words on pictures

A crucial part of any learning process is getting things wrong. As amateur photographers we can get as much from making mistakes as we can from getting it all right, but in either case we only really take a step forward if we recognise why what we did worked, or why it did not. When we become conscious of what makes success and failure we can begin to repeat the methods that create good pictures, and avoid those that don’t. Personal experience counts for nothing if you don’t look at what you have done and learn by it.

And it takes a while to realise that.

I have set up this site because I find it useful, for my own photographic progress, to talk about what I have done. Writing about how I took any particular picture helps me to analyse it in more depth. This brings to the conscious process of study the sub conscious thoughts I had at the time I took the picture. By recognising what I did in the past I hope to improve my work in the future - and writing it all down helps to formalise that learning instead of it being a bunch of vague and fluffy experiences. As such this is quite a self-indulgent site. I have set it up for my own benefit. But hopefully the new photographer will be able to listen-in and pick up a few things that will be useful.

If you can learn by my mistakes it might save you from making them yourself.

The answer to everything

It might sound a bit obvious, but the key to making really good pictures all the time is… thinking before pressing the shutter release. Of course, we all think at the moment of capture and the few seconds before, but we tend to be thinking about what we are seeing through the viewfinder rather than what we will see in the final print. Looking ahead to what we will see on paper is what really counts, and means that from the very beginning we are focused on the end.

Damien Demolder

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