@Flamingo Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be much of a secret, would it?
In seriousness, I really appreciate the comment, but I don't think I'm doing anything that many aren't. I'll share some things, as unhelpful as they probably are.To start with, I should point out that to me, photography is really about chasing whatever aesthetic senses exist in my own brain. I've never studied photography (or art). I like to take pictures that are pleasing to me, without consideration of what might be pleasing to others (though of course I happily share them and my inner hippy is quite jazzed when others enjoy them as well). What is pleasing to me has changed, over the years.
All that to say: I don't know what I'm doing; I probably have weird tastes; and what I do is because I like it, not because it I think it is "better" than anything anyone else does. These are probably standard statements in art, but I don't know, because I don't dabble in it much!
That said, here are a few things that I do:
- I take a ton of pictures. Like 100-150 a day, typically. I usually cull these down to 10-20 that I like, and maybe 1-2 that I'd hang on my wall if I were so motivated. In other words, I may take some photos I like, but I take a LOT that I don't. And sometimes I surprise myself--the ones I thought were flat end up being remarkable, while something I thought was going to be spectacular ends up completely mistranslating what I was hoping to capture.
- I use a point-and-shoot, because focal length. A phone camera can take great daytime photos (and even shoot in raw), but for me, the perspective is so much more important than the sensor size and image quality (thought you get those, too, with a decent P&S). I want the mountains to tower over things (especially people), not to be little hills in the background. More power to the people that find success with phones! But for me, it would be pretty limiting. I would bet that my 10-20 pics a day that I liked would drop to 2-5. Every time I go, I'm tempted to bring a mirrorless, but I haven't figured out how to handle that yet--a P&S fits in a pocket and is always right there.
- I shoot in raw so that I don't have to worry about white balance, and so that I have a lot of leeway on correcting bad exposure later.
- I post process in Lightroom. I've tried a bunch of others, and they all work, but for some reason Lightroom seems to be easier for me to work with.
- I should probably just repeat the first bullet. I take a ton of bad photos.
@gregw822 You know, I read James Nestor's Breath. I've slept since then, so I certainly don't remember the details, but I think one of the talking points was that it actually wasn't a lack of oxygen--it was an abundance of CO2 that made our bodies uncomfortable (when we're in what we might presume is a hypoxic state). But--this is a trainable thing--this is why freedivers can "train" to dive for so long, or Navy Seals can "train" to stay under water for several minutes: They're really just training their brains to be ok with a bunch of CO2 in their bloodstream. So, nose breathing can help you acclimate to higher CO2 levels, and--as you say--use deeper breaths, which makes better use of the diaphragm (and, as I said in my trip report... help solve all other of western society's ills). I may be getting that all wrong, but I'm pretty sure that was the gist.
In any case, it doesn't detract from your point. I too need to pay attention to it, or I relapse too (mouth breathing, knuckle dragging AND drooling).
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