"Why Do You Give Away All Your Secrets?"

Recently, I have been asked this question a lot by both friends and potential clients.

But then someone said to me, "You must be a pretty confident photographer." Now a comment like that can't go without the obligatory, "What makes you say that?"

"Well, only someone who is confident in his abilities can so openly share his trade secrets with everyone without fear of hurting his own business. You not only tell stories on your blog, but you even tell people how to duplicate your shots! You don't seem threatened at all if someone uses it and copies you!"

Well what a compliment!

Looking back on it, I suppose it's true in that I don't mind if other people improve their photos by copying me and learning from me. The way I look at it is that people can copy my technical skills, but they can't copy my heart and artistic eye... It's my vision and how I look at the world through my camera lens that's uniquely mine.

So no matter how much I help someone with improving their technical skills, my photos will still look unique because I may shoot something completely different from them even if we use the same technical settings. That comes from experience and vision.

Don't worry about me giving away any secrets. You can pick up any book on photography or wedding photography and duplicate many of the techniques given there. But you need to have your own vision to create a great photo.

"Keep on shooting!"