Photography Advices We All NEED To Hear!

The goal is not to walk away with a thousand amazing photos that particular session, no. But if you can walk away with a thousand shots, but only one of them ends up being the best shot, aka the banger shot, then it was worth going out in the first place. Photography is arguably the easiest hobby to pick up, but incredibly hard to master. And I don't mean shooting with manual settings. I'm talking about the artistic aspect of photography. Your own personal expression. It's so easy to get caught up with the latest gear and the trendiest hypes that we often find ourselves overwhelmed and unfulfilled with our own work. So in this video, I want to share some advice that I've learned the past couple of months on how to become a better photographer, or rather improving on our expression when it comes to our own artistic vision. My friend Lucas and I will be taking you a long hour behind the scenes on how he approaches photography and his thought process behind every shot. Use this to apply it to your own genre of photography, whether it's portraits, landscapes, street, or whatever. Just go out there and put in the work. But most importantly, have fun. With that said, let's go ahead and jump right into it. And a portion of this video is sponsored by Squarespace. Thanks, Squarespace. So when it comes to photography, don't just take one shot. Don't just take one shot and call it a day. Stick around the area, you know, move around, get low, get high. Try to get different perspectives of the same thing. Incorporate different elements into the shot. Not only will you be adding more to the story, but you might also be developing a style that you personally might like that makes you unique. Don't be another photographer who just have a massive obsession for bokeh. Lucas calls this working the scene, essentially having various iterations of the same shot. So what I'm going for here is something I've done in other contexts. It's like I'm not trying to get the whole person. I just want like the legs and the feet, the shape of the stepping people, you know, just sort of abstract. It's not trying to get the entire person. Oh, there we go. There we go. Hell yeah, that's pretty nice. This lady, right? Like crop that a little tighter to have less of the background. Okay, actually, I'm going to stand up because I'm realizing from that angle, and this is what I need to kind of work the scene, iterative process, little changes at a time. From that angle, I had to aim a little. I can't aim as far down as I want. I'm getting too much of the background. I actually want just the ground, which means I got to stand up. I got to shoot from a higher angle, more downward, right? I'd love it also like there's a puddle right there. So if a person who stepped, you know, into the puddle, and then the puddle splashes. So you see, I'm kind of like trying to think about, think ahead about what might work for the photo, even though I haven't seen it yet. That's another part of this iterative process. You're kind of trying to imagine the right thing. You're trying to see the right thing. You're constantly, you know, it's all happening in here before you actually get that shot. Let's get another couple inches closer to this puddle here. Okay, pretty sure I just nailed that. So I think we can go on. That was really good. That lady was perfect. Classy high heels. I mean, she's slowing down. She thought she was getting in your shot too. I didn't, I did notice she was slowing down. Yeah. But I didn't, you know, I didn't lose my focus and look up at her and try to figure out why. I just thought maybe she's looking for her friend. I don't know. I didn't care. I just thought, okay, whatever is happening, I'm shooting. I'm happy with that. That's very Tokyo. Colors, light, you know, sexy shoes. That's pretty Tokyo to me. I like that. I remember being out with him in the rain in Tokyo, literally at the same spot for at least 15 minutes. Now that isn't considered really that long, but he could take as long as an hour in one spot just to make sure he gets the right shot. It's almost like a puzzle. We're waiting for the right pieces to fall into place, whether that be someone a little bit more interesting than the previous subject, a car or whatever. Just stick around, keep working the scene and just maybe, just maybe you'll even get a better shot. It's, uh, it's not the best juxtaposition, but so there's this dude, you know, the guy guiding the cars and he's holding his arms out like this. And then there's a sign right here with these arrows going left and right. It would be better if he was like closer to the sign and I got a more juxtaposed, but just working with what I got. It's the idea that counts. And it's the idea that counts. And again, it occurs from just like standing around in a spot for a minute. I saw the way my mental process, I'll share that with you. So I saw the guys in the white, you know, Hyvees and stuff guiding people and cars through the area. And that's my first thing that grabs my attention. It's very obvious. They're there, they're animated, they have an interesting uniform. So I'm kind of watching that and I'm seeing what happened. And then I noticed the sign because it's right next to me. Because I was looking at around my environment for something to include. And the first thing I noticed with the sign was the rain on top. So I thought, oh, I was actually thinking, oh, if the sign was wider, I could get a reflection off of that and maybe that would be a shot. And