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Here is one SURE way to get better at photography.

At this point in my life, here’s one thing I know: I’m pretty decent at photography.

I better be after taking photos almost every day for the last 25+ years of my life!

Yet one of the things I’m most proud of is that I NEVER stop trying to improve, and lately I’ve been diving into my photos like never before.

Instead of scrolling the headlines, or anything online, I’m jumping on my iPad to evaluate my own photography.

This photo made me realize I shouldn’t fear high ISO (in good light) with M43.

This practice of diving deeper into my own photographs has been transformative.

It’s allowed me to be more thoughtful and deliberate, and to put into action what I’m learning about my photographs immediately. Let me give you an example:

For this photo, I really felt like I “nailed” it when I first looked at it. However, sitting down with the iPad and zooming in made me realize that I might have been better off using the OM SYSTEM’s OM-1 MarkII’s excellent in-camera focus stacking. The bee’s wings are just a little blurrier than I might have wanted, and it made me make a note to do this next time I went to the garden.

In this photo I realized a slight, yellow gradient on the top left corner could bring something cool to the photograph.

Every time I go out and shoot a series of photos, you’ll see me on my iPad evaluating what I shot.

This photo is cool, but man, it’s so soft, I was questioning if it was worth it or not to keep. However, the “little touch” of the water bubble made me realize this photo would look wonderful printed big with this small detail.

Cool photo! When I saw it in-camera I thought it was awesome. BUT - look closer. You can see some weird statues int he background.

AND, you don’t need an iPad. Just go old school. Get them printed at Walgreens or a cheap home printer - and just sit down with some coffee, a pen, and start marking up what you see!

The markups don’t need to be critical, and shouldn’t always be! The photo above this one is pretty good, and I was congratulating myself on getting the shot I wanted.

I’m making a concerted effort to pat myself on the back more… and reviewing my photos a little more deeply is one good way to do that!

I messed up the composition on this one. Next time I can get closer (or I can crop).

The point - I’m pretty good at photography only after years of shooting, evaluating, studying, sharing, and… doing it all over and over again.

Have you done this before? If not, consider it!

It’s also powerful to do this with a group of people - scary of course - but a ton of fun with the right group. Just make sure there are no old “gatekeepers” or grumps who want to ruin the fun of photography. We can all get better while still being kind, right?

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