Sep 30, 2017

[Photography] 7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

Many people want to improve their street photography or get involved with this genre for the first time. But the major aspect that holds them back is the issue of taking close candid pictures of people without their permission. While I promise that it gets much easier over time, it can very difficult to get over the hump early on.

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

However, there are some steps you can take that will help ease you into the world of street photography if you do it right. Here are a few important tips that I believe will make shooting candid street photography much easier for you.

1. What to do if you get caught

Before we talk about how to get closer to your subjects, the first step is knowing what to do if something happens. The toughest aspect of getting into street photography is the fact that you will feel very uncomfortable with the idea of someone catching you and asking what you are doing, at first. However, while those situations are usually rare, if you handle them the right way, they don’t have to be all that bad.

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

To help ease your fears, it is important to know what to say if anyone should stop you and ask you if you took their photo. Smile, own up to it and say that you are a photographer or photography student doing a photo project on the area and the people in it. Tell them you thought they looked great and wanted to add them to it. Just be honest and open about it. If they then seem uncomfortable, offer to delete the photograph. It can even help to carry a business card with your photography information and to offer to email them the photograph after. The more direct and pleasant you are, the more disarming it will be.

To further keep yourself out of trouble, pick and choose the people you photograph carefully. It can help to stay away from photographing anyone who looks like they are in a bad mood, anyone with some sort of mental disability, or anyone who is homeless.

2. Light camera and prime lens

Street photography can certainly be done well with an SLR and a zoom lens. I shot for a long time with that setup. However, using a smaller camera such as a mirrorless, micro 4/3rds, or a Leica will make you much less noticeable. In addition, it will be lighter, which will make you faster and can only help with street photography. The difference is night and day.

By using a prime lens you will get used to the fixed focal length which will make you much more spontaneous. You will be able to intuitively know what your camera can capture before you even bring it up to your eye. That, and your camera will be smaller since zoom lenses are usually very large. With a light camera and lens, you will eventually notice yourself capturing images so quickly that your subject barely even notices you. This is the type of thing that is much tougher to do with an SLR and big zoom lens.

3. Picking a spot / getting in the middle

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

The next tip, which is often the most important, is to go where the action is and get right in the middle. It will be important for you to eventually photograph in all types of situations, from less busy to very crowded, but particularly when you are learning, go where a lot of action is happening. Go to fairs, get out at busy times, shoot from busy corners. The more that is happening, the more invisible you will be, and the less you will be noticed by other people. This will help a lot with your comfort level.

By picking a spot and letting your subjects come to you, you change up the dynamic of the situation. Instead of you entering their personal space, they will be entering yours. You will seem less creepy and intrusive because you will already be there with a camera. It will look like you belong.

In addition, when a moment occurs, you will already be the right position. You will be able to spend more of your energy watching your surroundings for a good moment to occur. This, of course, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t photograph while you are walking and exploring, just that you should carve out some time to linger in a specific spot.

4. Acting

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

There are some photographers who will run up to people and get right in their face. If that’s your thing, more power to you, but many photographers prefer to be less conspicuous about it. We want to capture an interesting moment, we love to people watch, but we want to try to make the situation as comfortable as possible for both parties, and we want to be inconspicuous enough to not ruin the moment.

This is where a little acting can come into play. The most important thing is to act like you don’t notice the person you want to photograph that much. Look at things behind them, and to the side. They just happen to be in your way. Play the role of tourist, looking around. The more you do this, the more you will be able to get away with taking the photo unnoticed.

5. The camera snap and the way you move your camera

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

Similar to the last point, the way you move your camera can play a big part in keeping the situation candid. There is one thing that most photographers do, called the camera snap, where they take the camera away from their eye instinctively right after they take an image. Of course, there will be shots that you take so quickly that people won’t notice. But for other moments when the people notice you, this will often give away the fact that you were taking their photograph. Instead, take the picture and keep the camera up to your eye. Then move the camera away like you were taking a picture next to them and slowly remove the camera from your eye.

Similarly, you do not always have to point your camera directly at people right away to capture the image. Instead, point the camera above or to the side of your subject as if you were taking an image of something behind them. Then at the last second, move the camera over them, take the image, and move on.

