Photography habits 

Today I’m writing down some ideas and habits I’ve collected along the way that I hope can challenge your journey in making photographs as much as they’re challenging mine.

1. GOING FULLY MANUAL ON EXPOSURE IS PROBABLY OVERRATED

What’s wrong with not going fully manual everytime for your exposures ? It’s probably more wrong to just always have it on manual no matter what we’re shooting. Like many things it could probably be much better to try out different settings and see which ones work better for us in different situations.

It’s also important to remember that fully manual or fully automatic are not the only 2 options you have. Consider shooting in “Aperture Priority” and “Shutter Priority”. I’ve been getting more familiar with this recently shooting on a 35mm manual focus lens on my Fuji XT3.

…. and before you get bored with me talking about the same old boring priority settings on your camera, give me another chance ;)

2. APERTURE IS NOT JUST WIDE OPEN

Recently, thanks to my first steps printing more photographs, and due to the fact that like I said before I’ve found myself shooting a lot with a manual focus lens on my Fuji XT3, I’ve noticed that I’ve been shooting in a really small aperture range until now. Why the hell was I so conflicted about going above f2.2 ? haha. Well printing your work and manually focusing while taking some photos on the streets in your city will definitely teach you something that’s for sure.

3. Shoot more Manual Focus

So to sum up these first two points and find a little challenging and fun solution to practice something different I think that putting your hands on a small compact manual focus lens could be a great starting point. (there are many great vintage lenses you could adapt for you camera).

Especially if you’re thinking about trying out a new focal lenght and spending for expensive new glass, you can save some money and solve your doubts on focal lenghts by getting an old vintage lens and also learn a lot by using it.

Wanna save up even more money ? Grab that lens you already have…. yes I know you have that kit lens you hate on your shelf collecting dust… stick it on your camera, set it to manual focus and learn about depth in your photos and that bokeh is not the only way to achieve that in your photographs. Learn how to focus and what to focus on…. and yes I know, everythings moving to fast and you’re missing all those shots, well that’s cause you need to know what zone focusing works.

Challenge yourself to find out what really makes a great photograph…I’ll give you a hint, it comes from the sun…beggins with the lestter L.. You’re welcome ;)

So once you’re going to reach for that new expensive lens you'll be sure about what you need and which focal lenght you want to keep practicing on.

4. USE A CAMERA STRAPPPPP !!!!!

Still can’t believe I haven’t been using a camera strap in every single situation until now. You need to be taking your camera with you as much as you can right ? Well how can you without a strap, it’s just not going to work if you rely on holding your camera. I mean, you could try but I’ve experienced that it’s just going to reduce the time you want to have it with you.

Of course it should be fine to leave our camera home in some occasions but how the hell can we know if we haven’t tried bringing it with us at least one or twice in different circumstances. And if thinking about bringing our camera with us this often is feeling like to much of a deal I’m pretty sure it also has something to do with the next point in this list, “limit yourself to one lens”. And could it also be because bringing our camera with us automatically involves a bunch of useless gear on our shoulders ?!! So next time leave your backpack full of weight home and also try to bring your camera in a few unusual occasions. I’ll remind myself that too, I still need to.

5. LIMIT YOURSELF TO ONE LENS

1. This is for sure a very important thing that has happened to me in the last year. I bought the Fuji XT3 back in November 2019 and immediately after I managed to put my hands on the Fuji 100-400mm for my surf photography. So after this very expensive purchase I just wasn’t in the position to go spend more money on other lenses and the New York trip was around the corner. At the end I left for New York with my “kit lens” ( Fuji 18-55mm f2.8-4 ) and an old vintage Pentax 50mm f1.7. Shot everything with these 2 lenses. Ended up using the 50mm a lot and thats when I really started practicing with manual focusing and sticking to one focal lenght. A few months later I was lucky enough to receive a 7artisans 35mm f1.2 Manual Focus as a gift for my birthday. Loved it !!! A very compact and small metal tank. That’s what I’ve been mainly shooting until now and haven’t been thinking about new lenses that much cause I just wasn’t in the position of spending more money on gear, especially if I wasn’t that sure on which was going to be a focal lenght that could be interesting for me to shoot.

   Ok so lets make a point here...and its not the traditional happy ending and resolution as you would expect. The real thing for me having this restriction has been realizing that I suck haha.. It has thrown me right down to something that feels as a starting point… feels scary but I really believe that no matter what I will make from this it’s always necessary at some point to feel like you’re really unsatisfied with what you’ve been creating. I think that’s consciousness hitting you straight in the head and forcing you into feeling uncomfortable all over again. It’s scary, and you will doubt if you have what it takes to get to the next level of this craft or if it’s just that you haven’t got anymore to say through this tool. I repeat, it’s pretty scary !!

   Shooting one lens has been one of the main factors that has made me conscious in my journey again, it’s a new perspective we often need I think, so stay open to this feeling and once you catch a glimpse of it, fix it in you mind and learn a new way of approaching your craft.

   Well, hope that’s dramatic enough for a photography talk hahaha !!! Cheers everyone !!!!

Hope you enjoyed reading this and I’d like to underline that all this is just something I personally experience and that i would like to reflect on and share. If at any point it sounds like I’m teaching something it’s probably because I’m trying to teach myself.

Thank you,

Marco.

FEEL FREE TO REACH OUT ;)