Training - Who Needs It?

            I have had no formal training in photography, although I’ve certainly nothing against it. Instead, I learnt the business of telling a story with a camera from many years of being a network television cameraman, mostly in studios. That, and the willingness to make many experiments with all types of photography (a lot which were dreadful failures but improved the learning curve), taught me about translating what I visualize in my mind into a tangible image for others to see, as my interpretation.

            I still take pictures when I have no real idea if they will work or not, but I NEVER let the opportunity to take them go past. Life is full of so many missed opportunities, but with photography it is unnecessary, for just the sake of a few frames, so I have no hesitation taking pictures at the extremes of the technology. I often push 400ASA Ektachrome Elite to 2000ASA and take pictures by streetlight, which looks grainy but adds atmosphere to the story.

            One thing that usually makes for good pictures is to keep on shooting when amateurs put their cameras away thinking it is too dark. The light then can be very interesting, and mixed lighting (daylight, tungsten, fluorescent) even more so. Always shoot, even when you seemingly have little hope of success; it might work. I have been in Japan again recently, and took numerous frames in mixed light handheld between 1/15 to 1 second at f2.8, as it was the fastest lens I had at the time. If I take several frames, then one at least will be sharp. Even when I have my 50mm f1.4, I still end up doing the same thing in very dark situations.

            An excellent way to learn about how to be good with a camera is to study not only the work of the acknowledged experts of photography, but also look at old master paintings in art galleries, for both composition and lighting. I teach television lighting techniques to students, and tell them that Caravaggio and Rembrandt would have been great television lighting directors; they were just a few hundred years ahead of their time!

            So, whether you have had formal training or otherwise, just keep shooting and learning.