What are you working on?

The other day, someone asked me, “What are a few things you are currently working on improving in your photography?”

After giving this question some thought, I answered this question as follows:

The things in my photography that I am currently working on are the same things I have been working on for the past several years:

1: Composition.

2: Framing (this is a different skill from composition).

3: Discerning and effective use of larger apertures (f/2, f/1.4, f/1.0) to produce shallow depth of field and affect the elements present in the photograph.

4: Being able to consistently capture the decisive moment of a scene.

These are the most elusive of photographic skills in my experience; anyone who has undertaken photography seriously and has committed to the photographic life knows that photographers never “get finished” honing their skills and abilities; the quest to improve is a lifelong process and a never ending journey.

A photographer may, over a span of years, improve significantly and produce arresting images - but no photographer ever really “arrives.”

Those are the things that I’m working on - among other things.