Images in the Backcountry

5 ways becoming a dad made me into a better photographer

Becoming a dad not only changed my life as a person but as a photographer as well. In fact, I feel like being a dad made me a better person and photographer.  Here are 5 specific ways in which fatherhood has helped hone my photography skills. 

  1) Being ready for those quick moments that will happen in a flash. With a 7 month old things happen very quickly and this helps me when photographing a event because the important moments happen very quickly as well. My child helps me focus on this skill more. 

  2) Making a scene work for you. When taking pictures of my son I have to photograph him in the scene he is in when he's playing with his toys or trying to crawl.  Sometimes the background can be very distracting so I have to work the scene to make the photo more appealing.  This can be helpful when photographing a client in a less ideal situation as well.  

 3) Testing my ability to work the light I have. The house I live in doesn't get the best light so I have to work with what's there, so that can be either increasing my IOS or bringing my son closer to the window to get the nice window light. During a wedding this is something that comes up frequently, so these situations with my son is helping me working with bad lighting more often. 

4) Being more selective of the "keepers". If I kept every image I have ever taken I would have thousands of images just of my son.  I am learning that the images that are not useable will never be missed, so I might as well delete them.  

5) Getting me to photograph more often. It is fairly common knowledge among photographers that the more you're out taking photos the better photographer you'll become.  I love my son and like any parent I want to take pictures of every moment in his life.  So this has gotten me to always have my camera near by and photographing more often and that is never a bad thing for a photographer.

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