How to stop being afraid and start taking pictures!

There are many books devoted to how behave yourself before the public: how to build a speech, what to say. However, there are too little psychology books on how to stop being afraid and take pictures in public. The fear to take a camera in the middle of a crowded street is commonplace. We hope this article will help you to overcome the feeling of awkwardness.

So, how to stop being afraid? When we fear, adrenaline is released into the bloodstream. In general, it is useful, because the body is activated, the brain starts to work faster. However, if there is too much adrenaline, it can harm – the body begins to get rid of the excess – and as a result, your knees start shaking and hands sweating. Of course, when shooting in public you can fear a little bit, but not that much. And the first thing here is to think why the whole process makes you that nervous? Is this fear justified? Will someone throw tomatoes at you? Beat you? Laugh at you? In fact, most of the people even won’t notice you. And if someone pays attention to, remember that he is more interested in your camera than your personality.

Enjoy it!

Do you drive? Remember your first driving experience, were you scared? And what did happen several months later? That’s right – you have already begun to enjoy the process of driving behind the wheel. So with photographing it will be the same! Try to enjoy the shooting! Try to catch a buzz from the fact that you get great shots, while the others just hurry about their business.

The aim comes first!

Remember the goal. You do not just take pictures. You give birth to a beauty. You create a memory. Your photos can even reveal social problems and encourage the authorities to act. So why such goals should not be achieved due to the fact that you are ashamed of some people who do not even understand the whole significance of the moment! Achieve your goals and do not pay attention to the interference in the form of strangers!

A friend will help!

If you can – take a friend with you. The two of you will feel more confident.

Do not waste your time in vain

If you are still afraid of crowded places and are waiting when there are little or no people in the street in order to get a camera in a hurry and take pictures of an interesting story – then in this situation it is better not to photograph at all. When you photograph in a hurry, there is small chance of getting a really good image.

Think about the losses

Think about how much you lose when you hesitate to get a camera in front of people. Firstly, it is an interesting street photography, it is an architectural photography, an outdoor portrait, it is even a bit of macro-and wildlife-photography. It is also a great way to learn how to handle the camera and acquire skills to quickly set the camera according to shooting conditions. Again – you want to abandon all these because of your shyness?

Conclusion

In short, the fear of shooting in public places is pure psychology. You just need time to think about it and realize that there is nothing wrong with taking pictures in public.

P.S. We didn’t touch upon the street-photography and how to take pictures of strangers and how to behave, etc. It’s a bit of another story, and maybe we’ll write about it later

“Advanced Photography” by Mike Langford – is it worth buying?

Almost finished reading the book by Mike Langford “Advanced photography”. The title indicates that there is something thorough, fundamental inside. The book itself left a lasting impression. There were many things I liked a lot, while others were not so informative for me.  So, if you ever decide to read this book and would like to know my opinion, here it is.

What I liked:

*        Excellent printing, it is nice to hold a book in my hands. Yet a book is a book, and I think that it should give you an aesthetic pleasure just from looking through the pages.

*        There are interesting thoughts inside about photography in general which are set out in the very first chapter, “Amateur and professional photography.” There are also intelligent and witty comments of Alexander Lapin.

*        It covers everything from lenses to how photography originated.

*        It is suitable for those who have already figured out the basic concepts such as excerpts and diagram and want more knowledge.

*        Many chapters come with very helpful diagrams and drawings. For example, a “change of angular field while shooting.”

*         Exercises. In general, interesting assignments that will help you master the art of photography.

What I didn’t like:

*         A lot of unnecessary information that you can just skip over. Most likely, it’s all going on since the first editions of the book, from the times when digital cameras didn’t occupy a dominant position in the market. As a result, we have chapters about how film cameras are arranged, how to choose a film, etc. Also there are two sections devoted to methods of black and white printing.

*         A rather weak chapter on digital cameras – there is too little information and it is irrelevant. For example, how do you like this phrase “majority of the matrices come at ISO 100 or 200.”

*         There are too little beautiful illustrations. Yet one must not only read the theory but also look at the great works for inspiration.

*         Generally, there is little practical advice or examples from life as you would have expected from such a book. There is too much of bare theory. One of the key, in my opinion, chapters – “Subject Problems” – only superficially describes the basic methods of photography.
In general, the book is too complicated for beginners and a bit uninteresting for pros. For those who want to develop their skills – well, maybe, it’ll be useful. You really need to know many things from this book. Although personally I’d rather read some specific publications: on landscape photography, black and white photography, etc. On the other hand, $45.00 is not a big amount…