Four Simple Tips for Better Photography

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Almost four years ago my photography business took a nose dive when I lost 140,000 images to a computer disaster. Yes, I normally have my work backed up. But, when this happened I had just returned to Oklahoma to assist members of my family with problems they were having. I did not have the computer knowledge to save my work, but I did save the hard drive that it had been on, and one day soon I hope to find a really brilliant program or computer technician that can dig into the old hard disk and recover those files. For now, it is my inability to walk away from photography that has pushed me to relocate, again, to Las Vegas and start rebuilding my dream.

Without getting too technical I thought I would share a few things that I have learned since by return to Las Vegas and to my photography work.

1.) Read your manual. I have learned to keep my camera user's manuals handy, and I use them often. For the past 3 year's I was not as involved with my photography work as I needed or wanted to be. That changed when I relocated to the Las Vegas Valley. I quickly learned that my camera knowledge had faded. But, I am getting faster at learning what settings I need.

2.) Know your camera. While I am still unsure about why my normal camera settings have drastically changed for shooting at various locations I do know that my use of exposure bracketing is very important to my work. And, while it means making more changes in the field it does save time in the editing process.

3.) Stay healthy. Water and exercise are important to my photographic specialties. My aging and battered body was in for a major surprise when I started took for my first walk on City View Trail. The information that led me to this trail described it as a "moderate" hike. Well, that was probably an accurate description for a 20-year-old professional football player, but for a 68-year-old, overweight x-trucker in was more than a tad off the mark.

4.) Work smarter, not harder. Be careful about overloading your project list. I started out behind because I did not know exactly what I wanted to do with my photography. As a result, I have spent many, many, many hours organizing, editing and posting when I wanted to be out shooting. But, I am close to having my business organized now. As a result, where it was taking me 4 or 5 days to do a shoot, edit and post it where it should be I am now down to a 2-day max. I have paid for it with a lot of lost sleep.

Photographing City Parks of the Las Vegas Valley is my current on-going project since my return to the Las Vegas Valley.

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