{"id":38114,"date":"2017-02-16T02:00:54","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T10:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=38114"},"modified":"2017-02-16T18:35:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T02:35:38","slug":"how-to-take-more-risks-in-your-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/16\/how-to-take-more-risks-in-your-photography\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Take More Risks in Your Photography"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dear friend,<\/p>\n

A practical piece of advice I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give you in photography is this: don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be too cautious:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. More risks, more reward<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Henri Cartier-Bresson Contact Sheet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you are too cautious with your photography; you will never take any risk; and you will never take any great photos.<\/p>\n

Each time you hit the shutter, you are taking a small risk.<\/p>\n

\"robert
Robert Frank Elevator Girl Contact Sheet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But there is no downside of taking a risk in photography. The only downside is that you make a boring photo.<\/p>\n

But the more boring photos you shoot, the more likely you are to get a good one.<\/p>\n

2. Shoot more shitty photos<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Tokyo, 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Probably the best advice I got about photography was from Trent Parke: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shoot a lot of shit, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bound to get a few good ones.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think Parke meant to literally only take shitty photos. Rather, his encouragement was this: don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be afraid of taking what you perceive to be shitty photos. Rather, just shoot a lot of photos, and take a lot of risks, in order for you to take a few photos you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re happy with.<\/p>\n

3. Your first million photos are your worst<\/h2>\n
\"Sydney,
Sydney, 2016 #suits<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In writing, one of the best motivators is to just write the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcfirst shitty draft.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

For me, I never see any blog post as good. I just write as much as I can, to keep the ball rolling, and to keep the momentum going. Out of all the 2,000+ blog posts I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written, I probably only have 10 or so I really like. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad \u00e2\u20ac\u201d if I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t write so much, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have even made those 10 good posts.<\/p>\n

The same in photography; even Henri Cartier-Bresson said that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your first 10,000 photos are your worst.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s digital age, I think: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Your first million photos are your worst.”<\/p>\n

4. Shoot from your gut<\/h2>\n

\"eric<\/p>\n

When I teach street photography workshops, one of the biggest mistakes I see street photographers make is this: they take too much time composing, framing, and getting ready to hit the shutter. This causes them to miss the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdecisive moment.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

\"NYC<\/p>\n

What I encourage is this: when you first see an interesting street scene, simply react, by taking a photo. Then learn how to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwork the scene\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by shooting the photo from many different angles. Generally, it is good to take a few steps closer while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting. Because most of us in street photography tend to be too far away from our subject when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shooting.<\/p>\n

Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have too much caution when shooting street photography. Only use caution when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sitting on your computer when you go home, when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking through your photos, and choosing your best photo.<\/p>\n

As Anders Petersen says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Shoot with your gut, and edit with your brain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

5. When in doubt, click<\/h2>\n
\"\"
Tokyo, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think the sum of this advice can be this:<\/p>\n

\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When in doubt, click.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Always,
\nEric<\/p>\n

Learn more: Photography 101 ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear friend, A practical piece of advice I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give you in photography is this: don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be too cautious:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38114","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\/2017\/02\/eric-kim-street-photography-suits-color-kodak-portra-400-14-1.jpg?fit=1545%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38114","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=38114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}