Mistakes photographers make

Yesterday, I saw an article titled, “5 Reasons Why Black and White shouldn’t be used for landscape photography.” At first, I scoffed at it and didn’t read the article until this morning. You can find the article here. This morning, I finally read it and the title did mislead me about where the author was going.

I run across articles with similar titles often. Things like, “Biggest mistakes made by landscape photographers”, or “10 things a portrait photographer should never do”. Yes, there are things that are mistakes and things we shouldn’t do but in the end, it is really a creative decision on behalf of the photographer or artist.

I know many of these articles are written in good spirit to inspire us to become better at our craft but I also find them somewhat pretentious, at least in the title.

For me, it is just like the choice of color or black and white. The choice of how to develop the initial image into the final work of art. Throughout history, artists have discarded the so-called experts and created a piece that “violated the rules.” That is the whole point of being an artist. The avant-garde if you will. It may not be for everyone but if you don’t try it from time to time, how do you know it isn’t for you. Think of it as sushi for the artistic soul.