Want to be a better photographer? Make mistakes. The best and maybe only way to really learn any skill is to practice, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, practice some more, make more mistakes, and on and on. A fascinating book called How we Decide by Jonah Lehrer explains how our decisions are made with a combination of feeling and reason. The best in any field, from photographer to chess master, quarterback to radar operator, operate on an intuitive level based on emotions generated by something called dopamine neurons. By endless practice and reviewing past errors, we all ingrain a native intelligence that bubbles up and points us in the right direction when we have to make quick decisions.
But it's not all a free ride on the emotions. The keys are constant study and examination of our methods. So when we have an involved photo shoot, deciding all day how to light, where and how to position our subjects, how to position a reflector, when to joke and when to cajole....we're building up a bank of deep knowledge that allows us to make those decisions quickly and correctly the next time.
So never be afraid to experiment and make mistakes. We have to goof-up to learn.
But it's not all a free ride on the emotions. The keys are constant study and examination of our methods. So when we have an involved photo shoot, deciding all day how to light, where and how to position our subjects, how to position a reflector, when to joke and when to cajole....we're building up a bank of deep knowledge that allows us to make those decisions quickly and correctly the next time.
So never be afraid to experiment and make mistakes. We have to goof-up to learn.
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