Light Stalking has an interesting twist for offering advice to photographers — things you shouldn’t do rather than things you should do. Three of my favorites are “Don’t be afraid to ask for help”, “Don’t assume your way is the best way”, and “Don’t ever stop learning”.

I guess if I could add one point to the list, I would say “Don’t be so serious”. Photography is fun, interesting, and exciting. Most of us got into it because of one or more of those reasons. If you’ve turned into the cynical job-hating photographer always wearing your grumpy face, why are you still shooting?

Any other tips for things that photographers shouldn’t do?

Copyright bfishadow

There’s no doubt digital photography has made some amazing leaps and bounds since hitting the mainstream consumer mark well over a decade ago.  Some things have been a bit ‘gadgety’ (I’m thinking of a Kodak camera that had a ‘Thinner’ feature to slim down waistlines) however there have been some handy features for consumers and pros alike.

Some were driven by the advent of digital photography itself, such as sensor cleaning technology that had no reason to exist in the film world.  The ability to set white balance would be another innovation and something that was never possible in the film world, short of rewinding film part way through a roll and changing canisters.  The same goes for ISO adjustment.  A lot of the others can be classified as ‘gadgety’ as well, but they do provide some real world uses, such as the newer face detection technology that helps the camera focus and adjust exposure to properly render people, rather than bright backgrounds.  Sure, a number of these things aren’t needed if basic photography principles are learned, but the utility is hard to deny.