this video is brought to you by Squarespace if you need a website or domain check out squarespace.com hey everybody and welcome to a new video have you ever wondered if the things you worry about in photography are really worth the trouble and if down the road with years of experience you'll feel the same well I've taken easily 1 and a half million photos in the last 12 years and I'll give you a sneak peek into what I think today of the things I used to think were important when I was a relative beginner in pH photography if you stay till the end I'll share the biggest fallacy in photography that I've come to totally ignore and that according to some it would automatically make all these photos bad photos my name is Simon donon and I'm a professional nature and wildlife photographer living in Eastern Canada I make weekly videos giving you photo tips or taking you behind the scenes for nature photography subscribe if you want to see more try to open up your mind you'll be [Music] just it's not uncommon for a wildlife photographer to shoot a thousand photos in an outing and the first thing that I can remember in choosing which photos from my day outing to process and post was which one is the sharpest I remember zooming in and going through them to tag the sharpest ones and deleting the ones that weren't perfect sharpness mistake even though I pride myself in getting sharp picks I now realize that for many applications sharpness isn't that critical for a photo contest gallery show or printing large yes sharpness is important but that's a wee small percentage of the final resting place for many of your photos many of them are for casual viewing putting up on a slideshow on your TV to be viewed at a distance or for social media the LGH being probably the largest audience and you know what for those places sharpness isn't critical even in Wildlife which many would argue is one of the most demanding genres for sharpness I've chosen this photo over this photo in the past but this one here is really a better photo isn't as critically sharp but for Instagram and Facebook doesn't matter this was the one to pick in fact lately I've been going through some of my older photos and looking again at ones I ignored because they were less than perfect and posting them to social media and people love them here's a few I posted years after I'd taken them I'd originally given them a pass because they weren't quite quote unquote sharp enough the next thing I worried about when I was starting off is I was fussing more about what camera I should buy than what lens I should buy this is now turned right around I worry more about the lens than the camera and in most genres I think you should too now I do own very good cameras I do this professionally but if my house was burning and I could bring one piece of gear with me as I ran out the house it would be a lens and I'm confident saying that 95% % of Pros think the same way if their car was broken into right before a paid gig and they had to borrow all their kit but one piece of gear which they could keep they'd keep a lens and borrow a camera body not the other way around this is because the lens Choice affects the look of the photo and the artistic qualities of the photo more than the camera any one of 10 camera bodies on the same lens can probably give you a similar image I shot this photo with this lens and this youed us camera but it doesn't work the other way around I can take this professional camera but if I put a cheap lens on it I'll never match what a premium lens can in sharpness depth of field or contrast the moral here is if you're going to fuss over gear fuss over lenses first then find out what camera will work with that lens the next thing I used to think early on in my career was that just getting out more was more important than going out in the right light now it's both I need to get out especially in the right light now I don't want to imply there's a thing called bad light that makes good photography impossible but there is a thing called good light that makes certain types of photos possible and maybe even only possible in that light light is the most precious resource we have as photographers and while I've taken some decent photos in my day in Soo lighting conditions great light really delivers great photos these photos would would not be possible without the tricks and effects that light gave them so my advice is get out there more when the light has great potential and especially during the parts of the day sunrise and sunset where they create even more magic because these shots here won't be possible at midday the next thing I thought was really important when starting out was shooting in manual that's what the pros do right uh baloney the only mode you need to worry about is the one that gets you the shot you want when you want it period there are tons of pro photographers that love shooting in aperture priority for example and getting the look of the depth of field is what they want the shutter speed being at 1/ 100th of a second or 1/ 1,000th of a second is irrelevant so they let the camera manage that for me when I'm out photographing paragan Falcons diving at 200 km per hour sometimes they dive from the Sun sometimes not needing totally different settings in manual I'd have to change my settings mid dive while I frantically try to get the shot crazy I just shoot in manual with auto ISO I preset my shutter speed to 13200 of a second F4 wide open and let the camera change the iso needed in thousandth of a second and if the paragan starts a pass into the Sun and finishes in the shade I just keep shooting so shoot in the mode that works for you shooting in manual for looks or for some perceived benefit that doesn't meet your style forget it shoot in manual if that's what suits your photographic genre and technique maybe a studio or Landscapes or time lapses or when your subject isn't moving and you have all the time in the world to dial in those settings