Why photography technique doesn't matter most of the time....

This post is for anyone that maybe just getting into photography. People whom the bug just bit. I have a few friends that just upgraded to DSLR's recently and up until I started getting asked questions I hadn't realized how much photography info I have retained in my brain over the last few years. All of the hours spent watching behind the scenes clips on youtube and reading photo magazines has lead to a lot of technical crap pushing out probably more useful information in my head.

When I am asked questions on settings of the camera or lighting or any of the other million possible things there are to learn about photography (note...I think I might be up to maybe 1% of those million things) the most important aspect over anything else with photography is to have fun. When you are looking through the viewfinder, just be yourself. Who cares what other people are shooting or maybe how the work you are creating isn't what you want it to be. There will always be a photographer that is cooler than you and you can always do better.

Don't get me wrong. Technique and knowing how to use your camera is important. But I will take a heartfelt composition over a perfectly exposed shot any day. This is especially true when photographing people (10x's as much with children!!)

The shot above was done a couple weeks ago during a family session. Sure we posed and set shots up and did all of that stuff as well. But my favorite shots of the session were these unplanned images of the little girl chasing my camera around. It is not technically great. But the character and happiness of the girl is expressed in the image. (what kind of a-hole critiques his own photos eh?)

Anyone can pose people to sit nicely, smile and say cheese. But do you want your photography to reflect emotion and feeling or how you much you can get people to not be themselves.

Get down and dirty and show the world how you see life.