This blog is going to cover some of the main tips to help you start to excel at taking photos. So like most photographers, you are probably at a point in your photography where you have managed to understand the main functions of a camera, but your photos do not have the element of art that you see photographers on IG, FB, etc. have. Down below are some of the things I have learned in the last few years that have really upped my photography game.

You are not prepared when the time crunch hits! One thing that I feel like every photographer will deal with at some point in his/her career is running out of time! It is so easy to run into situations such as a client booking you for sunset pictures and suddenly it is getting dark and you are left scrambling trying to get in a few good shots while your ISO is way too high and everything is starting to get blurry or grainy. My advice to you is to practice more in situations that are not ideal. For instance, practice mid-day, using flash, or even get one of your friends to go with you and do a timed photo shoot and see how many creative shots you can get, in 15 min.  The other piece of advice is to have a list of go-to poses either on your phone or in your head! This will save you so much time and will also help you look like you have your S#!T together!

You don’t actually understand your camera or how light affects it. To understand this it just takes, time, YouTube, or you can find info on this on my blog. I have a blog on ISO and Aperture two of the things that I feel a lot of photographers just don’t take the time to understand which limits their ability to level up in their careers. Now if you want to take it a step further yet you can understand lens flare and how to control it. I feel like if you are able to do this successfully you will definitely be able to add a whole new level of creativity to your work!

You need a new perspective! Maybe your work is good but you just want it to get better and you want that new level of creativity. Now what I am going to say does not mean that copying someone or basically stealing their ideas is a good thing but you can always learn from someone else. So reach out to some photographers around you that you like their work and second shoot with them or just get together, drink coffee, and discuss ideas and ways of doing things, etc. If you don’t want to do that you can always just go to Youtube! There are plenty of great photographers with amazing ideas.