What I Wish I Knew: 20 Years of Lessons for the New Photographer By a Photographer Who’s Been at It for Two Decades

I remember the first time I picked up a camera. It was a disposable film camera. I didn’t understand how it made the photos nor the settings. It was flash or not and click then advance it for another. I knew I was capturing the world and I wanted to see the world differently. After twenty years and hundreds of thousands of frames, I’ve made every mistake possible and learned a few things worth sharing. If you’re just starting or if you’ve been at it for a while and feel stuck, I want to offer you the advice I wish I had early on. It’s not just about technical skills, though those are important. It's also about the right mindset, patience, and the small details that set people who take pictures apart from those who create photographs.

Learn Your Camera – Really Learn It

You don’t need the latest gear. What you need is to make the most of the gear you already have. I remember working on a project for school and needing photos of birds and not having a real camera I only had disposables. This made me learn patience and focus on the birds to get closer for a photo. Then years later with my first DSLR, I forgot the earlier lessons and I was more into capturing the things I saw with correct settings to what I saw others online doing and feeling I needed more. I didn’t know what I wanted but I wanted to create those images I saw people making that impressed me. Many beginners get too caught up in specs, chasing sharpness or blurred backgrounds, without mastering the basics. If you can’t quickly change your aperture, ISO, or focus mode without taking your eye away from the viewfinder, you don’t know your tool well enough. Knowing your camera well allows you to react quickly and focus more on the moment than the technology. Spend time with one lens. Just one. Walk around your neighborhood and photograph strangers (with permission), details, and light on leaves. Learn how light acts at f/2.8 versus f/8. Feel the difference between a shutter speed of 1/125 and 1/2000. It may seem boring at first, but soon it will feel natural. That’s where the magic starts.

Light: The Real Subject of Every Photograph

If photography has a secret language, light is its foundation. Light defines shape, texture, and emotion. It can enhance or ruin an image. It’s not just about brightness; it's about angle, color, softness, and contrast. I still plan my favorite shoots around “golden hour,” that brief time after sunrise or before sunset when the sun is low and warm. Everything looks cinematic. Faces glow, and the skies come alive. The light often does half the work for you. But don’t just focus on the obvious. Observe shadows under a table. Watch how a streetlamp throws warm light into a puddle at night. Notice how harsh overhead lighting flattens features and dulls drama like the mid-day sun. This isn’t about equipment; it’s about seeing. Once you grasp how to see light, everything else follows.

Composition Is the Difference Between a Snapshot and a Story

In the beginning, I stuck to the rule of thirds like it was gospel. It’s a good starting point, but that’s all it is. Photography is about visual storytelling, and compelling stories need structure, flow, tension, and release. Notice how lines guide the eye. How a small subject in a vast frame can convey isolation or scale. How negative space adds breathing room to an image. Avoid centering everything unless that’s your intention. Don’t fill the frame just because you can. And don’t be scared to leave things out. My best advice? Before you take the shot, ask yourself: What am I trying to show here? Not “what am I looking at,” but “what do I want people to feel or see?” That change in focus makes a world of difference.

Focus Isn’t Just Technical – It’s Intentional

We have access to autofocus systems that can lock onto eyes, track faces, and predict movement, and they’re amazing tools. But relying on them too soon can cause you to stop paying attention. I’ve missed many shots because I trusted my camera more than my own eye. Focus is about more than sharpness; it’s about choosing what matters in the frame. Is it the hands? A tear? The background? A slight shift can completely change the meaning. I encourage beginners to try manual focus sometimes—not because it’s better, but because it forces you to slow down. Look more carefully. Be deliberate. That kind of focus helps you in every aspect of your photography.

Exposure Is More Than a Histogram

You’ll frequently hear about the “exposure triangle”—aperture, shutter speed, ISO. Master it. No excuses. It’s the core of what you’re learning. But don’t stop at just getting the exposure right. That’s merely the baseline. A well-exposed photo can still be dull. A slightly underexposed image can evoke mood and tension. Blow out the highlights behind a silhouette, and suddenly you have drama. Learn how your camera meters light, and understand that it often gets it wrong. Not that it’s broken but it’s designed to find middle grey across the whole image, a balance. Snow scenes may come out gray. Backlit portraits can appear dark. Use exposure compensation. Bracket your shots. Shoot in RAW so you have the option to recover details later. The auto exposure is bland and even. A camera can capture as you see the world you have to help it. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s control. You should decide what’s bright and what’s dark—not your camera.