great do what works not what looks good I'd like to thank the sponsor of this video Squarespace I built my very own website using Squarespace and it was really easy a website is just a great way to have a professional place online where you can show off your work your service or your personal brand and social media are often showing you or your work in short video clips or thumbnails and sometimes makes it difficult to monetize as they may not want links to external sites a website is a permanent home for you and your work and your brand presented in galleries or on pages designed by you that show them off at their best there are tons of useful templates including ones for specific genres like photography which is mine or if you're more daring and artistic you can go outside the templates using the new AI feature called Squarespace blueprint to help you personally curate your own build a website is also a great way to monetize your work by setting up an online store so you can take payments by credit card or PayPal from all over the world and now with a new added feature of buy now and pay later with clear pay and afterpay go to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to launch go to squarespace.com signment for 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain the next thing I used to do when starting it was staying home in bad weather Fog rain snow Mist they were either taking away from my obsession with sharpness or were pain to deal with today I look for bad weather intentionally now not for astrophotography or Milky Way where clear skies are needed but for everything else bring it on if I'm hoping to photograph bald eagles I say to myself the next day it snows I'm going or to photograph or shoot video of deer please give me some snow rain can be a pain to man it's true but with a rain cover you can get photos like this and wind like in a hurricane I'm out there bad or weird weather just gives you wonderful atmosphere and Ambiance to add to your photos and I really recommend you get out there in it a tip shoot wide in bad weather if you try to shoot tight you miss out on the larger scene which is where the story about the weather is being told by the way if you're looking for more free tips I have a whole guide on shooting in back lit situation s to get photos like this and this on my website which you can download for free in return for joining my email list link below the next thing I used to obsess over was getting high megapixel cameras turns out it was mostly true for me but not for most we're taught to believe that more is better now in some genres this may be true but in many if not most it's not if you shoot Wildlife or sports or in genres where you can't control the distance to your subject and you need to cross top or you plan to print really large or you plan to exhibit where people may pixel peep up close more megapixels will be great but if you're shooting Landscapes street photography portraits architecture and don't meet the previous criteria you don't really need a high megapixel camera so for me for shooting Wildlife I like to use my 45 megapixel R5 especially for small birds but you know what in Africa for stuff up close I put a 70 to 200 on a 20 megapixel Canon R6 and it's 100% % fine as for these shots I'm up close and not cropping these shots were all taken with 20 megapixels and are fine even for big prints and for my Milky Way shots 20 megapixels is fine same for Landscapes the lesson here get a high megapixel camera if your genre or use case requires it but if not you probably don't need it and save your money and get a nice lens or buy a trip for using your lower megapixel body and I promised you a bonus tip and that's the view that d dynamic range is a critical factor in good photos and low dynamic range photos are bad I need at least 12 or 13 stops of dynamic range and if the camera can't do that it's not a good photo false I was indeed a sharpness freak at the start of my photography Journey so a bit of an image quality freak and getting good photos with great dynamic range was what I was striving for that meant always keeping my ISO low as possible and even risking not getting the shot to keep the image quality up these days not critical almost to the point of don't care there are so many more important aspects to photography that make a great photo above image quality storytelling unique moments capturing emotion pretty sights and amazing action these can actually be captured without amazing image quality and lack of quality doesn't make them less does this iconic photo taken in tianan square need image quality to be powerful or this famous photo dynamic range isn't that important here now for some professional genres like photos being retouched for a fashion magazine the ultimate image quality may be critical but most people watching this are photographing kids playing soccer or their friend standing in front of mashu Pichu and by the way this photo shot at ISO 3200 has seven yes seven stops of dynamic range not 12 or 13 and I've ordered an acrylic print of it to put up in my own living room along with this other print that's already hanging hanging on the wall that's also seven stops of dynamic range it's not important I've sold over a 100 copies of this print same ISO 3200 and seven stops of dynamic range big deal no one cares my advice get the shot and worry about and process to taste the photo that you have and never come home having missed the shot to try to make it perfect what's the thing that you fuss the most about when starting off that you don't think is that important anymore let us know in the comments below if you want to learn more about this dynamic range issue I talked about I made a whole video about it which you can see right here if this video was deserving give it a like and YouTube will show it to even more people helping other photographers get their priorities straight and take their own unique and amazing photos I know you can do it