This is probably the some lessons I learned while taking pictures for a living...

1. You're just as good as your imagination takes you.


2. Photography should be the last thing you're studying.



What's the point of technique if you don't know how to use it? We're too caught up with "photography" that we fail to study the subject we're supposed to be photographing in the first place. Knowing more about the genre as it is in actuality breathes more soul in an image. Our subjects dictate the theories we're supposed to learn and in turn learn how to photograph them properly.



3. Old school is the best school.



As much as technology has made it convenient for us to take photos, a good number of the younger photographers take it for granted. They rely too much on the LCD instead of the theories have been established since the days of film. No matter how advanced a camera could get, the basic theories of aperture, shutterspeed, ISO, dynamic ranging, etc... will always remain. Most if not all are too impatient to learn anymore.




The limits of 15-36 shots in a roll of film trains our minds to make the best with what we've got, thus sharpening our imagination in the process. Nailing the shot precisely with a few clicks rather than going on a machine-gun rampage with mediocrity.



4. Your camera is nothing but a recorder of what you see and imagine.



The end all and be all of photography is not your camera. It's understanding the nature of light and making it work for your favor.



5. Holding an SLR doesn't make you a photographer; you're just a monkey with an expensive clicker until you learn how to imagine.



More often than not at the start, we're so full of ourselves socializing around being a "photographer" that we neglect the very existence of being one: imagining ang making images.



6. Perfect practice makes perfect.


7. You can either keep on proving to your delusions that you're right, or you could actually go out there and improve your work.



Your work will be scrutinized by agency creatives and clients. "Explaining" your art doesn't change their opinion about the images you took. It's just a matter if getting you for the job or not. You can keep telling yourself that they're  not "artists" or they can't understand your work, but at the end of the day, they're still the ones who will eventually pay your bills. It's not just about "your" art, but what other people think of it also shapes the images you make.



8. Sourgraping about somebody else's work is admitting that yours ain't as good.



Refer to the previous number.



9. Leaving it to "personal interpretation" to some extent is a sorry excuse for not doing your homework properly.


10. Thou shall not steal somebody else's light.


11. Don't take pictures; make images.


12. Imagination makes you reach for the stars, but it's reality that keeps your feet on the ground.


13. There is no such thing as right and wrong; there are only rewards and consequences from our actions.


14. Read your camera's manual.