6. Hold the camera up high

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

Whenever possible, try to keep your camera in your hands and at attention when you are photographing. If you allow it to hang off your neck, then when an amazing moment occurs you will have to locate and grab the camera before putting it to your eye. This is the least conspicuous way to capture an image.

Instead, try to keep the camera up high as much as you can. Then, when you take an image you will stand out less. It will feel much less conspicuous.

7. Zone focusing

7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography

Zone focusing is the technique of turning your camera to manual focus mode, pre-focusing it to a distance of about 8-10 feet, and then capturing your subject once they are in the range of sharpness for your camera. This is easier to do with a wide-angle lens with a medium to small aperture such as f/8 to f/16 so that there is more area of your image in focus. Keep in mind that this is a skill that can be improved – there are many photographers who can zone focus well even at f/2.

You can read more about zone focusing here, and while it is a little difficult to learn at first, you will quickly get much better at it. The main benefit of this type of focusing is so that you no longer have to lock the autofocus in on your subject. This allows you to be a little more spontaneous with your shooting, and it will give you an added split second to take the photograph. That, in turn, will allow you to better capture those very fast moving moments.

Most importantly, it will allow you to be a little more candid than you can be using autofocus. Since you won’t have to point the camera directly at your subject to lock in the focus nor will you have to look through the viewfinder to make sure you are focusing correctly, you can be much more inconspicuous. This will allow you to shoot from the hip and still know that your shots will be sharp.

Conclusion

I hope these tips help you do better candid street photography, and with more confidence.

So get out there, get close, and capture some amazing and spontaneous photographs!

The post 7 Steps to Improve Your Closeup Candid Street Photography by James Maher appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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[Photography] 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Since its Version 1.0 release in 2006, Adobe Lightroom has gone from strength to strength, firmly establishing itself as the go-to software for photographers around the globe. With each new update, you’ll be relieved to find you have fewer reasons for awakening the software’s fuller-figured big brother, Photoshop CC.

That said, there are some limitations with Lightroom that have stood the test of time. Thankfully, with more signups for the Creative Cloud Photography plan, there are now few photographers without access to both solutions. But for the times you need it, here are five reasons you’ll likely find yourself firing up Photoshop CC for better results.

1 – Cloning and Healing

Lightroom is a whiz at removing simple sensor spots from that top left corner of your images (Nikon users, you know what I’m talking about!). Punching Q then A allows me to quickly visualize any distracting spots with the handy white on black overlay, and their removal is typically a swift one-click solution using the Spot Healing tool.

However, the same cannot be said when attempting to remove distractions from more complex textures such as dust spots in the grass, for example, or people, as in the image below. For those situations, I rely on the smarter algorithms and expanded capabilities of Photoshop.

Cloning before - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Want to feel like the only person at Angkor Wat? Then, you’ll need Photoshop!

To remove and replace objects that Lightroom cannot handle, start by right-clicking the image and choosing Edit in Photoshop. Then create a duplicate layer (CTRL/CMD + J) of your image in Photoshop (I generally do this every time I start processing so I can always get back to the original if I make a mistake or don’t like the result).

Next, erase the distraction with the Eraser Tool (E) so that you can see a “missing piece” where the culprit used to lie (be sure to turn off the visibility of the original background layer if nothing appears to have been erased). Select the area using the wand tool (W) and then in the menu bar at the top of your screen choose Select > Modify > Expand (choose around 5 pixels as your setting).

Next, choose Edit > Fill and select “Content-Aware” in the Contents dropdown list. Hit OK and Photoshop will attempt to replace what you’ve erased with something sensible.

Cloning demo - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

A before, during, and after shot showing the simple removal of people from an image using Erase and Content-Aware Fill.

I’ve been able to seamlessly remove crowds of people from the image you see here using this technique, and the process took only around two minutes. Whereas Lightroom relies on finding a similar texture it can use to cover up distractions/blemishes, Photoshop uses its clever algorithms to create its own texture.

Cloning final - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Going, going, gone! Photoshop makes light work of the unwanted people in the image.

