Photography isn't about equipment. But the Internet is full of classes already telling you that. So why are you still stuck?
Why did you even buy a fancy camera and then use it like the dial is stuck on AUTO (short for "I don't know")?
Why are you a couple of years into the hobby and still asking others what the best settings for a landscape are? Why do you take classes and then a year later forget most of them? Why are you still stuck on exposure, frustrated with blurry pictures and absolutely terrified of flash?
It's because you're frustrated, confused or feeling outgunned or outspent by other photographers around you, and nobody has showed you how easy it is in everyday language that makes sense.
Yes, there's a learning curve. But when you see how it actually works and how to practice professional image making, it's a lot easier and more fun than disappointing pictures that make you feel like your gear is inadequate or like you'll never break through as a photographer.
Yes, there are hard things in photography. It's hard to make six figures as a photographer. It's hard to be a world-recognized photographer. It's hard to be a camera brand ambassador.
But getting basic professional quality is simple.
I'm not going to tell you that you can make six figures as a photographer or be the next Ansel Adams if you simply devote yourself to my teaching.
I’m not out to make you a professional.
If you’re like most photographers, you’re about where I was 20+ years ago.
Maybe professional quality photography is something you think you’ll never be able to do.
But you have that beginner's optimism. You’ve been told you have a good eye and your pictures are pretty good. Maybe you’ve even won a couple contests.
Maybe part of you thinks good photography is a matter of being gifted, and everyone getting pictures in magazines and on billboards is just a lot more gifted and luckier than you.
Your pictures aren’t bad, perhaps. Maybe you think they’re above average.
But you know they’re not professional.
Or, maybe you just hate yourself every time you look at your pictures on the computer (I’ve been there).
But how many photographers would take you under their wing and walk you through, step by step, exactly what you don’t know?
I knew some things, like what aperture, shutter speed and ISO did.
So with that knowledge I framed up shots, got decent exposures, and BAM, created shot after shot of nothing that would ever be good enough to get published.
Better than average, but not professional.
But everything else -- what exactly exposure was, how to use flash, "reciprocity," light -- all seemed to advanced (there were just no photographers teaching it in an easy way).
After taking a break from photography, coming back into it and getting a job at a newspaper, I'd improved only marginally. I'd also gotten a studio application rejected.
It was about that time I'd decided: Enough is enough. I don't know professional photography. I feel like an imposter in an industry filled with trained professionals. Either I learn it, or I spend the rest of my life having never been the photographer I wanted.
So I studied, thirstily, what exactly it was that professionals were doing to create such fascinating images, get published and make money.
What was that secret professional sauce?
That is what I want to show you because what took me 20 years to figure out, once I learned it, accelerated my photography to a professional level in about two years.
How much time do you spend daydreaming about a better camera or lens that will supposedly unlock the great photographer in you?
How much money have you spent on special effects software, presets and YouTube videos trying to bring dead snapshots to life in editing?
How many times have you left a scene excited, only to become completely deflated when you went home to look at the pictures on your computer?
How many times have you gagged a little bit when someone looked at your best pictures and said, "Those are nice"?
What could you do if you weren't mystified by exposure or flash? What could you do if you could figure out the best settings for a scene without having to ask or refer to a guide?
What could you do if your pictures justified your gear? If your images finally lived up to what you felt or experienced?
Stop the excuses. Stop buying equipment (until you know exactly why you need it and how you're going to improve your storytelling with it).
