Terrible Photography Advice You Should NOT Follow
Today we’re going to cover some photography advice that will make you worse.
And to be clear, this is advice to avoid and not follow because it’ll make you, in my opinion, a bad photographer.
The reason we’re doing this exercise is to help us understand photography from a backwards perspective.
And don’t worry, at the end we’ll flip everything on its head, invert it, and things will make sense.
So lets do it, here are 6 photography tips/steps that will make you a bad photographer, aka photography advice that will make you worse.
Step One. Never Take Photos.
If you want to be a bad photographer, a surefire way to get there is to never take photos.
After all, who needs to go out and take photos when I can watch someone do it for me?
And it sounds simple, because it is.
If I went outside every day and took photos, the likelihood I’d improve my photography is pretty high.
After all, if I took a thousand photos, I’m bound to get at least one good one.
And if I do that over and over, over the course of many years, I’ll compile hundreds of good photos, enough to make quality work with.
I’ll also learn a ton about photography with every photo session - new lessons to take and apply to make my photos better.
Furthermore, the opportunity for special moments increases the more you go out.
During the latter half of 2022, and the entirety of 2023, I spent a lot of time chasing sunsets.
Some days I went outside and the days were meh.
Other days I’d run into captivating, epic, and unreal sunsets that led to me taking some of my favorite photos.
Shots like “Storm”, “Horizon”, “Tempest Cityscape”, etc were all photos I captured simply because I went outside and took photos.
And these became prints that I could sell to people who were interested in my work.
Furthermore, many of these images became the foundation for my latest photography zine “The Sinking Sun”.
Are you seeing the bigger picture now?
All of this happened because I went out and took photos.
It’s that bloody simple.
But I don’t want to do that, remember? - I’m trying to become a bad photographer.
Meaning I shouldn’t go out and take photos and only watch photography content, otherwise I’ll actually start to improve, get amazing photos, and bigger things will start happening for me.
And we can’t have that.
Step Two. Buy All the Expensive Gear and Never Use It.
If you want to become worse at photography, there is one thing you should focus on.
And that is gear.
After all, photography is about the gear, not the photos, right?
So here’s something to try.
Spend all your time working at your 9-5, saving up money for that new camera or lens.
Whenever something eye catching comes out, dump your savings onto the new gear.
Because that new fuji or sony has all the fancy bells and whistles and is totally worth it.
And lets not talk about how you never used the previous version of that camera in the first place.
You watched a few reviews of your favorite creators talking about how that camera changed their life, so that was all the convincing you needed.
And although you never used that camera, you have a pretty good feeling you’ll use this one.
So now that you have this new gear at the expense of your life savings, what should you do?
Well if we actually went outside and used it, we might start getting our money’s worth, our photography might actually improve, and we don’t wanna do that.
So lets just leave it on this shelf here.
This can be our new fancy paper weight.
And then we can start saving for the next new camera.
How exciting.
Step Three. Talk About It Instead of Be About It.
Here’s a good one.
If I want to be a bad photographer, I’d definitely do this.
I’d talk more about photography than I do photography.
Because if there’s anything I understood about this is, being a “photographer” is cool.
You’d go to a party or something, talk to a few people, and tell them about your hobbies.
And when you say you do anything creative, whether that be photography, music, or art, people’s eyes light up.
They’ll begin to find you interesting, different, unique, and you’ll have more depth than the average joe who has no hobbies.
And in talking about it, you become gratified.
You feel good about yourself, and your ego gets bigger.
You’ll talk about how you’ve got this great trip planned, a few projects you wanna work on, and how interested and invested you are in the art.
Which is comical because kinda I feel like I’m describing myself here...
But here’s the key.
Now that you’ve talked all about it and got rewarded for your interests - you can’t do anything about it.
You can’t actually go on the trip, take photos, and make a book, because if you did that you’d actually be who you say you are.
And you’d be taking steps to becoming a better photographer.
But we don’t want to be a good photographer, we want to be a bad one.
