Life Lessons
5 Life Lessons I Learned from My Camera
Diary of a Hobbyist Photographer
Books and Music are my soulmates, yet my camera is the one that takes me on wild dates. It just happens.
Time flies and everything stops mattering to me when I am on a date with my camera. When I am back with disheveled hair, muddy shoes, and clothes, I get quirky comments from my family. That is the chemistry between me and my camera. Photography is definitely a dopamine boost for me.
I don’t call myself a Photographer. It is just a love affair. The story started five years back when I felt an attraction towards a DSLR camera that was abandoned on our library shelf. I adopted the basic Canon DSLR which was brought by a friend from Singapore. Ever since I have spent many deep hours learning to capture beauty with my camera. My Camera is a friend and philosopher. Last week, when I went on a dream cruise from Mumbai to Goa, I had the option to take an upgraded camera with me, but I took my old friend with me. That’s the charm and contentment of old friendships.
Photography And Philosophy
“One advantage of photography is that it’s visual and can transcend language.” — Lisa Kristine
1. Focus, Focus, Focus!
The first and foremost lesson I learned from my camera is to focus.
You can be anywhere on this beautiful planet with your camera. The light can be exquisite, the settings can be the very best. You are all set for your dream shots, but if you are mindless and forgot to focus, you lost it! Even after many years of pressing the shutter, I am still learning this lesson like a Koan. If you want to capture the essence of beauty in your frame you need the sharpest focus. This is true in life also. We are floating in our life mindlessly without focus. While the beauty is standing still, waiting, silently pleading for our focus.
Recently I saw a beautiful bunch of yellow bananas in my mom’s village kitchen. I had my camera with me and was searching for antiques in the old kitchen. The morning light was streaming in casting a great light and shadow effect. Seeing the banana bunch dangling from a coir rope and soaking in the morning light made my heart jump with joy. I took a few clicks in haste. My hands were not steady enough and I didn’t notice this. I could have taken a deep breath and steadied myself and the camera for a perfect shot. When I sat down to check the images I saw the blurry bunch of beauty! Since this is my passion I don’t give up easily. I went back and steadied myself and took the perfect shot.
2. Light is the hero.
“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” — George Eastman
Photography is the art of painting with light. You can have the most beautiful subject and the costliest of gear, you are helpless without the blessing of light. The light should fall in the right places for a breathtaking image. What you are seeing is light, not a landscape or a great model.
I love natural light photography. The golden hours of morning and evening are my weakness. Artificial lights are amazing too.
Artificial lights can get you the softest highlights on your subject, especially for capturing portraits.
Always remember Light is the hero. Try to capture light as much as you can in life and Photography.
3 . Find your signature lens.
Your vision is so much more important than the gear in Photography. You can have the latest gear, but your images will be only as good as your perspective and vision. This comes with great passion, observation, and practice. During my early days of learning, I was intimidated by fellow Photographers carrying sophisticated and costly gear. Perhaps it suited their requirement. I was not happy with my kit lens either. I loved blurred backgrounds with great depth of field. I decided to discover my lens. For two years I spent all my pocket money renting different lenses and cameras to find my ‘’ lens ‘’. During this period two of my images got selected for a photography exhibition in my city. One was shot with a macro lens and another one with a 50 mm. Macro Photography exhausted me very fast. Finally, I discovered my 50 mm lens, and I am loyal to it ever since.
Once you are set with your lens half the struggle is over.
4 . Never stop learning.
I have never stopped learning ever since I started my hobby of Photography. There is always something new to learn. There are composition rules, different genres of photography, the works of different artists, editing, etc.
“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography, everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.” — David Bailey
5. Let Go
When we learn to love unconditionally, we learn the art of letting go. After hours of bending down on the tripod forgetting time and existence, the results can be disheartening many times. This is the moment we let go of our frustration. There are times when we delete thousands of pics from the drive to save space, we learn to let go. I always found decluttering of drives gave me space and improved perspectives.
After more than 5 years of learning with my basic DSLR, my Photography ambition is to capture Zen-like images. It can take some more days, months, or years! Going forward one step at a time.
Keep Smiling :)