Teaching improves your photography

Teaching others improves your photography because you actually learn in the process. When you teach, you discover how well you know a particular subject and, more importantly, the areas where your knowledge is lacking.

Some people are selfish and refuse to share their knowledge. They are reluctant to teach others because they are afraid that their students will improve as a result and eventually surpass them. This is a wrong mentality.

By being open and share your knowledge with others, you will end up learning more. They might ask questions that never occurred to you. You will gain a deeper understanding of the subject or even discover something new that might bring your photography to the next level.

Hence, I have a lot of respect for photographers who are very willing to share and teach others.

There are some photographers who refuse to even show their EXIF data. And there are those who will readily provide you with the information and even give an insight on how they took the shot.

Through the EXIF data, we can only tell what camera settings were used to take the particular shot. It is useful to beginners because it teaches them about exposure and how to change the settings to obtain their desired effect.

In my opinion, if others can recreate your shots by simply looking at your EXIF data, then your photo is not special enough.

Teaching is a passionate topic for me. All the more so when it is teaching about photography. I can write a lengthy piece about it but I shall stop here.

I have been teaching friends about the basics of photography and guiding them as they start out in the hobby. It has been a very fulfilling experience and I would be glad to continue with it in 2013.

If you are keen to learn, I am very willing to teach. Contact me and we can arrange for a session.

This photos are from a session I had with a couple of my friends. It covered the basics of photography as well as guidance on how to approach strangers to take their photos.

This girl was a student from La Salle School of Arts. She was doing a school project where she had to take photographs of a stranger. After explaining that I was doing a similar project, she gladly let me take a shot.

This hairstyle seems to be getting more popular recently.

My students for the day were Valerie and Joyce. Joyce has spent 2014 travelling around the world.

They were caught chimping. We set a rule against chimping after that. Still they were tempted to look at their screen at times. Nevertheless, they tried their best not to and I believe it helped in their photography.

One of the many camera T-shirts I bought in Bangkok.

We came across a mother and daughter with their pet dog at McDonald’s in Scape.

The girls’ busy snapping were punctuated by exclamations regarding the dog’s cuteness.

Another portrait of strangers. This is more akin to street fashion style.

This elderly man was very happy to be surrounded by photographers eager to take a photo of him. I think we made his day.

We spotted some cones. It seems like the cone invasion in Japan has spread to Singapore.

A guy was displaying his collection of Lee Kuan Yew figures in front of the Mandarin Gallery. He seems like a big fan of the founding father of Singapore.

A little boy with good taste.