so a few days ago i posted on my youtube community section asking you guys my
community of filmmakers and photographers what are your biggest photography mistakes
we hopefully all are a community trying to get better so i thought i would share
some of those mistakes directly from you guys and then also of course share some of my own towards
the end of the video by the end of this video i want you to become a better photographer first one
we have here is from kip jackson ii kip jackson two maybe kip jackson a second investing too much
in gear and watching too much youtube so let's break these down separately here uh first of all
he's investing too much in gear maybe that's not necessarily actually investing too much
money but that also might just be being too bothered about gear and that definitely came
up quite regularly in and around all of the comments lots of people were talking about
gear and we will of course come and talk about those later as a beginner photographer you do not
need to spend too much money on gear you can just get started with a relatively cheap-ish camera
maybe buy a very basic lens or even buy something like a decent point-and-shoot camera you will i
guarantee get better from when you buy that camera at the beginning to towards the end and then
secondly watching too much youtube now i probably shouldn't tell you this here on the channel as i
make a photography video but watching too much youtube too many tips too many tutorials is not
always the best way to learn personally i'm a bit biased i think it's a fantastic way to learn but
you always have to put it in practice you're never going to get better just by watching a tutorial
maybe watch a tutorial go out shoot and hopefully that process will make you better next comment we
have here is from flex ice flexis i really hope that i'm not absolutely cannoning everyone's names
here trying to avoid mistakes failure is your best teacher now this is a super good one you have to
make repeat only where you're gonna get better is to constantly iterate and constantly improve
on the work that you are making and that ties directly into the next comment from rigel garg
and that is not practicing enough by not practicing your craft by not just going
out and shooting you are just genuinely limiting the amount of improvement you can
have as a photographer if you think about anything think about professional athletes professional
filmmakers crazy mathematicians all of these people have one thing in common and that's the
fact that they practice for hours and hours again lots of making mistakes lots of failing and trying
again the second part of rigel's comment is not shooting raw i hate myself for that he says oh and
deleting my old photos i so regret doing that now this is a super good one obviously not shooting
raw it's a massive deal to shoot raw you obviously can shoot great photos in jpeg there's nothing to
stop you doing that but just shooting raw gives you that much more flexibility if the goal is to
create a great image only give yourself that extra bit of flexibility uh by shooting raw and enabling
you to just have that much more control over the final shot and yeah absolutely keeping your older
photographs is a super super good thing to be able to like go back and just look at your progression
uh this is not necessarily you know a tip that's going to apply to everyone but some people that
might be quite a big thing for you to be able to go back and look at look at them down at the
line later this one is for photography by roving he says i'd say gear obsession especially at the
beginning now i'm definitely guilty of this still it's like i have the correct gear the gear that
is definitely able to deal with pretty much all of the projects that i work on however i still
get gear embry i'm shooting on an absolutely incredible cinema camera here the canon c200
this thing is just an absolute dream i was looking at this film thing for ages and i'm still looking
at the canon c70 because i think that it's going to be significantly better than this camera i can
still go and probably create anything that i want to create with the c70 with the c200 so it's not
always necessarily the right answer to go and buy more gear or get really fixated on gear the only
time i would say that you need to be looking at gear is with lenses to be able to help you to get
looks and feels that you just wouldn't be able to get with another piece of camera gear this one is
from sklem buying presets instead of looking at styles i liked and trying to can create them uh
using my own inspired look i think we've all been guilty as this especially in the sort of
instagram era of just creating you know everyone just creating these gorgeous beautiful images
we go on online on instagram go and look at their presets and think if i buy that i might images
might look like theirs it's just not the case you need to over time develop your own style develop
your own feel actually the best ever presets i've bought are like super super subtle ones
that just do a tiny little bit whenever i bought slightly more expensive or really creative presets
they end up just kind of looking like trash this one is from mr daniel walters my biggest mistake
was not seeking out other photographers to speak too honestly about all of the difficulties and
the successes about starting out i saw everyone else as my competition when in
reality there are so many niches and markets and customers out there it's rarely the case
it can even lead to referrals free inquiries they get for the work they don't do also talking openly
about rates and how to deal with customers is nerve-wracking at first but it's so liberating
once you get over that hurdle you can tell i'm pretty passionate about this subject daniel i
am extremely passionate about this subject as well i totally agree with all of your points i
think it's a really really interesting comment for everyone to be aware of as photographers as online
creators we should really build up uh you know our network and make friends with other people
just yesterday i was shooting with mike chudley in chinatown in london it was such a great day we had
just a really good time creating images and this isn't a it's not a competitive thing it's simply
two like-minded people getting together and i've actually got quite a lot of freelance work that
way exactly like you're saying so thank you so much for the comment because i think it's really
interesting here we have danny graham for me it's how about having public shoot anxiety
not wanting to take my camera out because the attention that it can bring people looking at
you the entire time out of curiosity or my brain telling me that others will think tourist he goes
on to saying that he just struggles kind of with people staring at him and what they're thinking of
him whilst he's taking photos danny this is really something you're going to have to get over you
know yourself unfortunately but all i would say is you're definitely going to be focusing on this
much more yourself than other people are focusing on you there's a few just little tips that i found
useful first of all is to maybe have headphones if you can you know have headphones maybe listen to a
podcast business of music as you're going around this might help you zone out some of the other
things going on and just help you zone in on your content creation and then apart from that really
just focusing on doing it for yourself and your craft and trying to improve with every single
shoot hopefully these things should over time help you overcome that sort of public shooting
anxiety final comment from everyone on the channel here is from james kelly if you don't follow james
kelly i'll link his youtube channel down below he makes some of the best product videos i've seen
online and he says waiting waiting for the perfect bit of gear but also waiting for the perfect
conditions to go and shoot we see such bangers on instagram with perfect sunrises and vistas
when you wake up and i know this feeling james he's saying that basically you wake up in england
and things just do not look the same so you just skip it and that is a really really good point
uh he's basically saying go out and shoot regardless that practice that iteration is
going to make you a better photographer and i couldn't agree with this more i think this is
like extremely good advice for any upcoming aspiring creator ignore the things that are online
and just focus on yourself and your craft and hopefully just getting better every single time
you practice those were some comments from the community thank you so much for everyone sharing
your thoughts and feelings in terms of mistakes that i have made as a freelance photographer
videographer someone who actually does this for a job now there are a few things little pieces
of wisdom that hopefully will make you a better photographer first of all and these two tips are
kind of a bit related is that i kind of got really into a trap of wanting to only shoot for instagram
what i mean by that is just not going out like walking around the streets of london taking photos
just for the sake of actually taking photos it's so so easy to get into a situation where
you're just expecting to just get like banging photographs every single single time you go out
and it's just not going to be the case think of your photography and think about you and the
process of taking photos as a natural progression and getting better and the next tip that ties into
that is having somewhere to post your work now i'm someone who's extremely motivated by giving myself
a deadline and putting things a bit sort of like hard and fast because i have to have something to
share me making these youtube videos is a process in me creating videos and hopefully putting them
up in a timely manner and getting better every single time that i upload the same thing is true
for photography so having an instagram having an account and a present can be a really good thing
for your photography i would say don't always feel the need to only create for those platforms
sometimes it's just really really good to go grab your camera maybe on a trip or a holiday and take
some images you are going to enjoy for the sake of actually taking those images and hopefully
getting better and that guys is that hopefully you have found this interesting or helpful a
bit of a different style of video but really really fun to get the whole community involved
let me know your biggest photography mistake in the comments and i'll catch you guys next week