It’s easy to think of photography as a single invention. Someone, somewhere, “invented the camera,” and that was that. But that’s not how it happened. Photography only showed up when a handful of completely different discoveries—about light, glass, and chemistry—finally overlapped. For a long time, people had pieces of the puzzle without realizing what they were holding. People Discovered Light Could Project an Image At some point in the ancient world, someone noticed this: I

The question I’m often asked is, “What tripod should I buy?” But the better question is, “Do I need a tripod at all?” And the honest answer is, it depends . Most Real-Life Photography Doesn’t Suit a Tripod If you’re like me, you might start out following toddlers around the house, capturing candid moments, or chasing trail runners through a forest. You quickly realize you can’t use a tripod for that kind of photography because the moment is gone before you even get your camer

The Auto Mode Problem One of the biggest problems with an advanced camera is that we don’t know how to use it, so we put it in auto mode. The thinking is, “I’ll just let the camera do the work.” The problem is that this creates a new problem—or maybe a whole web of problems. Why Auto Mode Fails First of all, your camera has no idea what it’s taking a picture of, so it doesn’t really know what to do. In other words, you’ve now put your camera in the same position you’re in. It