Meaning we’ll talk about it but never be about it, because who’s going to hold us accountable anyways?
Step Four. Never Learn From Others
A lot of artists are actually pretty good at this one.
If you want to remain stagnant, the best way to do so is to never learn from others.
After all, your way is the best way right?
And the other photographers over there may be doing something right, but your way is better anyways so what’s the point in learning from them?
Plus, if we began compiling knowledge from other creatives around us, applied it to our work, and improved our processes, we might get better quickly, at an exponential rate.
Especially if we were already actively putting the work in.
But why should we?
Why should we go flip through that photobook? - it probably sucks anyways.
Why should we listen to that podcast? - these people don’t know what they’re talking about.
I’d rather just do what I know works because my way is the best way, even if learning from others would make me better.
This is how I feel many creatives think.
They’re stuck in their own mind about their processes and ways of doing things that they never look outside and learn from other creators.
It may be from feeling insecure in that comparison to someone better than them.
Or it may be trying to protect what little thing they’re proud of.
I’ve certainly found myself doing this before, and it is a surefire way to keep you stuck in old habits, bad practices, and make you a worse creator.
But the moment I embraced learning from others, regardless of skill level, regardless of genre, I could feel myself getting noticeably better in all aspects of life.
Step Five. Only Focus on Art and Nothing Else in Life.
I find that there are two kinds of artists.
Ones who love the craft and are really into it, but don’t take it that seriously.
And others who are deeply into it - so deep that it’s basically their life.
With the latter comes a deeper commitment, more effort, and bigger and better creations overall.
But it comes at a big cost.
That cost being the sacrifice of everything else in their lives in the pursuit of art.
In my opinion, this is a path that will lead to misery.
Obviously, there are many examples of artists who’ve become wildly successful at the expense of their lives.
But there are also many examples of artists who’ve become wildly successful while still maintaining good lives.
So I don’t think sacrifice is suited for everyone and I also don’t think it’s necessary.
And I myself have been tempted to toss away everything and just focus on the craft.
But I learned through experience that you can improve your craft while still living a good life.
Furthermore, as I improved my life and got my sh*t together, my photography improved as well.
When you improve your sleep, diet, physical exercise, relationships, etc, your capacity to do more and better work increases.
And you’ll just be happier overall.
So if you want to be a bad photographer, focus only on the craft and nothing else in life.
Let everything else crumble at the expense of your work and you’ll quickly realize the tax you have to pay, the worse it makes your art, and the misery it induces.
Step Six. Never Challenge Yourself.
The final way to make your photography worse is to never challenge yourself with a bigger project.
I’ve found that the greatest moments of growth for me have been in the creation of projects that felt just outside my skill level.
This was especially true when making a project like my recent photobook “The Sinking Sun”.
The taking, planning, and building of this project took a whole 1.5 years or more.
And its personal projects like these that challenged me, pushed me to think smarter and work harder, and made me better overall.
And this is something I didn’t understand early in my photography journey.
Of course I wanted to make zines and books and stuff but I didn’t view them as “growth vehicles”.
I didn’t realize the potential they held for improvement, even though I was basically doing the same thing with weekly YouTube videos.
It’s simple.
You give yourself a task.
Any topic you’re interested in, big or small.
You spend the next weeks or months working on it to completion.
For this period of time, your entire creative direction revolves around this one project.
And as you build this thing, you’ll be forced to take photos in a way that makes this thing work.
That will have you step outside your comfort zones and skill level into an area of discomfort.
And that discomfort will lead to growth.
Because once you do finish the project, accomplish what you set out to do, there will be countless of hidden skills you learn in the process.
It’s active learning - with a purpose, and through experience.
And doing those things have granted me the most growth in my creative journey.
This could be photobooks like “The Sinking Sun”, smaller YouTube projects that I share with you guys, or whatever.
But if you want to be bad in photography, that’s something you definitely want to avoid.
Don’t ever challenge yourself with a personal project.