2 – Digital Blending

Sometimes you just can’t quite capture enough dynamic range in your image to get away with a single exposure (at least not without introducing an unacceptable amount of noise or strange artifacts). While Lightroom has attempted to cater to those who wish to combine exposures with the introduction of HDR Photo Merge, using the feature can sometimes lead to incredibly flat images that are tricky to process (and in the case of the image you see below, caused the sun to completely disappear by virtue of it not appearing in both of the photographs).

Hdr both frames - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Pulling up the shadows on the darker of these two exposures would introduce too much noise, and so HDR seemed the way to go.

Lightroom hdr attempt - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

…if only it wasn’t for Lightroom’s attempt to fix global warming.

Lightroom hdr after post-production - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

The plight of a freezing earth aside, even after post-production in Lightroom, the blended exposure looks flat and uninteresting.

The advanced masking abilities of Photoshop, combined with a technique called Luminosity Masking makes combining exposures much simpler. Using this technique, you choose exactly what appears from each exposure, so blending images that have uncommon elements (as in the case of the sun in the example image) is simple.

Photoshop hdr blend - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Not only is the sun retained, but the image looks punchier overall, too.

3 – Advanced Tone and Color Control

The local adjustment tools in Lightroom including the Adjustment Brush (K), Graduated Filter (M) and Radial Filter (Shift+M) give you far less need for Photoshop than was the case before they were introduced. They are excellent targeting tools, yet they all suffer a major weakness – there is no access to HSL (Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity) adjustments.

In daytime landscape images, you’ll often want to deepen the blue of the sky. While this can be done using the HSL panel, the problem is that blue is not a color found exclusively above the horizon, as is the case with the walls and clothing in the example image below. The only way I could deepen the blue here would also cause detrimental effects to the blue everywhere else. Targeting the sky with the Adjustment Brush didn’t give me access to the necessary HSL sliders.

Color control before - http://ift.tt/2lmsuqT

I wanted to bring a bit of life to the sky in this image. But in Lightroom, there is no way to adequately control the blues without affecting the same tones in other areas of the image.

Color can be better controlled in Photoshop by hitting Select > Color Range, then using the eyedropper tool to select a color you want to affect in isolation. You can then create an adjustment layer of your choice to affect the selected area; most often you’ll find a Hue/Saturation adjustment is the best method.

The benefit of this last method is a dramatic one: Whereas in Lightroom you can only make wholesale adjustments, i.e. changes that affect the entirety of the image, to Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity, you aren’t subject to the same limitation in Photoshop. By selecting an appropriate color, then masking out the effect in undesirable areas, you’ll retain more control, as is the case with the image below.

Color control after - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Targeting only specific areas while retaining full access to every adjustment Photoshop offers is hugely appealing. Note the sky is darkened here but not the wall or people’s clothing.

To achieve my aim, I simply created a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and then masked away the effect from everywhere but the sky. I’d tried all manner of adjustments in Lightroom but could only get the sky to look how I wanted at the expense of adding too much blue elsewhere.

Another great option when this happens is to simply create two virtual copies in Lightroom, one with the sky (or another problem area) as you want it, and another before you did the damage with the other edit. You can then blend the two together in Photoshop.

4 – Stitching Panoramas

When Adobe announced they’d be adding the Panorama Photo Merge feature to Lightroom, I figured that’d be yet one more thing scratched from my “Must use Edit in Photoshop” list. Alas, it wasn’t to be, predominantly because of the likelihood of “blank canvas” – the phenomenon where you’ll find blank, white space in your Lightroom panoramas. Try it for yourself. CTRL/CMD + Click to select all of the images you wish to stitch, then right-click and select Merge > Panorama. I bet there’s an area missing from the photograph.

Lr pano demo - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Here you see Lightroom’s attempt at creating a 6-frame panorama.

The effect is caused by the distortion inherent to some degree in every lens, and Photoshop will produce near identical results. Where Photoshop excels, however, is in its ability to offer a more flexible solution. In Lightroom, you are left to merely crop away the now-useless areas. But in Photoshop you can use the same Content-Aware Fill method described in #1 above to cleverly re-create a convincing replacement area of sky (although you may want to try expanding your selection by 20 or so pixels, as opposed to the 5px recommended for removing smaller items).

Left to the solutions in Lightroom, I’d have been forced to crop away more of the sky than I’d have liked in this image. With Photoshop I was even able to replicate some tricky texture in the water at the bottom of the frame. I still needed to crop away a little of the image, but nowhere near as much.