that's when I noticed the arrows in the sign. So it's that idea of being very mindful and going deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper in iterating. And I'm sure if I stay around here for another couple minutes and work harder, I can find something even better. On that note, I'm more of the kind of guy where instead of staying in one spot for an hour, I'll leave and come back. So I'll come back to spots again and again and again over the course of weeks or months. It's just because I happen to live in Tokyo. But if you're visiting on vacation, yeah, that might be a tough call, right? You just have to come back. I just want to try to get a perfect version of that. Because he's been doing the hand thing over and over again. So I'll get another chance eventually. Was that better? I don't know. I'll have to confirm that later. So I got one with the car in front of him, which is kind of nice because it really, you know, separates him from the background because otherwise he kind of blends in. Okay. I think that's enough. But he... That's why eventually you got to walk away. Like, otherwise you like starve to death. You'll find like a skeleton with a camera here just holding and shooting the same thing. Let's keep going. I think I got a lot of potential. The goal is not to walk away with a thousand amazing photos that particular session. No. But if you can walk away with a thousand shots, but only one of them ends up being the best shot, aka the banger shot, then it was worth going out in the first place. The second thing is don't be afraid of failure. Oftentimes I kind of see something that's potentially interesting, but my mind, for whatever reason, just immediately strikes it down. Like maybe the lighting wasn't perfect or there's too many people. I can't get the perfect clear shot or just simply not having the right lens on me. If you have an idea, just try it out. Don't overthink it. Don't overcomplicate things. Just have fun trying it out. For example, we saw this metal wall with lights reflecting off of it from the sign right across. Lucas thought it was interesting simply because of the colors and he decided to approach it with a vague idea in his mind. He isn't too quite sure what he wanted just yet, but he knew he wanted the metal wall with the colorful lights. As he was working the scene, getting low, getting high, there was a man with an umbrella standing next to the wall. He wasn't the most interesting guy, but he kind of parked himself over there. I'm getting this cool like drag reflection effect from this metal thing. And so that could be a shot, you know? I wish I got a more interesting person though, like a businessman in a suit, you know, rather than like a regular looking guy. But that's okay. That means I'll have to try this again on another day, maybe in the rain, maybe not, you know. And just iterate that until I get a good shot. I've never tried this shot before, but it was just an idea off the cuff right now. So pretty happy with that for now. Take another peek. Oh, there's another guy. Can I swear on your channel? Well, that was ******* great. That's why I wanted to ask. You should keep the part where I ask you if I can swear in. I think that's funnier. Because there we go. Now that's more what I was looking for, right? I love these colorful distortions. And then we have a guy there. Yeah, he's just on his phone. That's another little pet peeve of mine. I mean, I'm not against it. There was this phase where everyone was like, oh my God, people on their phones, so boring. I wish it was the 1940s where everyone was reading newspapers. But someday in 2120, 100 years from now, when we're all have like brain implants, we're gonna be like, oh, wasn't it nice when people used to have phones in their hands? Anyway, that's a digression. Point is, I don't mind that he's on his phone. Could have been a more interesting moment. But I like where the guy was standing. I like, I'll have this photo on the screen, right? So I like that he's in this white space. So he's kind of a clean silhouette behind him. This is called figure to ground. So he stands out really well. And I squeezed him into the right side of my frame. And the other side is kind of a negative space comprised of all these colors and swirls and stuff. I'll just go back to compare. So this is what the initial idea was with this other guy there. And you see there's too much going on here, less of this. And then in a moment, a different guy rolled up. And see how the framing evolved. I went from that to even tighter, to even tighter. And then he looked up at me and I was like, ooh. And when people look up at me, I always take the picture. It always feels good. You get a little buzz when you get a really nice shot that you haven't thought of before in a spot that you might've been to a few times, but it never really came together. So it's one of those where it's like, I can't wait to see it on the computer and, you know, mess with the colors a bit. You know, edit it up to get the most out of the shot. It's gonna be a fun one to edit. Trying out the ideas in your head right at that very spot is the quickest way of getting the right shot. Now you may not get the right shot that particular day, but you can always come back to it the next time. So make a note of that spot for now. Just take a photo of it. Work that scene for now. And then come back to it next time. And hopefully next time, all of the necessary elements will be there. Or if you're a portrait photographer, you can bring in a