Easy Photography: The Minimalist Way (2013 Abridged Edition)

Wilfredo Garrido is the author of Easy Photography ( avg rating, 3 ratings, 0 reviews, Easy Photography: The Minimalist Way ( Abridged Edition).
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We condition our brains to respond a certain way to certain triggers and gives us what we wanted: A brain that reacts automatically under certain conditions. First, the bad news: Trigger, Routine and Reward. S addiction has these 3 components too. A trigger is of course something that triggers the pattern. In case of G. S my triggers were forums and gear websites. But it can be anything like friends talking about cameras to simply seeing the gear in the wild. A lens porn thread, or a camera porn thread.

Forget it if these cameras had some dressing up involved, like with leather cases! Never mind if no great pictures taken with the camera were posted, I had a kick from looking at the camera alone. This will vary from person to person, but as soon as the trigger was pulled, I would feel uneasy. I have to get that camera, that lens. My photography is worthless without that piece of gear. I have to get it. What can I sell? Throw in some extra stuff like a bag? Can I swing it after the rent? I need to get it! I think I speak for everyone when I say that the reward of G.

But the euphoria does not last, wait a couple of months. Rise and repeat and you have an infernal cycle that costs time and money. In my list, I forgot to mention one big, stupid buy: That picture had such an effect on me. It was like a foot fetishist who also had a strawberry fetish Does that even exist? But you get the idea. I was my first exposure to the Nikon Data Link System. That was the trigger. Search like crazy for all that I can about it. Is it even obtainable? Can I afford it? How much do I need? Do I need to sell anything? Does eBay have it?

Hey, better than nothing! Put that thing on a tripod, took selfies of my wife and me at the beach. All this for the experience of a glorified remote release and data back? It was not a rational decision but I bought it out of habit: I want, I lust, I buy. Apparently the way to rewire the brain to break a habit is to change the routine, keeping the trigger and rewards.

Principles of Photography | John Kosmopoulos

If you are craving a cookie, there was a trigger Maybe reading the word? To kick that habit you simply need to learn to replace the Routine Eat the cookie with another one Eat Apple. S pattern with another pattern. The intellectual talk and the action, both are necessary to rewire in my opinion.

Every time the G. Below are my retorts to counter my G. Self talk is the rationalization to the action of buying new gear, I had to deal with it first, fore the action.

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Again, if I sound preachy, please excuse that. I was addicted to it. Part of the G. So what if another camera is better than mine? Does it mean that mine cease taking great pictures? So why even get a new one? I had to stop fantasizing on what I could have and start appreciating what I had. And, after a few email exchanges, I believe it hit the spot. I mean look at all you will be able to accomplish with it! For less than a week, that is. Would that be TRUE happiness? Nope, it was the contrary.

Actually, let me make you enjoy your next shower. I used to shower with a bucket and a cup, with boiling water thrown in. Quite the perspective shift from something that is so basic right? I probably can do whatever I fantasize with my current gear. I think about how lucky I am to even have those cameras and have enough time to take pictures while some are struggling to pay their rent.

It never fails to drive the lie that a new piece of gear would make me happy. Thank you for opinion, Mr Self Talk, but I have more than enough to rejoice. Oh I love this one. It might expand your creative liberties but hardly make you a better photographer. S has a tendency to blow a feature out of proportion, like the holy grail, even if you never relied on it in the past.

I have a 10 fps camera, but have never used it, even in event situations. Pressing on with your current gear when everybody else is upgrading will make you a better photographer. My mother used to be a pottery artist, I used to watch her hands molding that pot, forming it into what she wanted. Her hands where her tools. She knew how every little movement could have a drastic change on the pot when it was turning. My tool and your tool is the camera, and the more you know it, the less camera there will be between what you have in your Vision.

I think one of the keys to better photography is not to upgrade the camera but to upgrade your relationship with it, know it like the back of your hands. After all the best camera is the one you love. Also the very bad consequence of that self talk is that you start associating the camera with being a good photographer. Compensating for a weakness is the nail on the head. There are many reasons for buying more and more gear Maybe sense of lack?

My PDA collection was to hide the fact that I was never really productive, no matter what system I used. Every piece of gear I bought was an excuse, it provided me a way to rationalize my mediocrity: The bigger the camera, the more it screamed photographer, the better it is. If I wanted to be a respected photographer, I needed to stop wasting my money on gear, and actually start producing work. I shift the attention from the looks of the camera to what really matters: What I have found out is that there is a guilty pleasure in using what other people consider outdated.

Look at these pics from a 5 megapixel point and shoot , my NEX7 will never impress me like that. I boosts self confidence less than new equipment because it focuses the attention on the photographer and less the equipment. Most of what I write on my blog , all my articles over at Inspired Eye , and my free guides were written on a 20 year old HPlx computer. Most of my photography is done on small sensor cameras. The Egyptians who built the pyramids with wood, stone and manpower or the contractors who builds modern buildings with computers and mountain moving machinery?