Pano in photoshop - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Pano complete - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Photoshop’s Content-Aware Fill allowed me to retain much more of the final image and forced less cropping.

5 – Chromatic Aberrations

Lightroom generally does a pretty good job of dealing with chromatic aberration, the color fringing that can appear where dark and light tones meet. You’ll often see this in daytime cityscapes where the top edges of buildings meet a bright sky, for example, usually manifesting itself as a green or purple edge straying into the brighter tone.

Chromatic aberration before - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

While this nun is a holy person, the blue glow on the shoulder is a bit much.

Lightroom has a couple of ways of dealing with this. First, there’s the Remove Chromatic Aberration checkbox in the Lens Corrections panel. I’d say 90% of the time, this is enough to correct the problem. Where the fringing persists, heading into the manual tab of the same panel allows you to grab the Fringe color Selector (the eye-dropper-like icon) and click on the offending area.

This will generally fix a more complex problem, but every once in a while you’ll encounter fringing so stubborn that Lightroom can’t handle it. This happens most frequently with blue fringing, which Lightroom is pretty much powerless against. Fortunately, blue fringing is quite rare, but it does happen.

Fringe color selector - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Lightroom is powerless against the dreaded Blue Glow!

You could try to desaturate the offending edge with Lightroom’s adjustment brush but you run the risk of accidentally straying into the surrounding area. Alternatively, you could try to completely desaturate the blue and cyan in the HSL panel. In this case, I didn’t want to do either of those as it would put my blue-green background at risk, making it look far too much like color-select for my liking.

Photoshop affords so much more control in fixing this problem. It’s as simple as heading to the menu bar to hit Select > Color Range and then clicking on the color fringing with the eyedropper tool that appears automatically. This will create a selection based on that very blue causing the problem.

By altering the “Fuzziness” you’re basically setting color sensitivity. The lower the number, the more precisely Photoshop will select that color; the higher the number, the more leeway you give the software to find similar colors. Don’t worry if there’s an identical or similar color elsewhere in the image that Photoshop picks up on; it’s easy to mask that out later.

Once you see that your mask has isolated the problem area well enough, open a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, which should have automatically applied your selection as a mask. Reduce saturation in the Blues and Cyans until the problem is gone. If you’ve accidentally desaturated some other important area of your photograph, click on your mask, grab the black brush, and mask it out. Easy.

Color range with mask - 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature

Targeting doesn’t get any easier.

Chromatic aberration demo

The nun’s blue glow is successfully removed. I’m not quite sure how she’d feel about this.

Conclusion

The next time one of the few remaining weakness of Lightroom is exposed, you can try one of the above techniques so the software doesn’t have to get in the way of your vision.

Have you found any other Lightroom limitations? Please share in the comments below.

The post 5 Reasons for Lightroom Photographers to Use the Edit In Photoshop Feature by Chris Cusick appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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Sep 29, 2017

[Photography] Weekly Photography Challenge – View From Above

If you’ve already looked at this article from earlier on tips for drone photography, you’ll already be in the mood for this challenge. But you don’t need a drone to participate – just a high vantage point, looking down. Are you “up” for it?

Photo by Jonathan Pendleton on Unsplash

Weekly Photography Challenge – View from Above

This week it’s your job to get up high and look down on the world – literally. Show us the view from above with your photos for this weekly challenge.

Share your images below:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images on the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – View From Above by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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[Photography] 11 Quick Tips to Improve Your Drone Photography

In this short video from the people over at COOPH, they bring you 11 tips to help improve your drone photography,

If you enjoy drone photography check out these dPS articles as well:

Drone photography?

So we’re curious here at dPS, how many of you are using drones now or getting one soon? Tell us in this quick poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The post 11 Quick Tips to Improve Your Drone Photography by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.



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Sep 28, 2017

[Photography] 10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

Every decision you’ve ever made, each image you’ve ever shot, and each chance you’ve taken, has brought you to where you are now as a photographer. Think about that for a second. Regardless of what your goals might be or where you want to go with your photography, it all comes down to a series of moves. So really, all of your success and all of your failures are a beautiful mix of causes and effects. One action yielding one outcome big or small. For most of us, our love for all things photography points to one end and that ever-burning question of “How can I be a full-time photographer?”