Stay in your comfort zone, and never push yourself to make something bigger.
Alright, lets sum this up and then invert it because this is where the magic happens.
Follow these six steps and your photography will for sure get worse:
Never take photos
If you actually went out and took photos, you might start getting better.
Buy all the expensive gear and never use it
If we actually used our cameras we’d be getting our moneys worth.
And we don’t want that.
Talk about it instead of be about it
More talk, less work is a surefire way to never improving.
Besides, if we actually did the things we said we’d do, like going on a photography trip or building a photobook, people might actually take us seriously.
How crazy would that be?
Never learn from others
Because there’s no point right?
Our way is the best way and so we don’t need to learn from others, and therefore we’ll never improve.
Focus only on art and ignore everything else in life
Health, relationships, diet - all those things are stupid and won’t help our creativity.
So lets just ignore them and regret it later in life.
Never challenge yourself with a harder project
We like to stay in this comfort zone where we can take the pictures we’re used to taking and know look good.
And who wants to suffer and make something hard?
Not me, because I like where I’m at and don’t want to get better.
Alright, now that we know the 6 steps to make our photography worse, lets invert it and go over the 6 steps to make our photography better.
If you want to improve and get better in photography, follow these 6 steps:
Go out and take some photos
We learn from experience.
Meaning we could watch all the photography content and tutorials in the world, but if we never apply it, we never get better.
However, if we implement just a little photo session into our lives every now and then, we will make progress.
Don’t buy gear you won’t use - especially the expensive ones
Most of us don’t need the latest and greatest.
And even if we can afford it, if we’re not going to use it, it becomes a waste of space and waste of money.
Sometimes having more stuff can actually be a detriment and puts a weight on our mental storage.
Instead, buy only the gear you do use, sell the gear you don’t use, and focus on photography.
Be about it instead of talk about it
Talking about your hobbies can be fun.
And I’m not saying to not share with others what interests you.
I’m saying if you’re going to talk about how much you like photography, have all these trips planned, have all this stuff you wanna make, make sure you actually do it.
Actually, make sure you do it, but 5x more.
Because the more you talk about something, the less likely you are to do it.
There’s a great quote from Ryan Holiday on this:
“Doing something and talking about it fight for the same resources.”
So don’t be fooled.
It may feel good in the short term but could cost you progress in the long term.
Learn from others
The biggest shift you could give yourself as a creative is to learn from others.
You might not want to because you think your way is the best or are afraid of change, but don’t think of it that way.
It’s not “change”, it’s an upgrade.
Because imagine if some other photographer had a way of taking or editing photos that was the missing gap in your photography.
And it’s exactly what you’ve been trying to figure out, but haven’t been able to.
Simply by learning from others, you can close this gap in not only your art, but all other areas of life.
Why not save ourselves time, struggle, and hardship, by just learning from the mistakes of others?
Do your art, but don’t ignore everything else in life
This one is very important.
Art does not require sacrificing everything in your life.
If you improve your life as a whole, your art actually gets better.
You’ll be more energized, happy, and creative.
And in my opinion is one of the best creative hacks you can find.
Because art, whether that be music or painting, draws inspiration from life.
So in my opinion, the better your life, the better your art.
Challenge yourself with a harder project
If you feel stagnant or bored with your photography, you’ve forgotten something important.
Chances are you learned all these new things as a beginner but have now reached a point where you stopped challenging yourself.
You’re ready for the next level but haven’t moved to the next level because you’re either scared, comfortable here, or simply didn’t know.
But if you want to get better or reinvigorate your passion for photography, you need to give yourself a personal project worth doing.
I certainly did that when I built “The Sinking Sun”, and it’s not only what rekindled my photography, but also made me better.
So those were the 6 steps to make our photography worse, and 6 steps to make it better.
If you want to learn more, join the newsletter.
If you wanna buy my book, check out “The Sinking Sun”.
And if you haven’t gotten one yet, grab a free 4x6 print (link somewhere).
Thanks for reading, have a great day!
