The most important concept I have come to understand about being a photographer is to become truly intimate with your equipment and practice with it enough that ever shooting condition becomes stored in your muscle memory. Shooting seriously and not just point and shoot, it requires a surprising amount of technical proficiency which I was sadly lacking. This I realized was the first hurtle. Now over the major technical aspect I can concentrate fully on my compositions.

The other concept I have come to understand is that without light you have nothing. Light can make or break an image. Light is a character in your story and you must make the best use of it possible. One light or 50 lights, the best photographers saw “any available light is good light” or the other “God only uses one light”.

Lastly there is the concept of memorability. How many photos do you see per day? Maybe hundreds or even thousands. In your life perhaps you have seen hundreds of thousands. How many have you taken? In this vast multitude of images, how many do you remember? How many made an impact and how many do you want to look at day after day? This is where I would say by observation the technically adept photographer becomes legend.

A little about my equipment:
I shoot Nikon, to the chagrin of my friends who are Canon shooters.
Nikon D700
nikkor 50mm f/1.4
nikkor 80 - 200 f/2.8
nikkor 24 - 120 - good walking around lens
nikkor 24 -70 f/2.8

wish list
nikkor 14 - 24 f/2.8
nikkor 85mm f/2.8
nikkor 105 mm f/2.8

lights
Nikon SB600
Profoto D1 air 500 x 2

Mac Pro
24 inch Apple cinema screen (calibrated but the screen has too much contrast)
Adobe Lightroom 3


Why did I go from point and shoot to a dSLR?
I wanted to shoot stop action, the older point and shoot digitals had terrible shutter lag.

How have I made my photography better?
I have taken several foundation courses online from the Academy of Art University in California, this helped with the basics I was lacking when I started. I had taken over 15,000 photos but the great majority fell into the “snap shot” category.
I have attending a workshop called “PhotoFestJapan 2010” with Rick Sammon, Hal Schmitt and Juan Pons. I picked up more in 3 days than I had in the previous 2 years with online and self study. Doing is key! Reading is ok, but photography is a hands on learn by doing skill.