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it takes to quit your job and become a professional photographer or how it feels to turn your love of photography into sustainable income, then this is your lucky day. I’m about to share with you some lessons I’ve learned during my three-year journey to become “one of those people”; someone who managed to turn their passion for photography into a full-time job and kiss the rat race goodbye. A few of these lessons are ones you might expect and a few might not be so obvious. So, sit back and get ready to hear some real-world advice from someone who actually made their dream happen, and how you can follow if you choose.

#1 – You have to want it more than anything

It’s easy to say you want something. But have you ever truly desired to make something happen? I’m talking about the kind of want that consumes your very being. Well, maybe not that dramatic but it’s not far off. If you are going to “make it” at anything then you will have to want it more than anything else.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

The happy upside to finding something that you so completely want is that the challenges you face don’t seem to matter as much as they might otherwise. And yes, there will be oh so many challenges. Which leads us to lesson #2.

#2 – You will have to sacrifice

Don’t get me wrong. The following words aren’t meant to be a deterrent but at the same time, they are quite true. To ultimately reach your goals there will have to be sacrifices made along the way. The nature and exactness of these sacrifices will vary greatly but there will always be things that you will have to give up in order to make your dream a reality.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

These sacrifices could be anything from giving up sleep and experiencing physical discomfort or missing time out with friends. Photography is a medium that literally requires you to be present for every shot. This means that to truly be there in the moment you won’t always be able to someplace else. It strains relationships and can take a toll on your body, your finances, and even your mind. But much like lesson #1, the sacrifices won’t seem so terrible if they are viewed as a necessary means to make something you truly want happen.

#3 – Understand the “calculated risks”

Taking calculated risks is sometimes misunderstood by some people who are looking to take a leap with their photo work. Let’s break down the very phrase “calculated risk”.

First, we have the word “calculated” which means something that is done with full awareness of the possible consequences. Then we have “risk” which refers to exposing something we value to danger, harm, or loss. So, when we say that we are going to take a calculated risk, it means that we are about to put something on the line knowing full well that the outcome might not be favorable. This is where I feel the point becomes lost with some photographers.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

To reach your goals you’ll certainly have to take some risks. While that’s true, I’ve learned that it’s the manner in which you take those risks that makes all the difference. When it comes to taking calculated risks, never risk anything that will ultimately prevent you from reaching your next goal.

I’ll admit though, this advice can be somewhat paradoxical. Meaning that in the end, you will have to take the ultimate calculated risk. That is going all in and attempting to make your living exclusively from your dealings in photography. Until that time comes, make sure your risks are of the non-terminal variety.

#4 – You will have to teach yourself patience

This is a hard one. You will have to be patient. Stay ambitiously patient, but be patient nonetheless. If you’re not a patient person then you’ll probably have to teach yourself to be one. And if you come to the conclusion that you can’t teach yourself to be patient then you’ll just have to fake it. I can tell you that there is no set timetable when it comes to reaching a sustainable goal.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

Being patient doesn’t mean that you should sit back and wait for things to happen. Instead, make every minute of every day count towards achieving the thing you want the most. But understand that there’s no guarantee when that goal will be reached. Just know that you will reach it if you are patient (and persistent) and don’t stop.

#5 – Confidence comes after the fact

This is something that I struggle to remind myself on a daily basis. Confidence is just as important as skill in some cases. Having the gall to try something new, to attempt difficult things, that’s what it takes to make big things happen with your photography.

Some people are born confident (or at least so it seems). But for others, confidence is a learned talent. What’s the downside to becoming confident in your work? Confidence only comes after you do the thing you’re afraid to do.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

Yeah, that’s a hard idea to swallow but it’s true. To become confident you will have to constantly step outside your comfort zone to varying degrees. This could mean being proactive with clients, taking on jobs that are just slightly outside your assumed skill set, and at times even talking your way into (and out of) a few situations.

