Five Ways To Become A Terrible Photographer

So you want to be a great photographer. Why?

The world is already bursting with great photographers. Just look at Instagram or Threads. (Forget X, that cesspool of outrage politics, extreme opinions and OnlyFans ads.) Can you really compete with what you see there? I doubt it.

Instead of beating your head against the wall trying to be great, become a terrible photographer instead. It’s very freeing.

Here are five tips on becoming a terrible photographer:

1. Sleep In — One of the first pieces of advice you’ll receive as a photographer is to shoot during golden hour. That’s the time just before and after sunrise or sunset. The light turns soft and warm during golden hour and your subjects become more attractive. The morning golden hour is especially nice, with clear, cool air and light winds.

But really, who wants to get up early in the morning to catch golden hour? If you’re shooting portraits, there’s no way your models will want to get up in the dark and prepare themselves for a shoot. If you’re a landscape photographer, do you really want to wake up in the middle of the night, drive several hours, hike in the dark and catch the sunrise?

Better to stay in bed, get some good, healthy sleep, then shoot during the middle of the day when the light is harsh and your subjects look washed out and sickly. Think of it as a bold new aesthetic.

2. Use Bad Gear — Big-time photographers are always saying gear doesn’t matter. They say you can take great photos with old, broken or even Pentax cameras. They’d never actually do it, of course. They use only the latest and greatest gear, usually provided at a massive discount by their favourite camera brand.

You can’t do that. Gear is too expensive. Shoot with old cameras that can barely autofocus. Buy used lenses filled with fungus and condensation — they create interesting effects that great photographers will never achieve. And remember, when people say you should invest in photography gear they just mean you should spend money you don’t have.

3. Don’t Shoot In Raw Format — Shooting in raw format instead of jpeg format gives you maximum latitude to process your photos. You can change the white balance, recover blown out areas and reveal details in the shadows.

What a waste of time. Just shoot in jpeg format. That way your camera decides how to process your image and bakes the results into your photos. You might have a little latitude to edit the photos, but not much. As a bonus, your photos are available seconds after you take them and the files are much smaller than raw images.

4. Don’t Learn Post-Processing — Most photographers process their photos using programs like Lightroom, Photoshop or Capture One. They sit in front of computers for hours editing raw images, making them perfect and outstanding and attractive. They emphasize certain areas of their photos, minimize other areas, change contrast, add or remove vignettes, mask areas, combine exposures to capture wider dynamic range and on and on and on.

It’s exhausting.

Why bother? You’re already shooting in jpeg format, so just set your camera to full program mode, choose a profile in your camera (like Vivid or Mono) and let it do the work. Store your photos in Apple Photos or Google Photos and upload them to social media with no edits. You can use the time you save to rearrange your sock drawer.

5. Forget The Rules of Composition — Rules, schmules (“schmules” isn’t in the dictionary, but it should be). Doesn’t everyone say rules are meant to be broken? Yet great photographers are always talking about rules: the rule of thirds, leading lines, filling your frame with your subject, keeping your horizon straight…blah, blah, blah. Rules are for fools.

Sure, following composition rules can help make your photos better. But who can remember all that when they’re taking photos? It’s like trying to putt while thinking about integral calculus. An empty mind is an efficient mind.

My advice? Just point and shoot. And be happy with whatever you get.

If you follow these five suggestions, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a terrible photographer. But if you still want to be a great photographer…just do the opposite of what I’ve recommended.

You’re welcome.

Don’t shoot! 4 Ways To Take Better Travel Photos

Does this sound familiar? You go on a trip, take hundreds of photos, then get home and discover…they’re boring. Like photos you’ve seen before, just not as good.

I get it. It’s a big world. There’s a lot to photograph and everyone seems to be a photographer. As of early 2024, 66,000 photos are uploaded to Instagram every minute — that’s about 95 million a day. A single snowflake has a better chance of standing out in a blizzard than one of your travel photos has on Instagram. Not because you’re a bad photographer, but because most people would rather watch cat videos.

So on that bright note, how can you capture unique travel photos that stand a chance of being noticed?

Here are four lessons I’ve learned:

• Don’t shoot anything you must stand in line to see

In Sedona, Arizona there is a natural arch known as Devil’s Bridge. People flock there in droves, then wait in line for up to an hour to walk out on the arch and have their photo taken. Why? To prove they were there in case they need an alibi? Odds are, every photo taken there will look the same: a person standing on an arch with red hills behind them. Yawn. I’ve been to dozens of other Sedona locations just as spectacular as Devil’s Bridge with no lineups.

