The Scrapings of the Brain

This is what else is on offer from Tackorama, not brain food, but the dreggy bits somewhere between the hemispheres.

Warning: Excessive swearing and fierce thoughts pepper these pages. Fuck off now if you are in doubt.

Ignore "professional" photographers

Are you a digital SLR camera owner who feels lost and confused among how-to articles? Are you over-saturated with techie-babble when you ask for advice? Do you feel you are being pushed towards a cliche style of photography that's somebody elses?

There is another way besides listening to professionals, thanks to digital SLRs. Have courage and strike out on your own.

Digital SLR cameras have really opened up photography, arguably collapsed the distinction between beginner and veteran. My experience of advice from professionals is that it tends be old filmie advice and bullying towards us young digital usurpers. I wrote this for the independent of spirit, digital SLR camera owners who want to stick up two fingers to the filmie way and regard the status "professional" as an insult.

Your digital camera is not a film camera
This is really important. Say it out loud. Commit it to memory. Your digital camera is not a film camera. Now this is what it means: the way you take pictures with a digital SLR camera is easier, faster, more reliable, more fun, more playful and a good proportion cheaper than film ever was. And it has a much greater chance of yielding great pictures. It is a completely different way of photography and requires a different way of thinking.

Press the button
Digital means no film (duh!). So press the button. Take a chance, don't wait or worry just press the button. It costs nothing and it might work. Press the button. Get psychotically trigger happy with your digital SLR camera. Press the button...press the damn button!

Change everything
Go up and down the ISO scale as you see fit. Play with aperture size. Deliberately misfocus in manual mode. Alter the colour settings at random. Set the white balance to indoors on a sunny day. Tilt your camera on a boring subject. All the while, press the button. Have a look at what you have got. Keep pressing that button. Fun, fun, fun, until the batteries wear out.

Trust your eyes
"You must shoot this at that-setting". Fuck off pro! You must not. Never stick dogmatically to technical rules. Ignore them all. Press the button and have a look. Your eyes will tell you the "oooooooh" from the "oh".

Photography is not art
If you want to be an artist, put down the camera. Photography is not creative. Photography is not art. Photography depends on being in right place at the right time, post-production polish and sheer dumb luck. Photography is a hell of a lot easier than painting or drawing. Love photography for the fun craft it is.

Post-processing
Shoot in RAW mode for an extra benefit. Post-processing RAW data means a lot more flexibility and forgiveness in certain shots. Added on top of this is the modern wonder of Photoshop and with this software alone you have a colossal power far behind mere film and darkroom.

Go the museum filmie photographers and take your place besides the typewriters!