#6 – Disregard secret formulas for success

The internet is chock-full of every kind of self-improvement website and video imaginable that all aim at making you better at photography. That’s 100% okay and none of us would know much of anything about making photographs if it weren’t for people who publish good educational information. After all, you’re reading this article on one of the best photo education sites online. But that doesn’t mean that everything that glitters is gold.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

A big red warning flag should go up whenever you hear or read something that tells you to, “Do this and you’ll be a great photographer” or worse yet, the dreaded, “I’m a master photographer so listen to me” line. Understand that your journey to finding success is completely unique to you. My goals and choices are likely totally different than those you will choose. At the same time, some lessons are universal. Just remember that there is no secret formula, only tested advice.

#7 – Grab opportunity by the throat

I love a good metaphor and grabbing opportunity by the throat is one of the best ones I can think of to describe what I learned about approaching opportunity. Learning to recognize opportunities for advancing yourself and your work is only a small part of the puzzle. You have to also aggressively seize those opportunities when they come along.

For me, there were three or four big opportunities that eventually put me where I am today. Narrowing it down even further, one of those opportunities hinged on a single email that I sent to someone. If I hadn’t sent that one message, things might have turned out much differently.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

Don’t just say, “I think this is a great opportunity but…” There are no buts when it comes to this sort of action. Unfortunately, you have to decide that for yourself whether not an opportunity is worthwhile. But if you do decide to go for it, do so with everything you’ve got. You never know where it might lead. Which brings us to #8.

#8 – Your destination will change

This is somewhat of a strange lesson which I’ve only come to grasp in the last year or so. The end all be all dream I had when I started making photographs was to take pictures of beautiful things, sell them, and repeat. I thought I would do this enough to make a living.

Well, the hard truth about photography is that it’s nearly impossible to make a living exclusively from selling prints. It’s not impossible, but even the established greats in the photography history books didn’t merely sell prints to support themselves. The ones who did often were only able to do so AFTER they became giants in the art.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

Don’t be afraid to allow yourself to evolve in a natural direction. Currently, I write for four to five publications, have authored two books on photography, host my own YouTube channel, and dabble in all manner or photo-related adventures. I still love making photos and do so whenever I can, but do I sell a lot of those prints? Not really.

Would I ever have imagined myself as a writer? Absolutely not! But when the opportunity came along I took it, and it’s all been one amazing ride to where I am now. The takeaway here is to be flexible with your attitude and accept that you always understand that a glorious outcome is out there, but it may not be the one you originally set out to achieve.

#9 – Think big but have realistic expectations

Set huge goals for yourself. Dream big. Think big. Never let anyone tell you that something is impossible for this or that reason. While you should never set strict limitations for yourself and your dreams it’s also important to live in reality. This is a reality, isn’t it? The point is to never expect great things to happen quickly or without a lot of work (remember #2 and #4 above) supplied on your part.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

The most saddening thing that can happen to those who have unreal expectations is that they quit. They stop chasing after what they love and resign themselves to an existence they don’t really want. If you want to go full-time in the photography world always remember that success finds us at different times and with different outcomes. Think as big as you need to but keep your feet firmly on the ground.

#10 – It’s all worth it in the end

As we close out our list, #10 is the lesson that I want you to understand with the most clarity. Of all the lessons I’ve learned on my journey to independence with photography, there is one that had to wait for until the end and it’s this – it’s all worth it. All of it. All your hard work, all your sacrifice, everything that you poured into making your dream of being a working full-time photographer will ultimately lead to one of the greatest feelings imaginable.

10 Lessons from a Guy Who Quit His Job to be a Full-Time Photographer

Honestly, any description I can give of how amazing it feels to make photography (or photo related) your full-time job will ultimately fall miserably short of its mark. So, if you’re struggling with whatever you happen to be doing with photography let this final lesson fortify you enough to keep going. Believe me, it will all be worth it.

Some Final Thoughts

These lessons are just a small portion of a nearly indecipherable culmination of trial and error, ups and downs, peaks and valleys. Your particular path will be different than mine, as it should be. I managed to leave a successful, albeit unfitting, career in healthcare to go on to make a living doing what I really love. The best part? I’m no different than you.

I’m ecstatic to tell you some of the lessons I’ve learned so that you might understand that you can do the same thing I did. It may not happen quickly and it might not be exactly what you originally planned, but when it finally happens…and it will happen, it will be better than anything you can imagine.

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