OOOoooh boy, this is the big one! That nasty self talk made me lose so much money. Well Mr film photographer, tell me what you will do when you finish taking pictures? I get them developed! Yes and what else? I get them scanned! Whatever extra stuff you had is gone and you are now back to a digital image. That usually ends it right then and there. Why would I want to put in extra steps and extra money only to have a digital image left? Would be a killer digital-film combo right?

The above retort easily keeps that buy at bay without even dealing with developing matters. Cameras are like cars, they depreciate as soon as they go off the parking lot. Sometimes the incentive to sell a camera is that it would bring me a new camera AND some pocket money. I lost an average of on each camera, not talking eBay fees and PayPal fees. Oh boy… lost a lot from those because they were unpopular cameras. You see, not everyone has G. S, so when I was buying from eBay, I was impatient and wanted to Buy It Now, sometimes loosing money I could have saved by being patient on a bid that would end in days.

Also, did I say I had a thing for portable storage devices like the Epson P? So not everybody acted like me, I was usually was impatient to sell a camera because I was impatient to get another one. Very rarely did I sell more than I bought a camera for. I lost money, never really made any selling.

I believed that when I was fresh into G. Oh man, I would go to National Parks, I would trek the mountains, create killer work! I would be the next Ansel Adams I tell ya! The truth was, I never shot a traditional landscape in my life up to this point. I never woke up for magic hour, I never set foot in the landscape opportunities that Long Island offered, etc. Now as a commercial photographer, the NEX-7 and a few basic lenses 12mmmmmm is more than enough for me. S has a tendency to promise you you will be a transformed photographer when you get your new purchase.

I bought ring flashes, Sunpak js, reflectors, umbrellas cuz my G. S told me I would be a fashion photographer Triggered by a friend who had the gear. Nevermind that it was not what my heart was telling me , I bought everything. S self talk tells me I can be a whatever photographer if I get some piece of equipment I check my past and my future intent, if it has no place, I reject it as b.

After I bought ALL the gear? I was still fantasizing about landscapes so I went ahead and bought a Gigapan. Used about times. Human history is proof that more can be achieved because of limitations. Humans that could fly would not invent the airplane.

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Humans that could run mph would not invent the automobile. Creativity thrives on limitation because the brain is problem solving oriented. Take a look at this selection of photographs , all made with a 28mm. There is one episode of Batman the old one were they were so low on dough budget cuts… that they had a GENIUS idea for a fight scene that would cost too much to produce: Cheapest fight scene ever and limitation creativity in action.

Instead of zooming in or changing the lens because you have many options, one lens will force you to make it work. Check out this article on the freedom of the 28mm.

Creativity springs when you restrict your options, not when you have more. I know this first hand as a graphic designer, the best designs are only a handful of colors and elements. Vitality is photography, not gear. The lessons I learned throughout my G. Gear is good, but there is more to photography than cameras. Gear can either be an hindrance or a stepping stone. It can either block your way to become the great photographer I believe is in each of us, or it can be the stepping stone to that goal.

It hindered me for way too long, and I believe those who are fresh to photography are more prone to it, I hope I scared you enough not to go the G. My venture into photography started with G. S, but unfortunately I fed the fire, and it stayed until I deprived it of wood. S and let go of the camera. Right after pretty much severing myself from Gear, something happened.

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I started buying more and more photography books and software. I conditioned my brain to buy buy buy if I had the money. S attack came right after I did some branding work and poster work for a hedge fund. It was a pattern inside another pattern. Careful to be conscious of your triggers!

How cool the camera is, how happy I would be, then I would immediately take action like search for the camera online, and then bring my finances in alignment and then hit buy. Only I could take the bad habits and transform them into good habits, the key is I HAVE to replace the habit because habits can only be overwritten, not deleted.

I made my self talk retorts such a habit that they come as automatically as I see something pleasing to the eye Read: Sexy camera in half leather case. But I also had to counter the action steps to counter the G. S actions steps I took. Imagine a road, and there is a split in the road. One path goes right, the other goes left. Every step you take in the left road will make your further and further away from the right road. When I realized this, I was sure the opposite was also bound to be true.

I had to search out for my intent , what the heck did I really want? Did I really want to become the best darn photographer I could be or did I just want to own cameras? I wanted to be a photographer and be the best I could be That will also be the case until I die. After that soul searching, I started walking back, towards the other road. I also broke free creatively while doing so. Photography is a passionate and romantic pursuit for me. I strive to hold the cold mirror of reality up against the world to create warm memories of indelible moments and mold them further into art using photography as a medium of discovery.

There is an inherent aesthetic sensitivity and sensory prioritization when observing patterns in nature and man-made objects that draws us in as photographers. I often immerse myself in a quiet contemplation within the kinetic geometry and opposing symmetries of elements within the ecology of any space. It has not always been easy for me to bring a subject to life with palpable warmth and vibrating patterns but when it happens, it is quite rewarding.

