When I got my first camera, I was so excited to to just go out and start taking pictures. I just wanted to point my camera at everything and see what I come up with. But after some time, as my photographic eye started to develop, I started to notice my pictures did not look as good as some of the pictures I saw online. The more and more I looked at other photographers work, I started to notice mistakes I was making in my work. It took me years of shooting to start to develop my style. If I knew of some of these mistakes I was making, I would have fixed those mistakes

• Not Reading The Camera Manual – The owners manual is full of tons of useful information about your camera. When you get a new camera, you are all excited to go take some pictures, the last thing you want to do is read page after page of technical information, but when you are finished you will be so happy that you did. You will learn all about the features and abilities of your camera, things you would probably not stumble across for a long time. Camera manuals are often written in several different languages, so you wont have to read through the whole manual, only the section that is written in your language. It took me about 30 minutes to read through my camera manual, and I learned about all sorts of features and settings I never even knew about from flipping through the camera menu’s.
• Not Backing Up My photos – You might think it will never happen to you, or you will get around to it later. But data loss always strikes at the worst possible time. There is nothing you can do about it, you WILL have a drive failure at some time. The best strategy to prevent data loss is to have a good backup plan in place. A great backup strategy is the 3-2-1 backup plan.
  • 3 copies of your data
  • Saved on 2 different formats (CD, DVD, Hard drive, in the cloud, etc)
  • With 1 copy saved offsite elsewhere. (Keep an external hardrive with a backup on it at a relatives house, at work, a friends house, etc.)

This means you have 3 copies of your data, saved on 2 different types of media in case one day the media type you chose is no longer easily accessible with current technology. How many people do you know who still have a VCR to play VHS tapes. Or floppy discs, no modern computers have floppy disc drives. I remember when every computer had the floppy disc drive, Good ole Drive A. Even CDs and DVDs are starting to head that way, CD sales are at an all time low. Computers are starting to come standard without a CD drive. The day of physical media is dwindling. It is for this reason you backup your data over different types of media, to future proof your irreplaceable photos. The 3rd backup should be saved someplace offsite from where all the other backups are. In case of fire or theft, you will still have your offsite copy safe and sound. Saving your images into the cloud could also be a good offsite backup.

• Never having enough Memory Cards and Batteries – Once your batteries are all dead, or your memory cards are completely full. Once either one of those happens, you are dead in the water. You are done shooting until you can offload your memory cards to a computer, or completely charge your batteries. There is no such thing as too many spare batteries or extra memory cards. I was once shooting at the Southern Oregon Coast with a group of other photographers when both batteries I had completely died. Thankfully a fellow photographer let me bum a spare battery from him so I could continue shooting. Once I got home, I immediately placed an order for two extra batteries so I would not run out again. But 4 still may not be enough, perhaps I will have to get some more in the future.
• Not Printing my Photos – We live in a highly digital world. we watch tv on our computers and phones, we use GPS instead of maps, we have digital picture frames, and so on. But as I said about backing up your photos, it is also important to print your pictures in case of data loss. Printing your pictures is the ultimate form of backup. As long as you choose quality archival paper and ink, your picture should live on for over a century or more.  You cant say that about digital. In case you need to create a digital version in the future, you can always scan the printed picture into digital versions. A Google executive recently warned about printing your pictures because we are one solar flare, one power surge, one dropped hard drive away from losing all of your irreplaceable pictures forever.

• Everybody Was A Beginner At Some Point – Everybody has to start at the beginning, even Ansel Adams was a newbie photographer once upon a time. He later went on to become one of the great masters of photography. It is now your turn to start your photographic journey, if you keep with it and learn as much as you possibly can, Maybe you too will one day become one of the great masters, but everybody has to start at the beginning. Check out the Photography Basics Guide to start your journey.
• There is no right, and there is no wrong in art – Some people might love the pictures you create, and other people might hate those pictures. That is the great thing about art, it is in the eye of the beholder. The reason people create art is to express beauty and emotion, you do not create art to make other people happy. If you were constantly trying to please other people, you would go insane because you would be creating art for all the wrong reasons. Your inspiration for art should come from within, not from an outside source. Remember you are a photographer because you LOVE photography, create the things that you want to create, and if somebody else loves what you creation, that’s great.
• Not Shooting in RAW – Stop shooting in JPEG, and start shooting In RAW. When you are editing a RAW image in Photoshop or Lightroom, you have the ability to pull a lot more detail out of the highlights and shadows areas. In case you don’t get the exposure just right in camera, you can go into Lightroom and adjust the sliders to increase and decrease the exposure of the image. You can adjust the white balance in Lightroom to make your image warmer (Yellow) or cooler (Blue). The only down side is all your images will need to adjusted before they are finished, but I don’t think that is such a bad thing. To learn more about shooting in RAW, I wrote a tutorial about everything you need to know about RAW here.
• Not Keeping The Horizon Level – The first thing I notice when I look at a landscape photo is whether the horizon is level or not. A crooked horizon gives the picture more of a snapshot type feel. It takes just a second to correct a crooked horizon in camera. You can get a Bubble Level that sits on top of your camera in the Hot Shoe mount, plus many cameras come with a built in digital level.

• Thinking Better Gear Made You A Better Photographer – People often think that if they had that better camera, or that better lens, or all sorts of nifty camera accessories, than they would be able to take better pictures. This is simply not true. It is true that those things can help you produce better pictures, but it all depends on the person using all that gear. A person who has a great eye for composition and has learned about the exposure triangle can create amazing photos with anything from entry level DSLR to a point and shoot, to an iPhone. The most important element that goes into creating amazing picture is the thing 6 inches behind the camera; the photographer. Don’t get me wrong, expensive gear can absolutely help you create the vision you have in your head, but it is not a guarantee. But If you feel you still need that fast 2.8 lens, please check out the Recommended Gear section so you can spend less time comparing products and wasting money so you can spend more time doing what matters most, taking pictures.
• Not Paying Attention To Changing Lighting Conditions – When I would be out shooting, I did not always notice when a cloud passed in front of the sun and caused the sky to dim a bit. But when I went back to review my pictures, a bunch of them would either be underexposed or overexposed slightly. It was only after this happened on a few different occasions did I start to really pay attention to the changing lighting conditions. Because people’s eyes can see in all different lighting conditions very well, they tend to not really pay attention to when it gets shady or bright out. But photographers do have to learn to pay attention to the lighting conditions because we need to understand that cameras have a smaller dynamic range than the human eye. Cameras need their exposure adjusted to ensure that everything is properly exposed.
• Have Fun! – Don’t stress out over camera settings or composition, be present in the moment and enjoy yourself. You are creating art, it should never be a chore. Having fun while out taking pictures is the best motivator to keep you out there shooting. Your photography skill will get improve the more practice you have. In other words; Having fun will make you a better photographer. Now go out there and have some fun!