What I’d tell myself about photography if I could travel back in time
- If you have no idea what you’re doing, there is no better solution than to take a freaking lot of photos. Mess with the settings, mess up your pictures, experiment, take 10 shots of the same thing in different ways… something will EVENTUALLY work.
- Don’t leave your camera at home. You never know what you’ll miss.
- Do not covet thy neighbor’s lens [too much]. Learn how to work within the limitations of the camera. If it has weak optical zoom, work on shooting landscapes and wide angle. If it has no manual settings, learn how to fudge things and make scene modes work for you (e.g. use flower mode to shoot printed text and closeups, museum mode for still lifes, night scenery mode for neat long exposure light effects, etc.).
- If you have someone else take a photo for you with your camera, check the settings and location to make sure they’re good, and tell them exactly what you want in the shot. Even better: if the camera has a LCD screen, hold it up and show the person exactly how you’d like the photo. And be nice about it.
- Back up your photos obsessively! Or you WILL lose a quarter of your college memories.
