Vision Is Better, Episode 36

In Video podcast, Vision Is Better by David12 Comments

Good morning, all. I’ve been working for months, on and off, on this YouTube show, Vision Is Better. I’ve linked to it before but I want to embed it here on the blog to give more people a chance to watch it. The hardest part of this thing, technical learning curve aside, is coming up with ideas to discuss on a mostly weekly basis. Do me a favour? Watch the video. Then subscribe. And then if you really want to help me make this as useful as I can for you – would you leave a comment here or in the show comments and tell me what you’re struggling to learn right now? Questions about your vision, your craft, your gear? I’d love to hear it. There are 35 episodes before this one, enjoy!

Comments

  1. Thanks David for great information. Just a comment to Adam: You have to find your market and it does not matter if you are average as long as you are trying to beat the competition. It is not about equipment and not about how good you take pictures. It is all about marketing and finding your nisch. There are fantastic photographers out there going nowhere as they are lacking a concept. There are awful photographer doing really great because they have a concept.

    If you think that it is all about technique, you are wrong. It is enough to control one technique and make a business out of it. If you start looking to much what other photographers are doing it is a risk you start doing everything and nothing will be good… You turn into an average photographer without goals. Take me right, skills ofcourse is important and the more skilled you are the better chances you have

  2. Hi David,
    First yes yes yes the uTube in the blog is great!
    Second you always make me smile and /or laugh and leave me inspired 🙂
    Especially loved the point you make about a lens being a tool that capture the vision / feeling / mood you wish to convey.
    So – in response to your invite to comment – can you expand on this more illustrating how x lens can be used to create this / that and y lens some such or other (if you haven’t already done so … confessions – I haven’t watched every episode).
    This is really useful stuff for me.
    Cheers and again thanks.
    Anne

  3. Hey David, I’d love to you talk about revenue streams, in real honest terms.

    I wonder if photography is really a feasible career for the average photographer, my thinking is no. At least not without a strong teaching component or online presence with teaching materials being sold.

    Love to hear your thoughts.

  4. Add my vote for embedding your videos in your blog. Much better than having to go to YouTube.

    Would you consider doing one or more videos on storytelling with still photographs? I’m not into multimedia, but I am interested in how one tells a story with a single image and with a series of images.

    Keep up the good work!

  5. I also pref the video in the Blog much better.
    Great topic too keep it coming. If possible I’d love a couple of examples inserted into your dialogue for the “show me” people. I realize it’s more work for producing the video but I think it would be great in many cases to reinforce your message with visual examples and samples. Thanks again.

  6. Hi David
    Well to me this blog embedded is far superior to You Tube no more stop -start -this was so smooth!!
    will we be able to watch some of your older episodes on it?
    I think Bonnie Lampley has put it very well

  7. I watch your blog and your YouTube videos regularly and like them – obviosly, no one is forcing me 😉 This video was no exception. I like when you speak about the impact of the image and how to work with it. I am sceptical when you put down the technical part of photography while playing with the latest and greatest, but I understand what you mean by that – most of the beginners put too much weight on gear and less on the acuteness of perception. Well, that is the part you cannot buy, you have to earn it by training. Thanks for keeping me inspired!

    There is one thing that tips me off when you speak about difference between cropping (APS-C or post edit) and zooming (use of different lens). There is no change to perspective if you do that! Croping and zooming is the same thing (apart from the loss of resolution ). The only change in perspective is by changing your position and you mention changing position very often. I think this “lens distortion” talk leads to false conclusions. Your images look like they look because you are close. If you would have used the same lens from a distance that photo would be nothing like what you get… right?

    1. Author

      Martin, there are several issues here. First, you’re right that perspective never changes, regardless of the lens used, except when we move the camera. No optics affect that. What optics affect are magnification and angle of view. Forgot for a moment the issue of distortion. Yes, so much of the look of my images are because I am very close with a wide angle lens, but I could not get the same look just by using a longer lens a little further away. The foreground to background relationship would completely change (again, not in terms of perspective, but in terms of how large one is in relationship to the other). Cropping is an entirely different issue. To be honest I’m not sure if we’re agreeing or not but I hope my explanation here is clearer.

  8. This is great David…thank you!!! I adore your down to earth and honest commentaries greatly!

    What am I struggling with? How to shoot in low light without getting a ton of noise is probably the biggest problem I run into and what to do in post processing in order to deal with the noise without sacrificing clarity of the image. Shooting mostly with a T4i with either an 18-135mm or a 55-250mm lens. I have a tripod, but invariable don’t have it with me and end up having my ISO set too high in order to get enough light instead of the slower shutter speed a tripod would allow me to use. My style of shooting also tends towards the more spontaneous.

    I also am wondering about a better system for organizing my photos so that I can find things! I have been contemplating a move to a full frame camera and shooting in RAW, but none of the ones I’ve been interested in (primarily the Canon 5D Mark III) have articulating LCDs…a feature I use a lot.

    I had started to shoot in RAW some months ago, but then found I could not open them in my picture viewer to see thumbnails and could only see them one at a time by opening them in Elements 11. They were CR2 files. I just set up a new computer with Windows 10 so will have to see if this has changed that issue.

  9. I like the blog-embedded video better than watching on YouTube, and have been subscribed for awhile. I really enjoy your videos, especially the more philosophical ones. Although the occasional gear-related ones are interesting, too.

    What I’m struggling with now is the “vision thing” and making meaningful photos. I think I’ve generally mastered the technicalities (at least enough to make an image look like I imagine, most of the time). I don’t know that it’s something you can teach – how we find a meaningful goal for our photography – but I enjoy listening to you talk about things like that.

    And I love the sea lion peering over your shoulder in this video. Nice touch. 🙂

  10. Thanks for your tips on wide angle photography: ‘really get in close,’ etc. You’ve answered my question, too. Your 16-35 lens is the FFE (full frame equivalent) of your Fuji 10-24. Thanks for being explicit about the FFE.

  11. I enjoy your posts. Please keep up the good work. My current project is to figure out how to drag the shutter with rear curtain sync for my niece’s wedding. Can’t seem to make it work like Joe McNally demonstrates.

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