In this post Marc Silber shares his #1 tip for improving your photography.
You’ll hear this over and over from the photographers that I interview: Take your dang camera with you everywhere!
Cartier-Bresson took his camera with him EVERYwhere—to the cleaners, to the cafe, to the cinema…he always had his trusty Leica M2 with him. Yep, that’s why I got one many, many years ago, hoping the magic would rub off.
Ansel Adams got his famous Shot “Moon and Half Dome” on his way to happy hour. Yes, he pulled his Cadillac over at 4 PM and grabbed his Hasselblad and got that shot. Got back in his car and drove off to have some more fun. Ironic how photographers now line up in droves to try to get the same shot. Ansel loved to get shots of the moon, and was prepared to jump when he saw that shot.
If you saw my last show you heard Chase Jarvis tell you to get off your bum and get out and get some shots!
So this is basic point: Take your camera around with you everywhere. In fact that’s your assignment for this coming weekend: Take your camera with you for one whole day (nope, sorry your iPhone doesn’t count for this, nice try.) I mean your camera, your point and shoot, your cool new DSLR, your granddad’s 4×5, whatever you’ve got. Take it with you for the whole day and shoot. In fact set it up the night before by the bed so you pick it up first thing and grab shots the whole day.
Then next day process them and pick out your best and send it to me. Tell me a bit of the story if you’d like and I’ll post the ones that really grab me, deal?
BTW, as one by-product of this exercise you’ll have to get over any sort of “stage fright” that accompanies having a camera with you all the time and getting shots! But if you’ve set out on this road you might as well face it, you’re not going to get the shots you miss!
There’s lots of ways to get me your shot, here’s a few easy ones, let me see what you’ve got!
email: marc@silberstudios.com
twitter: @marcsilber
FaceBook: Marc Silber
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