WM-504: Getting Behind the Lens: 10 Essentials for Beginner Photographers | Photography Clips Podcast
Release Date: 08/19/2025
Photography Clips
Here’s a little something you might not have known about me, but in college, I was a music major. What has that got to do with photography? Well, if you’ve never made music before, it might be a little tricky to explain, but musicians will certainly understand this feeling, I think. When a musician plays or sings, a lot of what goes into the music is second nature. Sure, there are technical things — learning timing, the enunciation of the notes, dynamics, breathing if you sing or play a wind instrument. Just as photography has technical aspects like lighting and camera settings......
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One of the best things about creativity is that it truly is without limits. We can see this in a variety of places, like in the worlds of film and literature. TV shows and movies will have spinoffs, sequels, and prequels—and novels do the same. For some writers, what starts as a single novel branches out until it becomes a 12-book series, plus a collection of short stories, a prequel trilogy, and more. That’s what creativity does when the ideas are full of life and allowed to flourish. And as much as we might roll our eyes at the sequel movies in theaters that feel more like an attempt to...
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Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We all need things that motivate us, that inspire us, and that recharge our creative batteries. Fortunately, the creative world is a big one that goes beyond photography and into dozens of different arts where we can get what it is that we need to keep on making photographs. There are many things I like to do to help with motivation, inspiration, and creative energy. Music is a big one—and I think it’s something that perhaps many of us can rely on because as arts go, music has the power to compel us in many different ways. Listening to specific...
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For any creative—and really, this is probably something that applies in many areas of life, too—the hardest thing to do is to own up to our mistakes and failures. It comes to mind with creativity and photography in particular, because when you embark on a creative path, those failures will be many. I daresay that if any of us look through our archives, the sheer volume of images that never got used tell that tale quite well. Most are failures, and only a few shining images end up making the cut and going on to become something that we process and display. It’s important to examine these...
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As artists and photographers, we talk about creative endeavors a lot—but we don’t often talk about the people involved in those creative endeavors. And yet, these people are perhaps one of the most important parts of the process. I think it’s vitally important that, no matter what type of creative work you do, you find your people. Now, one might interpret that statement as getting on social media to promote your work, and to build a community of followers and admirers surrounding that work. I suppose this is helpful if you’re selling your work, but truthfully, for the most part, these...
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Curiosity is key to photography. It’s what drives us to get outside and explore, discover, learn—and then photograph what we’ve found and learned so that we can share it with the world. And there’s no such thing as being too curious! I think it’s safe to say that we can throw out that old saying, “curiosity killed the cat.” So long as we’re being smart and practicing art safely, we can’t be too curious. So that begs the question, if curiosity is essential to photography, then how do we develop more curiosity? The only way I know is to explore everything you can think to...
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What is it that you need from photography? Here’s an interesting psychological tidbit: When you are going through tough times in relationships with others, therapists will often tell you that all relationships must offer something of value to everyone involved. This could be emotional needs met, good laughs shared, discussions that you value, or something else... Podcast Notes: Photography Clips Podcast: Follow me: #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography
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Validation is a wonderful thing. In fact, I would argue that all of us need validation in the things that we do. It’s a vital part of what keeps us going. If you’ve ever received a compliment on one of your photographs, or even something like an award, then you know the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes with it—and the renewed vigor with which you go out to create new, even better photographs than the ones that earned you those accolades in the first place. All of this is a natural, normal phenomenon that is quite healthy and perhaps even vital to keep us going. But there is a...
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Anytime you’re creating something—photography, a painting, a book—it’s a question of audience. At least, for those of us who plan to show our creative works to others, which I have to imagine is most of us. While we are ultimately free to create whatever we’d like to create, we need to do it with the idea that someone out there will find some sort of enjoyment in it. So what is it that people enjoy in art? Podcast Notes: Photography Clips Podcast: Follow me: #PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography
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This thought of mine is kind of a complex one, but as we go along, you’ll start to see what I mean. The first thing I want to express is that we are all human. As humans, innovation is a kind of our thing—it’s what we do. We’ve been innovating since the beginning, and that desire for innovation is responsible for almost every aspect of human life today—including the invention of cameras and all the rest of the photographic equipment that we use. My point here with this discussion of innovation? Well, one of the ways in which we do it is by boiling things down to a formula. That’s...
info_outline“If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera.” – Lewis Hines
Photography is a significant part of many cultures. Whether for career or catharsis, photography is a valuable skill in today’s digital, open-source world. Here are some photography tips to guide you on your journey.
Podcast Notes:
https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/10-essentials-for-beginner-photographers/
Photography Clips Podcast:
https://www.moneymakerphotography.com/podcast/
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#PhotographyClips #WillMoneymaker #Photography