Keep Steady
Practice, practice, practice!
A Google search on the words “How to Practice” yields 188 million links. Million. (Yes, I read them all!) The three top groups in the results are 1) Musical practice methods, 2) Meditation techniques of all stripes, and finally 3) the many ways one can practice evidenced-based Psychiatry. Reminds me of the irony in what Doctors call practice and what I call practice.
The tenuous nature of practice, “I need a practice run here” seems to imply we need more of…something. Practice seems to hold promise of a better result, a goal to achieve, and a new and improved ability. Before I take a run at the dart board with my 16 year old son, I want a few practice throws. We are always learning, we all know deep inside that we can do better if we concentrate, apply mindful attention, and a word that comes up universally in all endeavors of practice…focus! Well what do you know!
It is interesting that musicians, yogi bearcubs, and budding clinical psychiatrists regularly borrow this refined concept from photography. The magic of the lens to clarify vision–the ability to focus!
So there you have it folks, we photographers have a jump on easily several million of them. No need to drill through odd time signatures 20 times left handed and right handed (with a metronome), No need to battle against the mind’s raging background noise while your guru plays barely audible meditation CDs, and no need for Board Certification from an under funded government agency.
We get to wake up in the morning and grab the new lens we just got for the DSLR and play, be it manual focus, auto focus, selective-focus, hyper-focus. We even have focus points! Work your lens. It is visual, non-verbal, cognitive and intuitive. In fact if you close one eye and peer over the lens you can become the lens. Know thy lens; Be the lens!
In all of the various ways of practice, or even the tricks we play on ourselves to get to practice, it boils down to one thing –give yourself the gift of time. I am concerned about coaxing people to do the very things I need to do myself. I hold myself to a fine line when teaching folks how to use cameras and the consequent making of photographs, or the practice of photography. This is how I practice what I preach:
• Put it on the calendar. Just you and the lens. Turn off the phone, tell the family goodbye, and get away. Same time each day, or week is good.
• Set the camera for Program mode and forget about aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and ISO for a while and see what your lens can do at minimum focus distance, getting real close to stuff. Move in and out instead of focusing. Keep moving. When something rings a bell, change to Manual Mode and shoot it again. With a tripod if necessary.
• Then mess with the Depth of Field (apertures) a little. Do not worry, the metadata will remember.
• At my most zoomed-in focal length, I shoot little things and separate them from the background; and conversely, at the most zoomed-out focal lengths shoot big stuff that just fits into the viewfinder. See how the lens effect differs.
• Do not look at the watch.
• Back up files right away. Look at them in a good file browser. Rate them.
Repeat.
TEU
Buying a Camera –Question #7
