It's been a busy year…

It was around this time last year that I bought my first DSLR and kicked off what, for me has been a really productive creative period. I hadn't really owned or used a decent camera since art school 25 years ago, but the quality and affordability of digital cameras along with their user friendly nature meant I could hit the ground running - and never look back!

Without getting preachy on you, I'd like to share a few insights that I've found have really elevated the quality and creativity levels of my images and can help us all progress towards better photography…

Learn to use your camera's features - they're there to make your images better:

To start with - I really was using only a small percentage of the camera's features. I knew from the outset that shooting on auto wasn't the way to go, and that the in-built flash isn't great, but that was about it.
Your camera is packed with features to make your images come alive and elevate them from snaps to something worth looking at twice. To beginners, the amount of technical information we need to absorb is daunting, but if you take time to practice, refine your technique and knowledge, over time the benefits are invaluable. Photography magazines are great for learning good technique, especially the technical camera related stuff - find one that suits you (there's dozens available) and absorb the good stuff - then practice it yourself. Your images will definitely improve.

Go to an exhibition:

Culture feeds the soul and we should all take time to gorge ourselves. I recently went to a great free exhibition at Southwell Minster - "Masters of Vision" - here's a link to their site:
http://mastersofvision.co.uk/

It's on throughout August and if you have any interest in landscape, nature or travel photography it really is worth a trip.

Seeing the work of accomplished established artists is a sure fire way to stoke up the enthusiasm and get you to think tangentially. I came back with a whole bunch of ideas and things I wanted to try - one of which was - "keep things minimal" - leading to the image above.

Take time over your compositions:

The accessibility and ease of use of digital cameras is the very thing that can ultimately diminish your images to "snaps". I recently read an article written by a photographer who had started out shooting film and was now shooting digitally, who was scathing about the way some photographers now shoot off hundreds of frames to get an image. If they were using film, this approach isn't an option so they would be forced to consider their exposures more to get the shot.

Spend a bit of time on your images, refining the composition or merely waiting for the right light or cloud formation - to get my image above I spent about an hour, moved about a bit until I was happy with the framing and shot off about 20-25 frames to get the best sky and crop combination. Taking things slower forces you to consider all the factors and your images will benefit. Using a tripod forces you to do this and the act of setting it up and framing your image forces you to consider composition more that you would shooting hand held.

Show your images:

Showing your images to an audience (that isn't your immediate family - who love/tolerate you and are therefore not objective) is great for bolstering your confidence and improving your body of work. You'll get feedback from other enthusiasts and get to compare your work with theirs - always a good acid test.

Start yourself a tumblr  or 500px account and get your images out there - if you're interested and have 5 minutes - here's mine:
http://re-photography-posts.tumblr.com/

Have a look - leave me some feedback!

Make time to shoot just for the sake of it:

It's all too easy to take a camera with you wherever you go and shoot off a bunch of frames - and that's great - but making time for your photography and shooting in a structured way is guaranteed to make the final images better.

Before I had a camera, I was definitely in the "anti-snapping" camp - I could never see the point of going to a beautiful place and then spending the whole time just documenting it with a camera or even worse, video camera, strapped to your face. You quickly stop experiencing things and are just recording them - leave that to Google earth. If I go out, with no plan to shoot any images, I rarely take a camera - this flies in the face of advice to shoot everything as practice, but I prefer to plan a shoot and devote that time just to making the pictures. If an image is worth capturing - it'll be so much better with planning than a rushed snap. This obviously depends on your subject - street photography and war coverage can't be tackled this way, but the majority of subjects (landscape / travel/ portraiture / food / nature / even sport) benefit from some forward planning. Do one thing at a time - do it better!

Sell your images as royalty free stock:

This is not for everyone and nothing sucks the fun out of a thing faster than trying to make money from it, but this was a big reason for me buying the equipment in the first place - and I've found the process of getting approved to sell images and having each one scrutinised for imperfections has been a major factor in the elevation in my work.
I have sold vector artworks for a few years and already supplied two libraries, but wanted to add photography to broaden my portfolio. My first submission for approval was in the autumn and was immediately rejected - you get invited to go away, take better pictures and come back in two weeks!

I was pretty depressed by this but instead of re-submitting another set of images right away, I waited 6-8 months and spent that time refining and learning. On the 2nd submission I got the green light, only to then get all my images rejected for a whole bunch of reasons (some valid / some not). Rather than get downcast - I kept plugging away and I now have a growing online portfolio, that is helping fund new lenses and kit - it's a slow build, but I'm in for the long game. The most important aspect of all this is - putting your work in front of a qualified expert will show up it's short-commings in a brutal impersonal fashion, but it will point out where you're going wrong and you will have to improve in order to get an approval.

They may not be the most creative sources and are prone to accepting safe images, but stock libraries will only take an image that comes up to their technical standards and I've found the whole year long process to be fantastically beneficial on my technique. Also, selling your images gives you a great buzz and you get to learn what sells and what doesn't.

If you fancy giving it a go - istock and shutterstock are good places to start from (other royalty free image libraries are available yadda yadda).

So - if you've read all that, you must be bored by now! Go out and take some pictures, then take some more! Show people, get better and succeed! That's my long term plan anyway :-)

Good shooting - here's to the next 12 months