You know where there are no lines? Off the beaten path. Go on a long hike, preferably off-trail. But only if you’re properly equipped and know how to read maps. You don’t want your unique photo to be the one the search and rescue team finds on the camera beside your coyote-ravaged body.

If hiking isn’t your thing, find a different vantage point. Climb to the top of a building and shoot down. Walk down a stairway and shoot from street level. Just don’t wait in line.

• Don’t shoot anything that’s on a postcard

Postcard photos are spectacular. That’s why they sell. More than likely, the person who shot the postcard photo waited for just the right light and experimented with dozens of compositions. You can’t match that during a quick run-and-gun photoshoot.

If you do visit famous landmarks — and you should, they’re famous for a reason — find your own, unique point of view. Channel your inner artist and come home with something new.

And if you like the postcard photo, buy the postcard.

• Don’t shoot anything a group of people is photographing

Years ago I was caught in a photo scrum in Hawaii, trying to shoot a recently emerged lava lake at Kilauea. All around me, photographers jostled in the dark for tripod space. I had claimed my patch and was getting ready to shoot when THUNK, another photographer parked his tripod right in front of me, completely blocking my view of the volcano. I offered a few choice words and he moved on, claiming he hadn’t seen me. Later I saw my photos were nothing special — just a pool of red-hot liquid rock with no context and no other redeeming features. Certainly nothing to look at twice.

Don’t go through that kind of abuse. Instead, hang back from the group and shoot your own shot. If you see a group photographing something large, shoot a small detail. If the group is shooting closeup photos, back up and shoot the environment. Better yet, wander off and shoot something completely different. Because by definition, shooting what everyone else is shooting won’t result in unique photos.

• Don’t shoot in the middle of the day or in good weather

Landscape photographers often say bad weather is good weather. By that, we mean the most dramatic and interesting shots come when weather systems are changing or chaotic. Blue skies look nice on vacation, but make boring photos. Unless they include a UFO landing or something.

Similarly, shooting at midday under sunny skies is almost guaranteed to produce lacklustre photos. Photographer Bryan Peterson calls this “poolside light,” because under those conditions, you’ll find him by the pool, not making photos.

The lesson? Get up early. Stay up late. Go out in marginal weather. Get soft, golden tones in your photos, or big, dramatic clouds. Don’t settle for harsh shadows, washed-out colours and boring blue skies.

These are some lessons I’ve learned. Try them the next time you travel. At the very least, you’ll come home with different photos.

A Week on the Water: Photos of BC's Cariboo Region

In this collection I am sharing photographs I took in September 2023 in British Columbia’s South Cariboo. Although the Cariboo is possibly best known as the site of a late-1800s gold rush, today its chief industries are forestry, agriculture, ranching, mining and tourism. Home to forests, rivers, creeks, mountains and hundreds of lakes, the Cariboo is tailor-made for outdoor recreation.

My wife Diana and I planned months in advance to come to the Cariboo to camp with friends. As the trip grew closer, though, it seemed we might be out of luck. We had planned to stay in our travel trailer, but found we could not access it because it was parked in an area under evacuation order due to a nearby wildfire. We had all but given up on going when the campground owner let us know he had a fifth-wheel trailer onsite that we could rent. We gratefully accepted his offer.

The trip was wonderful. In a region so replete with lakes it makes little sense to stay on the shore. Our days were filled with adventures on nearby lakes, Diana and I in our red canoe, our friends in their bright-orange kayaks. The area was gloriously quiet, the waters glassy and still and, except for a few days when wildfire smoke drifted in, the air cool and sweet.

Technically minded readers may be interested to know that almost every photo in this collection was taken with a single lens — a 40mm f/2 — as part of a challenge I set for myself. The challenge was both inspirational and, at times, frustrating. I’d be curious to see if you can tell which images were a result of inspiration and which resulted in frustration. As always, these are my first edits. In coming months, with snow piled high against my door, I will most likely edit the photos further or differently. If that is the case and I find something worthy I will share it with you.

I hope you enjoy these photographs. If you’re interested in prints of any of them, please drop me a line at timidturtlecreative@gmail.com.

Download A Week On The Water here:

A Week On The Water Collection

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