Photography Principles
These are things that I believe I have learned about photography. You may have a look at my photos to decide for yourself whether this is worth reading.
“F8 and be there.” A phrase often repeated among photographers. Critics of the phrase tend to harp on the specific suggested aperture, but I believe they are missing the point. “Be there” is the point, and the importance of actually going out the door with camera in hand, cannot be overstated. This will be a recurring theme in this list.
There are no lucky shots. It’s easy to look at a photo of a rare occurrence and call it a “lucky shot”, the implication often being that, with luck, anyone could have taken it. Yet most such photos are taken by dedicated photographers who were present, geared up and ready.
In 2025, I took roughly 30 000 exposures. About five of them are of the “blink and you’ll miss it and it will never happen again” variety. Five is a lot more than the zero from previous years when I have not taken nearly as many photos.
All this is to say that luck is not real. It’s up to you to repeatedly put yourself in a position to “get lucky”, and statistics will handle the rest. Add to this that while a given photo can be extremely rare, there are practically an infinite number of different extremely rare photos to be taken.
Do not neglect “supporting gear” that will make you better utilize your actual photography gear. What good is a new lens, if your camera is in your bag because you lack a means to conveniently carry it at the ready? Or if you don’t go out in “interesting weather conditions” because you lack appropriate clothing?
You can always spend money on photography, but at some point that money is better spent on things that are not gear. Your photography can benefit from things such as printing your work, attending courses or conferences, renting a studio, traveling or taking time off your day job to take pictures.
Your skill determines the intentional artistic quality of your photos. Your gear determines what kinds of photos you can take. Given an arbitrary camera and lens, a good photographer can produce something, but not anything.
Color correction is a lie. It is reasonable to color grade your image relative to the digital true white (noting that there is no such thing as true white in reality). However, the idea that this should be done from a color-“corrected” starting point where the actual real-life mood of the scene has been thoroughly eliminated, is just dumb. I don’t even have arguments for this. This may not apply to genres such as product photography, but I don’t know anything about that.
For your first camera + lens, buy a used whatever thing that once used to be the best of the best professional gear that you can now afford comfortably.
For your other cameras and lenses, still primarily go for used gear (unless it’s a business expense because you are a working professional, but then you don’t need my advice).
Quantity begets quality. A bad photographer taking many photos will produce some good photos. Also, a bad photographer taking many photos will soon enough not be a bad photographer anymore.
Of all the things a photographer may worry about, resolution and noise are the least important.
Rules of composition are descriptive and not meant to be used prescriptively. If a photo works, it works. A named rule of composition may or may not help explain why it works. Placing composition guides on photos in an effort to analyze them and say that the photographer intended to follow some specific rule, is mostly BS.
The best photo in the world has likely never been shared and was likely taken by a non-photographer. They probably do not know that it is the best photo in the world, nor that photo competitions are a thing. The photo would probably not do well in a competition anyway.