One of the other ways that I also infuse personality into my abstract work is to give my photo an interesting title. Many photographers are reluctant to provide titles or labels to their work other than to describe the subject and scene. However, I believe that stimulating and thought-provoking titles and labels can provide a personal human touch without circumscribing or constraining the interpretation of the image by the observer.

I am also drawn to the notion that photography becomes fine art when a courtship leads to a marriage of art and science. We are also sculptors of perception, painters of light and forms, and poets that use the language of math and physics e. Our brains search for patterns to make sense of things, to connect dots even though they may be invisible at times. We learn from our experience to make those dots visible.

We invest in neuroesthetic principles e. Although architecture itself, for example, can be seen as art, it is a worthy challenge for us as photographers to make uncommon sense of architecture and offer a new interpretation based on our own vision. When I photograph architecture, like many other subjects, it is a beautiful and almost musical distraction for me. It is a style of abstract and architectural photography that has recently evolved into a cohesive and functional vision combining elements and traditions found in abstract art, architecture, and photography as a whole.

As a photographer who shoots interior and exterior architecture, without the physical presence of people, how do you work in town of millions without having them seep into your images? Toronto has boundless opportunities for any type of photography e. I sometimes act as if I am a tourist in my own city so that I can explore and feel the urban pulse with a sense of wonder. It is challenging to get the shots I want without people in them. This is where patience is a virtue and planning becomes a necessary vice.

I will literally wait for minutes at times to take a shot or more! I tend to trek downtown on a Sunday morning where I know the numbers dwindle. It would be easy to photoshop away people in a photo, but the purist in me tries to avoid that as much as possible. Besides planning and having a lot of patience, I simply look up a lot to take photos. That sounds simplistic, but architecture and the celestial beyond always captivate me. Specifically, do you feel that the recent rise in self documentation photography with camera phones, and the application of filter software to artificially add emotional depth and nostalgia, is one that aligns with the search for beauty in the mundane?

What are your thoughts? It is widely acknowledged and quite obvious that his pronouncement was not only impulsive but went against the dawn of a new zeitgeist in shaping the art world. To me, photography is a type of written autobiography where the ink is the light that captures beautiful moments.

Not every autobiography is profound and worthy of the status of art. When you consider the history of photography, the earliest photos depict people in portraits or in their travels. In many ways, the obsession with documenting memories and life events will never change. Technology and social media have made it much easier to do so without reflection. It is true to say that the rise in self documentation photography has diminished photography as an art form, but on the other hand, it has also created a much greater interest in photography as a form of self-expression.

I am not a pessimist about the state of photography. Not everyone will pursue photography as a fine art form to the nth degree. You have to ask yourself why you picked up a camera in the first place and what do you want to do with it. What is its value to you? With photography, I am often lost and found in its value and pursuits as an art form. I believe in the endless journey of capturing an exquisite and timeless aesthetic. I also strongly believe that it is not the camera, but the person that makes a great photo. Some of my most popular photos were taken with a relatively cheap point and shoot camera and not a DSLR.

Many, if not all photographers use some level of post-processing in their work to mold reality into their own version of reality. When a photo can make an indelible impression on you, regardless of how you captured or created it, it is priceless. We are bombarded by images that flood our screens and often desensitize us but when an individual can appreciate and hone the art of seeing, photography has taught them to see the world with nascent eyes. It becomes an evolution to a new natural state of seeing and being. In this way, photography can never be devalued as a potential art form.

Art can be just as valuable in pixels as it is in paint. As photographers, we need to advocate more for photography as an art form worthy of great museums such as the Louvre while educating others about the intricate psychology and philosophy of photography. Was there a moment where you felt it was important to pursue as an art form. And, further to this, are there any Canadian photographers who have inspired you?

I come from a very artistic family. My sister is a painter and interior designer and my brother is a graphic computer artist. I used to draw, write, and paint when I was young. I still write, but I definitely found my voice with photography in the last five years or so. When I first picked up a camera for purely artistic purposes, I envisioned a way to photograph the world as if I was trying to discover its secret wisdom and graceful beauty.

When I realized that a camera was more than a camera but a way to express myself as an artist, I was completely hooked by its promise to offer me a deep exploration and a sense of wonder about the world. I tend to be quite observant of the world around me so I sometimes notice things that perhaps others may take for granted. As photographers, we have a sixth sense when it comes to finding subjects worthy of our time and effort even if it means traveling the road less traveled and becoming strangers in a strange land.

As for influences, there are several Canadian photographers who have inspired me. Although I have not delved deeply into portrait work, I absolutely admire the works of Yousuf Karsh for his immortalizing silver portraits of many well known figures in history and Christopher Wahl for his whimsical and honest nature and moving pictures concept. I also admire the long-exposure photography of Michael Levin.

His work left me with the need to discover harmony in my own photography. My newest photography hero happens to be Commander Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut who is currently in space conducting science experiments while taking breath-taking, poetic images of our planet.