I was recently asked to share my top tip for photographers who are just starting out. It sounds like a simple question but, the longer I sat with it, the more complicated it became.
There are so many obvious answers. Buy better kit. Learn the “rules”. Master exposure and so on. All those things matter, of course. They are part of the process and I would never suggest otherwise. But none of them felt like the right answer.
After years of running workshops, writing articles and books, and watching people struggle and grow with photography, I think my best advice has very little to do with equipment or technique. It is simply to slow down.
So much of contemporary life is built around speed. Efficiency is praised. Time is optimized. Moments are squeezed until nothing is left unused. Photography often absorbs that same mentality. Shoot more. Post faster. Scroll on. But often, photographs are not well-made under pressure. They are made through attention.
Slowing down gives you time to connect with what is in front of you. Time to look properly rather than glance. Time to notice small shifts of light, mood and meaning.
When you slow down, your eyes open and your mind follows. You stop hunting for pictures and start responding to ‘place’. That change alone can be liberating, and you never know what you might ‘see’. A bit like this horseback landscape I noticed while slowly walking.
Alongside slowing down, I would also urge photographers to learn from the best. There is a simple principle at work here. Garbage in, garbage out.
Look closely at photographers whose work genuinely moves you. Do not just scroll past it. Study it. Ask what they are doing and why. Then try to find out who influenced them and what they “borrowed”. The history of photography is crucial.
Just as importantly, photograph subjects that interest you. Not what you think should be photographed. Not what looks popular online. Interest sustains attention, and attention sustains practice. Without it, photography quickly becomes hollow.
Practice matters, too. You would not expect to run a marathon by turning up on the day without training. Photography is no different. It requires repetition, patience and time. Progress is rarely dramatic. It accumulates slowly.
Slow down. Look harder. Learn deeply. Then practise some more. That, in my experience, is where photography really begins.