model to the new background you just found. Now, I know in this video, it seems like Lucas is getting a lot of great shots, but those moments were actually us being halfway into our two-hour session. In the beginning, we were struggling to get something good for the video. It goes to show you like how much luck comes into play because that lady that I just got a shot of, which is all right. It's kind of okay. And I can show that later. It's okay. Just before that moment, when she was still not in my frame, she was over there. So if I had been standing five feet to the left, she looked back at something. And that was a nice moment. That would have been a great shot. So it's like this close. I'm not going to make her stand here for an hour. But this is, again, that idea of revisiting. I remember this place. I've shot here a few times. Never got anything great. But I'll be back here next week or in a couple of days if I'm in the area. And I will try it again. See what I get. Let's keep going. Just to keep the variety up. Right here, I might do something where there's people going by. And I can't avoid that. Like these people are never going to run out. Right when I say that, they did run out. But what I was going to say is if there's always a crowd and they don't run out, then you can like drag the shutter, you know, do like a 30th of a second exposure. And then, you know, the people will be blurry in the foreground, yada, yada. You get a cool effect. Yeah, see, so I was like dragging the shutter to try to make the people blurry. But there ultimately wasn't enough of them. And it was actually better just to have her on their own. But it was an attempt. So I slowed the shutter down for a second to a 30th. Moving on, don't let excuses get in the way. Oftentimes, the biggest excuse that I've seen from a lot of people on the internet is not quote unquote having the right gear. Things like not having a full frame camera or having a camera with poor ISO performance or not having the right lens for the right shot. And not having the right gear seems to be a big roadblock for a lot of people for not taking more photos. While most people would tell you gear doesn't matter, shoot it with your kit lens anyways, or it doesn't matter what camera you have. The best camera is the one that you have on you. Shoot it with your iPhone. I would argue and say, just go ahead, give yourself the permission and buy the right gear. Usually it's the lenses that most people struggle with. They need a faster aperture lens for more bokeh, for better low light. And unfortunately, faster aperture lenses do generally cost more. But there are less expensive alternatives out there now. Sure, some may not have the autofocusing capability or just straight up you need to manual focus with it. But for that faster aperture, it might be worth the compromise. The next big excuse that I often see is just not having the right weather condition. Whether it be, oh, the sunset sucks today. The golden hour is not gonna be as good on camera. Or rain. Rain is probably one of the biggest factors stopping people because they don't wanna get their cameras wet. I personally let rain to be one of the biggest factor that prevented me from going out into Tokyo and getting some amazing shots. Because one, I didn't wanna get wet. Not so much getting the camera wet, but getting wet myself and getting sick. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I just didn't wanna go out and I just didn't wanna get sick. But that's the dumbest reason because rain is the best time to get shots of Tokyo. I love shooting in the rain. I mean, if it was a little warmer, that would be actually better. But yeah, the rain's awesome in terms of photos because, you know, colors come out, everything's shiny. People have umbrellas, which always makes nice photos pretty much. And I wouldn't say just rain, but like any kind of adverse weather, like snowy days, really windy days. Honestly, I mean, I like the rain, but I have no big preference. I think you can get great shots in any kind of light, any kind of weather, you know, there's no excuse. So it's like, oh, it's cloudy today. Great, that can work really well for certain things. And then if it's a really bright, sunny day, like high noon light, yeah, that can be hard for certain shots, but then it's great for other shots because you get really crazy contrast and you can do some things with that. Especially if you find light bouncing off of surfaces and creating angles and stuff, which in a city like Tokyo, there's plenty of opportunities for that. So I do like the rain, but I'm like an equal opportunity street photographer. I'll go out anytime. Day, night, rain, sleet, doesn't matter. So we didn't plan on it to be rainy today. We were thinking about canceling the shoot, but you know what? We're gonna have some fun. You know, it's not gonna be an excuse for us to not go shoot. We have props to Lucas here. He's a champ because he's getting over a code. He's getting over a code. And he's agreed to do this. So in the interview, you're gonna see him sound a little scratchy, but just know that he's doing it for you guys. Now, some of you are probably worried about getting your expensive cameras wet, but honestly, give your cameras a little bit more credit than that. They can take in a little bit of rain. Just make sure you get your hot shoot covered up. But if you're really worried, get some rain covers for your camera. So we're out here getting our cameras wet. Should be a problem with your Nikon camera. No, it's