 How's it how's it? The camera manufacturing industry had fed me a line which I had swallowed hook line and sinker. This had started when I was a beginner photographer and I was trying to figure out what was it that I actually needed to get started on this journey with taking images. Over the 30 odd years that I've been taking photographs you know both professionally and amateur there was a common theme that sort of ran throughout this which was whenever I got frustrated with photography whenever I felt myself like a creative empath and you know just I was like I just I'm not I'm just not feeling it right so something's not right. I turned over my shoulder or turned you know and there was the camera industry going do you know what you need you need a new lens or you need a new camera or something like this that's going to be the thing that's going to reinvigorate your photography. As a beginner photographer this is of course you know it's it's comforting to actually hear because there's so much for you to get to grips with when you're starting off and your journey as a photographer you know there's the technical aspects of things there's oh my god you know the f-stops and the shutter speeds all that gobbledygook stuff just like ah it's just too much and then of course there's there is the aesthetic side of things which is even harder because you know how do you quantify what is a good or a bad image and and then of course oh my god mistakes I'm making something tangible here I'm making a physical object what if people look at it and and laugh so no wonder that it's a comforting thought to go hey jimmy this camera will solve all of those issues that I don't really want to deal with but over that 30 years one of the things has become apparent and that is that the only thing you really need as a beginner photographer as any kind of photographer is a willingness to learn now that's all well and good right a willingness to learn fantastic right so where do you where do you get started with this you know what what is the thing so let's break it down into to three sections we'll start with you know actually overcoming the that um insidiousness of gear and that is understanding that gear is actually it's just it is simply a tool right is a tool that has specific uses in different environments if I give you an axe and a chisel stand in front of a big tree say listen chop down the tree which one are you going to use you will turn to the axe because trying to chop down a tree with a chisel just I think it's going to be um futile even if you are not well versed in the dark arts of lumberjackery right this is because over time without you really knowing about it you have learned that an axe is more suited to this job and that's what you know these professionals do with their lenses and stuff they know that they have you know a lens that does a certain effect that they want that it becomes intuitive right they're not asking all their other friends and stuff you know what lenses and guys should use and stuff like that because over time they have devoted a proportion of their growth and photography to learning to use the equipment that they have available to its its maximum effect as a beginner photographer you don't need fancy gear right it's too much for you right all you need something someone like this this this phone this camera phone right that's all you need the most basic of equipment but what you do need is a willingness to use it to its fullest to learn its ins and outs and then if it is holding you back and then if it is not doing something you need it to do then think about investing in new equipment throughout the history of photography people have had to make images with I think it's charitable say a wide variety of of cameras right you know they are certainly not all of a standard and if anything blows out the myth of that it's the gear that makes a photographer that has to be it if you look at somebody like Paul Strand for example you know one of the greats of photography from way way back right his cameras were so basic then you compare somebody like David Yarrow modern wildlife photographer has access to all of the latest and greatest technological marvels that the camera industry can come up with right but it's not their gear that separates them or or connects them or whatever how you want to express that right it's the fact that they have been spending time building up their aesthetic of learning to see the world as a photographer and as a new person to any art form or we're having it's tempting I think to look purely at other photographers you know because that's what you want to do so it seems natural but if you are struggling for inspiration within your own photography that you are not really seeing other photographers that are quite doing it for you go back to the other things that you like as as visual effects my own photography I draw from such a wide pool of inspiration that I'm always adding to like Annie Liebowitz kind of you know alluded to that this hard drive in your head from which you can draw inspiration later on so I draw inspiration from not just other photographers whose work I've always enjoyed and of course new photographers who I'm I'm seeing you know for the first time but also from you know music from you know music videos from you know from films that that I enjoy from TV shows the composition and the cinematography in TV and film is such a wonderful resource for for ideas and then of course you know painting not just portrait painting but any sort of visual expression the wider that you have a pool of images pool of resources to draw from then the richer your visual vocabulary is going to be and if you want to tap into more about how to learn to express yourself visually then I have a a course that will walk you through all the sort of what we call the power words of speaking visually with your images and I'll link to it in the description box below so these are ways that you can learn about photography about the aesthetic the more that you look at things the more that you're going to understand what resonates with you what feels natural and that was something that you know to go back to the gear idea very briefly when listening to Joel Mivitz talk he mentioned about you know lens choices and he said the best lens for you is one that feels like it matches your personality so with all of this idea of drawing inspiration for your images from places find things that match your unique personality because when you talk with your personality then your images have more of your soul inside them and they're far better and far stronger for that when you're learning any sort of art craft whatever you're going to make mistakes now you learn piano it's terrible but the thing with that is it disappears right that is only when you have practiced and your recital is of a standard that you show somebody photography you're showing people your work from almost the word go what do you think about this and you're opening yourself up to maybe ridicule I don't know nobody's ever ridiculed my work to my face so you know this this idea that I labor under that that somewhere out there people are laughing at me it must be a bit of a misnomer but you as a photographer need to be comfortable with the idea that you are going to make mistakes that you are going to have things go a little bit wrong right and if you find somebody who is happy to give you constructive feedback then take it right but if if the person's just saying that's SH1T or whatever ignore it right as hard as it is to do is just put it to one side Bob Ross you know talked about these happy little accidents on his painting because I was about me and beating the devil out of it and all that kind of stuff and I like all that sort of thing right and I don't think that's an attitude to have is that sometimes you're going to not do what is that you wanted right or you're going to get the image back and go that's a mistake and you're going to kind of delete it or do whatever is that you do with with what you consider to be mistakes and that it is a well it's a mistake sorry right that you mistake because if you're not looking at that image if you're not revisiting it and going okay well could I do this differently why didn't I achieve what it was that I wanted to achieve or you look at a mistake what could technically be called a mistake I think is that an avenue actually that I could go down man Ray and all the solarization and stuff like that and I think the story goes that I think it was Bernice Abbott maybe you know she was processing legs in his dark room I think was in Paris and the door opened and oh there was so that's all technically a mistake but it turned out to be a hallmark of man Ray's photography so always learning always moving down this journey of photography this is what you need as a beginner photographer it's a willingness to explore a willingness to learn and a willingness to go forward always not thinking that the answer to any of your photographic woes is always to be found within the gear in addition to that course that I offer teaching you how to see the world photographically I also offer one-to-one portfolio reviews where we can look at your work and and give feedback about how it can move forward in a direction that feels right for you to find out more also click on that link below thank you ever so much for watching and I will see you again soon