ARTICLE SUMMARY: As designers, we appreciate good photography. A great photograph could be the cherry on the icing of any website—that one shot people see while scrolling a mile a minute that stops them cold, demanding their attention—especially if it’s our photography.

If you’re like me, every so often you need a break from whatever it is you’re doing—a distraction. Photography is mine. I’ll grab my camera and hike along the Appalachian Trail or walk the railroad tracks along the Hudson River for a few hours, snapping photos to my heart’s content. Thank God for digital cameras, film was expensive and waiting for prints was a killer. After I moved from film to digital photography, I was disappointed with a fair amount of my photos and always blamed the camera—naturally.

“The Most Important Photography Lesson I Learned Far Too Late” by Shikhar was a real eye opener. To my chagrin, what he described in this article fit me to a tee. He talks about,

  • The Trap of Fragmentation
  • Limitation Fuels Intuition
  • Do You Really Need a New Camera?

How many times have we taken a shot and missed, then turned around and cursed the camera? Be honest, we know it wasn’t us, but let’s face it, nobody wants to hear, “You blew it.” My youngest son hit the nail on the head. While talking about some of the shots I wasn’t happy with, he looked at me and said, “Dad, you know it’s not the arrow, it’s the archer, right?” And he was right.

Then I remembered that when I was in the Navy, I bought my first real camera—a 35mm Pentax film model. I had forgotten what it took to learn a camera well enough to consistently take photos that made me enjoy the results of my efforts. It took a long time to understand shutter speed, aperture settings, low-light shots, film ASA light sensitivity—and that was just the beginning. Digital cameras are no different. Satisfaction comes from putting in the time to reach that point where you don’t have to think about the shot you want; you just take it. That is the goal.

If you really enjoy photography, this article is for you. I only wish I saw this three cameras ago. Let us know what you think in the comments.