Stop "convenience shooting"

This is again for people out there who aspire to be serious photographers, "not for snap shooters"

What is "convenience shooting"?

You have a camera and you take the camera with you as an afterthought. You have not read and understood the camera manual completely and you don't intend to either. You don't have a plan on what you want to shoot/any specific subject in mind and keep clicking whatever you think "appeals" to your eye. Then you get home and get lost in your daily chores and one day you remember you have some pictures to download. After downloading you over process some "ok" shots and try to make them look good using Photoshop and then upload all over the net for "comments" from others

If you want to become a serious photographer here is what you might want to do differently:

1. Plan the Shoot: It helps if you have visited the place before or at least seen pictures and read about it over the net. Ask yourself: Will I be shooting more landscapes, people, markets, portraits, group shots, wildlife? Depending on the subject, attach the ideal lens on your camera. Pre set whatever settings on your camera can be pre set so that you waste less time in tuning your camera

2. Good Old Patience: This is the key. Wait for the right moment, right lighting, right focus, right framing. A great shot is seldom accidental. Landscapes and Macros require maximum patience.

3. Pre-visualization: This comes from the master himself "Ansel Adams". Pre-visualization is imagining how the output of your shoot will be and making sure you have the inputs well controlled to give you the ideal output. For example, if you pre visualize your portrait to have very blurred background, the key input you have to control is the aperture (as wide as possible). Make sure you pre-visualize every shot. You may not get the desired output every time but at least you will investigate why and this will make you realize your follies and make you a better photographer

4. Enjoy loneliness: The best shots you get are when there is no one nagging you to move on and talking to you constantly about worldly affairs. Either go for the shoot alone or with like minded people. Here is what I did-I encouraged my wife to embrace photography and gave her my 300D and we share lenses, thus she is as engrossed as I am in shooting when we are together on a shoot

I am not suggesting you don't take your camera everywhere or stop shooting random shots but don't make that your mainstay. What camera you own is not of great consequence as long as you are on the learning curve and are constantly progressing