Post-Processing Is Part of the Craft

Let’s clear something up: Editing is not cheating. It’s not about fixing; it’s about finishing. Every great photo you admire—especially in magazines or galleries—has gone through some editing, whether subtly or dramatically. Shoot in RAW. Yes, it takes up more memory, but it gives you freedom to recover details in the sky, adjust the white balance, and tweak shadows without ruining the photo. It’s like working from a negative instead of a print. Don’t stress about filters or presets right now. Start with the basics: exposure, contrast, white balance, and sharpness. Then explore color grading, lens correction, and noise reduction. The aim is to enhance, not overwrite. You may have heard “I’ll fix it in post”, I don’t recommend that if you can help it. A good edit should be seamless; a poor one will stand out. Over time, your editing style becomes part of your voice—just like your choice of lens, lighting, and framing.

Gear Helps. It Doesn’t Make the Photo.

I’ve captured award-winning images with a $500 crop sensor camera and missed opportunities with a $6,000 setup. The truth is, gear solves problems; it doesn’t create vision. Need better low-light performance? Fast lenses help. Want beautiful blurred backgrounds? Full-frame cameras and f/1.4 lenses can get you there more quickly. But none of that will teach you to notice how morning fog settles in an alley or how a child holds their parent’s hand in a crowd. Purchase gear when it solves a genuine problem in your work, not because it's new or trending on YouTube. And when you do upgrade, learn to master that new tool just like you did your first camera. New gear brings new opportunities but also new responsibilities.

Your Style Isn’t Something You Find. It’s Something You Build.

In the beginning, I tried to copy everyone else. I would shoot street photography one week and moody film noir the next. I did soft portraits, then hard flash. It was exhausting, but necessary. You won’t know your style until you’ve experimented.  Eventually, patterns emerged. I was drawn to fine details. I enjoyed warm lighting in nature. I was attracted to moments missed and overlooked. That became my style—not because I picked it, but because it chose me. Follow your passions. If you love industrial decay, capture it. If neon lights in the rain thrill you, chase them. Your style isn’t a preset; it’s a collection of interests, choices, and habits developed over time.

The Rules Are Real – Until You Know When to Break Them

Photography has a rich tradition, and I respect that. But some of my best work arose from breaking the rules. I’ve cropped faces, shot into the sun, blown out skies, and intentionally introduced blur. When I did it early on, it often looked like a mistake. Now, I know why I do it and how to control it. That’s the difference. Once you master the rules—exposure, composition, focus, color—you’ve earned the right to bend them. That’s where true art lives. In the balance between discipline and freedom.

Your Mindset Is the Most Important Gear You Own

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s about how you see the world. The best photographers I know tend to move slowly. They notice reflections in puddles. They sense the story in a face before raising their camera. You don’t need constant inspiration; you need curiosity. You need the patience to wait in the cold for that one moment of perfect light. And when you capture it, when everything aligns, it isn’t just a picture. It’s proof that you were present.

Be persistent. Be humble. Accept critique, handle rejection, and improve. Share your work, seek honest feedback, and don’t be defensive. Growth happens when you learn to see your blind spots.

A Parting Thought

If I could talk to my earlier self, I would say this: Relax. This process takes time. It’s not just about technical skills, but also about seeing, trusting your intuition, and having the courage to shoot what matters to you, rather than just what gets likes. There will be bad photos, lost light, and formatted memory cards too early. Welcome to the journey. But you’ll also have those extraordinary moments when time slows down, light shines just right, and you click the shutter with the knowledge that this is the one. Chase that. Build toward that. It’s not about perfection; it’s about being present. Photography has offered me more than just images. It has taught me patience, humility, and how to discover beauty in fleeting moments. I hope it does the same for you, and maybe even more.

Now, go take pictures!