DSLR vs. Mobile Phone Photography

Personal Reflections: Teaching Photography with a Cognitive Framework.

As a creative act, sometimes people are caught up in the technical aspects, or too focused on taking the beautiful shot that they want, so they miss out on the wholesome process of learning, the shift from the unknown into the known, and back to rest in the unknown. They think "How can I take a good photograph like that one?" or "Why can't I take a good photograph with this expensive camera?" without enough initiation into the "What", "When" and "Where" of this process. Be that as it may, although some level of technical familiarity is necessary for a foundation, but too much focus there tends to take the fun and soul of learning photography. When too much time is spent on the technical, they gradually lose their eye for their participation in what is part of a larger journey. Sometimes this blocks potential, sometimes this steals the passion, sometimes it blocks growth, sometimes it steals the enjoyment.

Most of the time my students struggled with taking good professional quality photos on their phone, and prefer playing with the DLSR, but they also prefer the ease with which to use their phones. The photos above are proof that what makes a photo decent or good is not (necessarily) the tool but the artist who makes the most of it. There are times when a story is told excellently even when working within the constraints of limited time and equipment. What I teach my students is to recognise these differences and decide how best to tell that story with whatever they have on hand.

It didn't take long before some students eventually preferred using their phones to take their photos until they became fluent and cognisant of the key differences of what each tool could accomplish, and that made them appreciate the technology they were handling a little better, without becoming too dependent on the technology. They become no longer reliant on the equipment and begin the becoming of true photographers who can make art out of any tool you give them, simply by internalising the skills and technical aspects as an element of their creativity. So to speak, they turn the science into an art, instead of merely knowledge.  

The successful students I recognise tend to be those who are able to apply each piece of equipment they handle adequately, to a level of competence that is benchmarked against the examples above. These students who are led by example -usually through their seniors- and myself providing direction and instruction as the trainer tend to also adopt the same leadership qualities that I set out at the very beginning of each term.

In my experience, a good photographer goes through these cognitive processes, three-plus-one things that I dumb down to:

1. Look for the shot

2. Feel the shot.

3. Take the shot.

4. "Be" the shot.

When they are not in the scene yet part of the scene, they have reached what I consider to be the minimum qualifications of a photographer who is also a good storyteller.
The good storyteller is what I simplify as the "living observer".

How we paint with light (and of course sometimes sound) tells people how we can be good listeners and communicators - at first once we are in our suitable environment or element- because they show how  we perceive and pay attention, and how we absorb and process that information, at least according to our own standards first. But as with every matter of creativity, people first want to be heard or seen more than they think. Some students excel at events, some students excel at action/sports photography, some students excel at studio product/model shoots, some students excel at street/nature photography. The path of photography I lay out is one where it is not enough to know what you are good at, it matters more if you know what you are not good at and why.

Conceptually, everything that we know is encapsulated in what we don't know. Principally, the philosophy of photography that I teach is the act of capturing light can be a moment of self-reflection and self-discovery. People figure out through this process, almost simultaneously, what they know and what they don't know (by necessity) and all the positive and negative spaces, all the light and shadow coalesce into one whole that does not need rely on perfection, but borrows from imperfection as much as that moment takes in the key details that make the complete photograph.