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Did you eat dinner last night? You did? Good for you. Hope it was nice.
You ate off a plate? With a knife and fork? Splendid. Because that makes you a candidate for today's column. It proves that you have mastered one of the most important skills of life - nutrition. It suggests that you can also deal with the business of photography on a similar successful basis.
You probably won't be taking pictures with the knife, fork or plate that you used for the eating, but you might be using a camera, lens, or other equipment, that is equally useful. The main key to that utility will be familiarity - just as you are familiar with the use of the eatin' irons.
This isn't as fatuous a statement as you might think. Every day in Australia camera shops send clients out of the door with items that are unfamiliar - not just hardware, but new concepts as well. The assumption is that the purchaser will know what to do with it all - in reality they may be bearing away something that is a complete mystery, and which will remain so for ever.
This is a shame - the camera that might have started so much argle-bargleing and such financial agonising over really does call the customer to make some use of it.
Okay, the travel compact that is picked up at the duty-free when the passenger is on a dead run for the air bridge may be legitimately left on Absolute Automatic for some time - with a bit of luck the factory settings will enable it to return a reasonable jpeg even if the owner is looking at the screen through 15 Bintangs. We'll make some allowances for the folly of youth and/or old age.
But the carefully chosen mirror-less or DSLR needs more dedicated driving - and it needs actual understanding that goes further than the click of the shutter button - the user must see what the images will become in the future to lay down a good foundation now. I'll admit to making some drastic choices in my first digital work ( comparable to the follies of my first film work ) that languish in my hard drive. I don't show them and I regret that the opportunities they represent are gone. You can only post-improve so far.
Today's message? Get some training. If you can't spend the time in the shop to get it ( Hint: the staff can't make you a photographic legend between 12:00 and 2:00 ) then spend some time with the instruction book, a dedicated website, or the Shoot Photography workshop that deals with your camera. Any effort you make to understand your picture box will be rewarded - even if it seems confusing to start with.
Your aim is to eventually get as facile with the camera and lens as you are with the knife and fork at the dinner table. Try to get so familiar with the outfit that you do not hit yourself in the lip with it or drop it in your lap. Those of you with soup-based cameras try not to slurp.
And do not be too eager to change to the next new knife and fork. You won't eat faster or better.
PS: That's a free commercial image of the chips. I couldn't face food photography this week...