been through a lot of rainy days. So it's still weather sealed after all these years. It's fine. And I'm over here worrying about the new Sigma 24-70 I just got and this brand new Sony mic, which is like drenched. So hopefully the audio sounds okay. I apologize in advance if the audio goes out. That's a neat little shot. Guy looks cool having a smoke, right? I had to get pretty dang close with my 28, right? Basically, I shot it without asking because that's what I do. Candid street photography, it's fine. But if he looked up and noticed, I would have just like, oh, hey, yeah, I took a picture. Yeah, cool, whatever. It's just something nice. If he got annoyed, I'd say sorry, which is what happens, of course. But most people, if I'm friendly, they're pretty friendly too. They kind of, you know, they get it. And I find often they feel a little bit flattered. They're like, oh, he's taking my picture? Wow. I didn't know I was that cool, you know? So generally, I have really positive experiences when I'm doing street. Once in a blue moon, someone gets a little bit annoyed and they just say, hey, hey, no photo of me. I'm like, all right, all right, it's no problem. So yeah, that was a good case of that, although he didn't even notice. So we're halfway through with the video and you might have a comment queued up saying, well, it's so easy for you to say, Jason. Tokyo is such an easy place to photograph. Literally everything is photogenic there. Well, how that may be true, and I do admit Tokyo is pretty easy to photograph. Everything is amazing. It's also up to us to find the beauty wherever we go. My friend David recently had his photos of Pasadena, a town in California, by the way, featured on ABC7. It ain't Tokyo. It certainly ain't New York, but he's still gone out and made the city look great. But if the environment is really affecting your approach to photography, then do change it, change it up. I had an upsurge of photos simply because I was in Japan. And I can tell you, I was definitely a lot more inspired just by being there, just by being in a different environment. I paid a lot more attention to my surroundings and got a lot of great shots that you're seeing right now on the screen. And it really helped me advance my skills as a casual photographer. One important thing to remember is that you're not gonna achieve overnight success. You're not going to have a banger shot right away, especially if you're just starting out. People like Lucas aren't suddenly amazing overnight. It definitely takes them years of practice and series of trials and error. You know, there's a phrase, quality over quantity, but I believe in quantity produces quality. So put in the work, keep up with the iterations, and someday you will end up with something amazing. And the last thing is don't wait. Now it's gonna sound obvious like, oh yeah, don't wait. Just go out right now and take some photos. You know, don't wait until that's gonna happen. That's definitely true. Don't wait to go out and do photography. But another big thing on the don't wait concept is don't wait on editing your photos. Possibly the next biggest roadblock, aside from going out to actually do the photography, is editing your damn photos. Start by editing your best shot from that day immediately, whether it's the same night or the next day. You know, make sure within that 24-hour time frame, while you're still fresh on that best shot that you just took the day before, make sure you start editing that best shot immediately. Don't get caught up with the mediocre photos and try to rescue shots because that's the fastest way to demotivate yourself. Get that excitement from that best photo that you've taken, process it, post it, and move on to the others. But don't feel guilty if you can't rescue some of the more mediocre shots. Don't worry about that. Just learn from it and learn how you can make it better the next time you go out and shoot at the same location. So tag me on Instagram at jasonvmedia to photos that you'll be taking in 2020. And when I say tag, tag me in the photo. Don't tag me in the description or the comments because I will not see that. But if you tag me in the photo itself, I would definitely be able to see it. Drop in the comments down below what direction are you taking your photography in 2020? And I will make a follow-up video maybe in June just to check up on you guys. It's just to see your progress, how far you guys have come along. And hopefully by the end of the year, I'll have another follow-up video where you guys can tell me the tremendous progress that you've made since this video came out. Guys, thank you so much for watching. Good luck out there and I'll see you guys in the next video. Peace. So I've been using Squarespace for about three years now and what keeps me coming back is the ease of use. It is an all-in-one platform to create beautiful and clean websites. No coding knowledge is required thanks to the easy-to-use templates. For 2020, Vivian and I will be adding additional photography and videography resources to our website. So definitely stay tuned to see our progress and our announcement. For now, you can try Squarespace yourself whether it's a photo portfolio website you can send to your client or an e-commerce for your products, design it with Squarespace. Head to squarespace.com slash Jason Vong and save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. Thanks for listening to this message. It does really help my channel out a lot. I'll see you guys in the next video. Peace.