{"id":35978,"date":"2016-12-12T02:04:11","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T10:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=35978"},"modified":"2016-12-12T02:04:11","modified_gmt":"2016-12-12T10:04:11","slug":"how-to-tinker-in-your-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/12\/how-to-tinker-in-your-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Tinker in Your Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"eric
Hanoi, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a huge fan of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tinkering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just playing around, figuring out how things work, breaking things, and learning along the way.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How to become a tinkerer<\/h2>\n

When I was a kid, I tinkered for fun. I remember building my first computers, just for fun. Part of it was that I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford a good computer\u00e2\u20ac\u201d so I tried to figure out how to upgrade my graphics card, my memory, hard drive, and computer to play computer games (Counterstrike, Warcraft III, etc).<\/p>\n

Part of being a tinkerer is having a sense of freedom. Control. To \u00e2\u20ac\u0153upgrade\u00e2\u20ac\u009d your destiny. To not be spoon-fed what is given to you \u00e2\u20ac\u201d but learning how to improve things. To make things better.<\/p>\n

The Japanese have a method called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153kaizen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d constant, incremental, improvement.<\/p>\n

I love this idea \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it strives for 1% daily improvement. It is like natural growth \u00e2\u20ac\u201d everything in nature grows steadily, slowly. Consider a redwood tree \u00e2\u20ac\u201d how it grows steadily over time, but reaches great heights.<\/p>\n

How can we teach ourselves to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctinker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 more in our photography, and life?<\/p>\n

1. Experiment<\/h2>\n

The first tip is to experiment. Discover the truth for yourself.<\/p>\n

Everything you read about photography is a suggestion. Nothing is truth. There is no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153right\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or wrong.<\/p>\n

Experiment with different filters, and post-processing methods in your photography.<\/p>\n

Experiment with your framing. Tilt your camera, get closer, take a step back. Learn how to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153work the scene\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, and take many different photos.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t read too much photo theory from others when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re starting off. Rather, just have fun with your camera, and discover what works for you<\/em>. Then create your own theories, based on your experiences.<\/p>\n

2. There is no \u00e2\u20ac\u0153failure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d; only feedback<\/h2>\n

Secondly, be comfortable failing. Whenever you tinker, learning is all about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153trial and error.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see an error as a failure. Rather, see it as a growth, and learning opportunity.<\/p>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tinkering with a car, trying to figure out how to turn it on (or off)\u00e2\u20ac\u201d you learn through constant feedback. If you unplug your spark plugs, your car won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start. If you plug things in, unplug things \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just figure out what it does.<\/p>\n

Similarly in your photography \u00e2\u20ac\u201d figure out what technical settings work for you. Try to shoot in P mode, manual-mode, Av mode, Tv mode \u00e2\u20ac\u201d learn the technical settings that best work for you through trial-and error.<\/p>\n

Play with the ISO. Play with your focusing (autofocus vs manual). Play with your exposure-compensation.<\/p>\n

Experiment shooting different subject-matter, at different times of the day, in different ways.<\/p>\n

Consider yourself as a mad scientist \u00e2\u20ac\u201d except you have your camera as your own tool.<\/p>\n

3. Tinker for the sake of it<\/h2>\n

Lastly, have fun.<\/p>\n

If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a tinkerer\u00e2\u20ac\u201d you tinker for the sake of it. You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tinker to make money, to gain critical acclaim, or to impress your peers.<\/p>\n

You tinker because it is in your soul. You tinker because you want to figure out how things work. You are intrinsically-driven; rather than extrinsically-driven.<\/p>\n

So tinker in your photography by just having fun. Imagine like you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a kid, with the camera for the first time. What rules would you throw out of the window? Would you really care about social media, or what others think?<\/p>\n

No \u00e2\u20ac\u201d you would only photograph what was fun for you.<\/p>\n

Trial and error is king<\/h2>\n

So friend, how are some other things you can experiment with and tinker in your life? Whether that be with your car, with your body, with your diet, your photography, your lifestyle, or your personal philosophy.<\/p>\n

Trial and error is freedom \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and there is no right and wrong.<\/p>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n

Learn more: Creativity ><\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a huge fan of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tinkering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just playing around, figuring out how things work, breaking things, and learning along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/eric-kim-street-photography-hanoi-0001828-1.jpg?fit=2000%2C1325&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}