10 Golden Rules

By Martin Joergensen | November 10, 2008 11:57 PM | Permalink

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These ten rules were originally made for Lomo's and Lomography. If you are not familiar with this concept, check it out. I'm not going to cover it in depth here. But I will happily steal the Ten Golden Rules of Lomography and rewrite them to Ten Golden Rules of Photography.

Like the Lomo, these rules are kind of anarchistic and definitely against the establishment. But they are still very much in line with my recent entry "Exercise your photography muscles". These rules are kinda "Exercise your photography muscles in a fun way".

My personal favorite rule is number 10: there are no rules, but the rest are worth reading too. I have replaced Lomography with Photography and added my comments.

  1. Take your camera everywhere you go (I said so!)
  2. Use it any time - day and night (Don't worry about light, great images come in really bad light too)
  3. Photography is not an interference in your life but a part of it (Just make it natural to shoot all the time)
  4. Try the shot from the hip (My rule: go low. I often just hold my camera vertical towards the ground and fire. Some great shots have come from that)
  5. Approach the objects of your photographic desire as close as possible. (My rule: go close. Proximity is obvious in the final images)
  6. Don't think. (Follow any whim, just shoot and don't worry. Bits are free)
  7. Be fast. (Situations come and go in instances. Be on the trigger immediately. Don't think, don't adjust, don't compose - shoot!)
  8. You don't have to know beforehand what you capture. (The original said "on film". It goes equally well for digital cameras)
  9. Afterwards either (Oftentimes you can surprise yourself once you see the pictures on a computer. Chimping doesn't show everything)
  10. Don't worry about any rules (The best rule of them all)

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