 How's it? How's it? There must be a secret that pro photographers use to create better photos. For the longest time, I was absolutely convinced that the answer lay in the equipment. That if you had professional lenses, if you had the latest and greatest cameras, then you too would be able to create images that are similar to the ones that had burned themselves into our consciousness. Those photographs that we aspired to create images like. Of course, I was wrong. I was deeply wrong that even when I had access to expensive equipment, you know, household goods and all that kind of stuff. I was still making what was essentially, well, rubbishy photographs because I didn't understand what those pros understand about making a great photograph. Photography isn't about just the lenses and the cameras and stuff because if that were the case, then all of the photographers whose work I admire throughout the history of photography would create worse photographs than I because they were in some cases using extremely archaic equipment. So we know it's not the equipment. So what is the thing that separates the photographer who is, you know, struggling with mediocre work and the people who seem to effortlessly create images that have, you know, depth and emotional heft to them and a power to the photograph that stays? The answer lies in this quote from Yusuf Karsh. Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera. It's that simple that, you know, great photographs are not made by great cameras. They are made by people who have taken the time to look, to think, to open up themselves to the thing that they want to photograph. You see this again and again throughout the history of photography that the people who have created work that has stood the test of time and the people today who are creating, you know, powerful images that would also stay long after the photography question has passed on is that they are taking the time to look, to think, to respond, to connect with the things that are in front of them, to take a moment to consider what they can make, what photograph they can create. Karsh didn't just willy-nilly take photographs of famous people, you know, without any thought. He took the time to engage and think, to ask himself, what is the best that I can do with what's happening here? When Churchill was being photographed by Karsh and he was just being, well, Churchillian in his grumpiness, Karsh was saying, there's something missing here, you know, Churchill's sitting there chomping on his cigar, whatever Churchill did when he was in a mood and Karsh, bold as brass, went up and he snatched the cigar out of Churchill's mouth. Churchill looked at him and the result is that very famous portrait, which I believe has recently been stolen, actually. Wow, that's, so everybody knows where it is. Yeah, please get in touch with the hotel and they can have it back anyway. That moment, this is the work of somebody taking the time to think about what can I do? It would have been enough just to sit there and go, oh, well, it's Churchill. Any picture of Churchill is going to be good because, well, it's Churchill. We fall into this trap a great deal as photographers in modern world, but we think the subject is enough. That if the subject is kind of interesting, if it's kind of out of the ordinary, that that's enough. I challenge you to go forward, to push yourself, to just question what can you do to make your photograph better? What can you bring to the table? What can you make that goes beyond, that transcends just being an average photograph? That is the one simple thing that pros do to create better photographs, but there's something else you can do to make sure that people actually notice your pictures. And the answer is to be found here. Thank you ever so much for watching.