people who are doing better than us in um areas of life that we would like to be doing well in, but we're not, or we don't feel we are.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the important thing is to remember that we all march to the beat of our own drum and we have our own journey, we do things in our own time, in our own way.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really important to just honor that.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And approaching or getting involved in photography, particularly if it's later in life, that's fine.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's just you're you're just marching to the beat of your own drum.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And um, just honor that.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, to briefly recap, the seven things I spoke about were don't wait until you understand everything because you'll never get started.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't buy your way out of a lack of experience.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is probably more to do with education and just getting out there and doing it than the kit you're using.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Don't try to learn everything at once, just focus on one thing at a time and just get competent at it and then move on.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't compare yourself with experienced photographers because you don't know their journey.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know how long it took them to get that good.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were to compare your work after a few weeks with what they were doing after a few weeks, you might be you might actually be producing much better stuff.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't compare yourself with other people, you don't understand uh what they went through to get where they are.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Number five was don't let technology intimidate you.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number six, don't be afraid to make mistakes, and number seven, don't wait for the perfect time.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: So the thought I'd just like to leave you with is that you don't need to become a great photographer overnight, you don't need the best camera, and you don't need to know everything before you start.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: You simply need to get start to go out and take the next photograph and learn from it, then the next one, then the next one, then the next one, and just learn each time.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Treat it as experimenting, um, have fun with it, play with it.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's something you should be enjoying.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're not having fun, you're not doing it right to use a use a phrase.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that is it from me on this one.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you are looking at courses, I do have a few on my website.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I may or may not be the right uh teacher for you.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So um if you enjoy the podcast and the way I present things, this is how I teach.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I might be a good teacher for you.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you absolutely hate the podcast, you're probably not likely to be listening this far anyway, or do any of the courses.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: But find a um someone to teach you who you can connect with, you understand, you get the way they think, you like the way they present ideas, and that will move you forward.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's it from me.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'll um speak to you in the next podcast, which will be out on Friday.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week and have a great time with your photography.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Bye for now.