I got my first DSLR camera when I was about 13 years old, and ever since, I have loved photography. Over the last five years my photography skills and style has developed to a level that I am proud of the images I produce. The art of photography is like any other art, it has to be practiced. The biggest misconception about being a photographer is that it is a “point and click” hobby (or job), essentially meaning there is no skill needed and the camera does all the work for you. This is grossly untrue, you could have the most expensive camera in the world and still take unappealing pictures, the same can be said for the reverse, how good your photos come out, depends on how much time you spend practicing.

There are many different ways to capture the exact same object or landscape, everything from blurring the foreground or the background, to adjusting with the shutter speed and light exposure to give different effects. You have to rely on your experience and knowledge to know what setting you need your camera to be on. In many instances, you are not going to get a second chance once you press that shutter button, like in the picture below. In this picture the bird could fly away after the first picture is taken; you have to be perfect the first time.

There is more to photography then just taking the photo, with pretty much every photo you take you are going to do some editing. This means you have to develop your skills in adobe Photoshop and Light Room (or similar software) to a level that gives you great pictures and doesn’t end up ruining them. These skills can range from simple editing, to complex tasks like double exposure, which is merging two photos together, this can be seen with the bear below. Other times you might want to remove or change something in your picture. I recently did this with a picture I took in Arizona of a watch-tower at the Grand Canyon. I removed the grey cloudy background and replaced it with a nice blue background from an image I had took earlier in the day. It can change the mood of a photo instantly.

If you are interested in photography I highly recommended just picking up a camera and taking pictures of anything, yes, anything. If you can take a good picture of a common garden plant in your yard, just imagine what you could do with an exotic and colorful flower. The same concept applies to anything in life, if you go out there and practice a skill you will eventually reach a level that your good is another people’s great. If you are skeptical about photography, don’t go out and buy an expensive camera, simply use your IPhone. If you enjoy taking pictures with your phone, and editing them on some free app like Afterlight, then take it to the next level and invest in a camera and software like Light Room.

Photography can be the artistic expression of someone with no common artistic abilities like painting and drawing. Get out there and find your calling.