10 Photography Lessons I’ve Learned Over 10 Years

When learning any new skill, it’s universally agreed that you need to put time into it to grow. There’s a popular theory by Malcolm Gladwell that it takes 10,000 hours to master any skill. That theory is pretty controversial these days, but the number of hours isn’t important. What’s important is that you must put time into learning a skill if you want to become better at it.

Photography is no exception. Ask any of the photographers you admire how long they have been developing their photography skills, they will all tell you that it’s taken them years.

So, how do you speed this learning process up? There are a few ways, but one of them is to learn from other’s mistakes and successes. Every photographer starts out as a beginner, so it would make sense that others have learned a few lessons along the way from which you can benefit.

I’m no photography master by any stretch, but I’ve learned a few valuable lessons in the 10 years since I picked up a camera. Here are a few of them.

1. Great light beats a great subject every time

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had the experience of visiting a gorgeous location with grand visions of the stunning photos you’re going to come home with, only to be bitterly disappointed and wonder what you did wrong. On the flip-side, you’ve likely been pleasantly surprised by the beautiful photos you’ve taken of a very ordinary scene or subject.