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| Mabry Mill, Blue Ridge Parkway at Meadows of Dan, Virginia (click to enlarge) |
2. Have the right gear with you. This nonsense of "the best camera is the one you have with you" is just that, nonsense. The best camera for the situation or your photography may be the one sitting in the bag at home because you were too lazy to pick it up and take it with instead of the inadequate camera that may be in that phone you carry. Go ahead and only take your mobile phone. Then let me know the first time there is a great image you can't make because your real cameras are at home or the image you make that is not nearly the quality you would have gotten with your regular camera. Be prepared for disappointment if you only take your phone.
3. Keep you emotions at bay and think. You can't think your way through getting the images you want if you let your emotions get in your way. For example, you're out on the beach at sunrise/sunset photographing the ocean and its surroundings with the rolling waves in blurred like cotton candy. You have all of the appropriate gear with you and it is going great. Unexpectedly, you spot two women with flowing blonde hair galloping toward you on horses which are running just inside the surf line. Wow! You think to yourself this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to make some great images. You quickly decide you need to run farther back away from the water's edge so you can pan with the running horses as they gallop by. You take your camera off your tripod, get set, pan perfectly with the horses and riders, push the shutter and...nothing! Then the shutter finally goes off. What? There is still a 2-second delay from where you were using the camera on the tripod. You realize that in your emotion of seeing such a unique and beautiful scene, you forgot to take the camera off the shutter delay., You also had forgotten to change your aperture and shutter speed from when you were photographing the beach at sunrise/set. You missed it all. How stupid do you now feel? You let your emotions overwhelm your knowledge and experience. You weren't thinking it through. Hey, I've done it. Everyone has at one time or another. Practice and think. Think and think again. You have to separate your emotion from the task at hand.
(Personal Story: I was a police officer and chief of police in two good sized cities for over 30 years. For about 8 years in the 1970s and 1980s, I was a forensic detective and as part of those duties I had to identify, gather evidence and photograph crime scenes. I personally worked over 100 death investigations. There is no second chance in going back to a crime scene if you miss evidence, screw up the photographs or contaminate the scene. You have one shot to get it right. I can't tell you how many times I had seen other detectives screw things up or forget something because, in front of them, is a bloody, hacked up body with family members crying and screaming about their loved one. I can think of a couple of occasions where one of my colleagues photographed a complex homicide scene with no film in the camera! How do you explain or correct that error? You can't. You have to separate your emotions from the job at hand. You have to learn to compartmentalize your feelings from the task at hand. Believe me, I know.)
4. Have a Plan B. What do I mean by a Plan B? Sometimes you even need a Plan C. This is another thing I learned from my law enforcement years for my own safety. Nothing quite goes the way you expect it and you may end up hurt or dead of you don't have a Plan B. Certainly not as serious in photography, but you may save yourself a lot of disappointment if you have an alternate to your original plans. If things don't go as expected, what alternatives do you have for the day, hour, moment or situation. If you are out there, don't let the day and opportunities go to waste if the weather is not how you anticipated, or the place you planned to go was closed, or someone you were counting on to be somewhere suddenly couldn't make it or any other numbers of things that don't go as expected. A Plan B can save the day and the situation.
5. Have backups for you most critical equipment with you when you are out making image. Almost nothing worse than planning, going, anticipating and working hard to get an image when all of a sudden something malfunctions or breaks. You have to have a backup of your most critical gear with you that you can quickly grab and keep photographing.
Bonus Rule: Overarching over all the things written above is my belief that everything you do is greatly affected by your attitude and desire. I believe that everything you do, from the time you first wake up in the morning, is your choice. You choose to have a positive attitude. You choose to really have a great desire to make excellent images. You choose to have self-confidence in getting the image. You choose to get out there when you need to be out there. You choose to learn, practice and think what you have to do to become the photographer you want to be. You choose to prepare fully for every endeavor in your life. No one else can do it for you. Your choices will decide your attitude and success.
Just some advice from my many long years of experience. I hope it can help. I'm always willing to share everything I've learned in photography and life with anyone who thinks they can benefit from my knowledge and experience.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
All content on this blog is © 2014 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or image.
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