Part 1 – What are the principles of photography?

This is simple and straight forward.

The key word here is principles.

Not as in an ethical code but as in learning what is needed to become a better and more efficient photographer.

This is at the heart of all my teachings because the principles of photography are the basic building blocks of any genre of photography.

Too often I have persons expecting to learn that magic button that makes them take great and amazing photographs. Well if I haven’t already told you then let me tell you now.

THERE IS NO MAGIC BUTTON ON YOUR CAMERA.

There is no other way to learn photography but to actually get out there and learn it. I’m not talking about learning a specific genre of photography I mean learning the Principles of Photography.

The foundation of photography the basics of photography and most of all… the what photography is.

The Basics

Ok ok I get it no one wants to feel as if they are a beginner. So when we see or hear the  dreaded word BEGINNER or BASIC we feel;

‘Oh I’m not a beginner I know how to take pictures’

Well I have news for you my friend I’ve been doing this from I was child and professionally for over 10 years and I’m still amazed at how much I don’t know.

I’m still a student of photography.

The day I feel as if I know it all and I am not a beginner in any part of photography. I might as well sell all my gear and go be a beach bum.

Well maybe you’re different and you have some super Matrix hook up that allows you to learn all there is to know about photography.

Well in that case carry on smartly my friend, I’m still running on outdated God given talent of learning something one step at a time over a long period of time.

Now I hang with a pretty talented set of photographers. I mean really talented. Some of them shoot from the heart some are technical like myself and others just have that instinct to know when something is just right.

However they capture their images, I cant tell you how many times I would call them up or they would call me and ask, hey how does this work or how did you do this or that?

Its simply because the more we learn the more we realize that there is so much more to learn.

In all our learning we all realize that to build a strong photography structure we all needed that firm foundation. The principles of Photography.

So to you all that feel as if “I already know this” maybe you ought to stick around and find out how much you really know because knowing how to do something and actually doing it are two very different things.

Case in point. I have a friend of mine that wanted to learn photography. Nothing new about this as I have a few friends who I have taught photography and even more who request to be taught.

This particular friend has some skills with a camera but they only shoot one basic genre.

This became his downfall when he was asked to photograph something out of the normal range of his genre.

Firstly He should not have accepted the job not knowing what to do but sometimes the payday looks so appealing you just cant refuse.

So while on the job he calls me to help him solve an issue he was having.

The problem was that he went from photographing people to photographing products, and to make matters even worse they were shiny reflective products.

Oh boy… firstly he didn’t have the right equipment for the job, secondly he didn’t have the necessary skills nor did he have any understanding of how to make the product stand out.

When he explained what he was doing I gave him the worse news anyone could give him at that time.

“My friend this will not be easy for you but there is very little I can do to help you at this moment.”

It’s not that I didn’t know how to get the work done its just that the amount of coaching I would have to do over the phone without him knowing the language of product photography would only frustrate him and myself.

Although I tried, his knowledge of the movement of light through space and its reaction to objects in photography physics were limited. These laws such as, The Angle of Incidence Equals the Angle of Reflection or The Inverse Square Law are all basic knowledge… a part of the principles of photography.

Eventually he called me back and told me that he pleaded with the client to postpone the shoot and asked me to come and photograph the products for him.

He is a competent photographer when it comes to portraits but he lacked the principles of photography that would have allowed him to adjust to the situation. This is how important knowing your basics really are.

Wait until I tell you what this course will truly be about in the next installment, I made this to be the ultimate photography class with so much information you may leave with a headache after the first day.

No worries the outdoor workshops will soothe your mind as I have some amazing outdoor hands on classes planned.

CLICK HERE for PART 2