Be Like A Child, Take 'Lazy' Photos (And Be More Creative) 

What do you find is a good way to 'release' yourself from the burden of perfection? To simply chase experimentation and discover, as Bob Ross said, those happy little accidents.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” -Picasso

This is what u need as a photographer..art of seeing. Gears are good, but do not forget, they are not much than an equipment to you. I like your style, one in a million during this instagram century.

The world is great because a RU-vid channel like yours exists.

For the last 4 years, before I sold it a couple months ago, I'd shot exclusively with a Sony A7III and 35mm f/1.4 lens. Just those two. I never bought another lens (I used the bundled kit lens maybe twice in those four years so it doesn't really count). It's funny that I was using one of the most "hyped" and tech-packed cameras on the market, and yet I was shooting with more thought and more creative restrictions than many other people. As I mentioned, I sold this combo about 6 months ago--and after a couple months of only shooting film, I'm looking to add digital back into my life (I do miss the convenience). I look forward to applying my thoughtful mindset that I trained with a one-lens digital setup and a one-lens film setup to a more expansive digital kit.

That reminds me of the concept of having a few Hobbies versus many many hobbies. I've learned to limit my hobbies so I get good at a few of them instead of having many hobbies and never having a time to develop any of them

I remember getting one of those disposable cameras for Christmas one year, and how much fun I had running around taking pictures with it all day.

I drive an 18 wheeler…. Everyday I’ll stop a couple times to take a few pictures. I don’t use the LCD screen only the view finder. I’ll press the shutter a few time then put the camera back in its bag. At the end of the month or the end of the week I’ll go back and look at all the pictures. It’s been a really fun exercise.

On a personal note I stopped my photography boredom by ceasing going out to take photographs, now I take my camera/s out with me in case I find a photograph!

You know you found a good channel when there's over 1k likes and not more than a few dislikes. And a breath of fresh air in a sea of channels that spend 80% of their time talking about equipment. Kudos.

It's funny how I use my 4 y.o. kid as a spotter for interesting things worth attention and a taking a photo off. It's almost as if I've delegated my inner child to her and so I have an extra pair of eyes looking at the world. And it works. I'm excited to see how much we can do together )

Tape up the screen! Yes!

Thank you for a great series of videos. I think the work and comments of Elliot Erwitt are as near to this concept as any. "Good photography is not about Zone Printing or any other Ansel Adams nonsense. It's just about seeing. You either see or you don't see. The rest is academic. Photography is simply a function of noticing things. Nothing more." ~ Elliott Erwitt

When I bought a super-zoom camera as an adult, I walked around with it for days, using it as binoculars. Unfortunately, however, the photos that came out of that child-like joy were not good... Today, I don't want the pressure of social media and photography sites to "become better", but I do find it more rewarding when I take 3 hours for a food photography session or come back with 10 photos from an early morning photo walk instead of going click-click-click.

Your channel is changing my world. I got a nice Nikon digital camera. Unfortunetly using it overwhelms me. I used to love taking photo's but now it's about doing everything right. It created a lot of stress...exactly what I wanted to get away from by using photography. Now, I'm just using the lense that came with the canera, putting it on auto focus and gong into the world and enjoying taking photos. Keeping it simple and having fun. Photography gets you to see the world in New ways and sometimes you even get a great photo out of your experience.

Film simply has so much more exposure latitude; a real joy.

As a kid I was obsessed with the old folding instant Cameras, watching this makes me want to clean one of them up and try to find it some new film for it. Or of course just spend some quality time with my Rebel T6 and my nifty 50, at least I can do that while I wait for film

Hi Alex.... I am a massive fan of Sean Tucker and to find you as well is a massive breath of fresh air in such a saturated market of photography videos. I started years ago with film, left it for quite a few years and have returned to my forgotten passion through the digital medium. I like a lot of people have got caught up in the gear trap, only after listening to photographers like yourself, its given me that lightbulb moment that I’d forgotten about what i loved about this art. Thank you and keep it up. I’m sure you will inspire new and old photographers alike, who have lost their inspiration and personal view of the world.

I couldn't agree more. I spent almost a decade shooting the majority of my photos with a $100 50mm 1.8. ( Last year I upgraded to a $270 50mm 1.8 ) I have gotten to where I am so familiar with the lens that I can almost see the photo before I even frame it. Everyone will, of course, have their own preferred way of doing things, but for me, the simpler the better. The photo is the goal.

The work of Czech photographer Miroslav Tichy was an exercise in exactly what you are describing. He built his own cameras from cardboard boxes and lenses he had taped to them. He took thousands of photos, most of them crude but spontaneous.

I went to Australia and only took a 35mm Lomo, it was the best decision I could have made. I took 1800 pictures and loved them all and I could see the way I wanted to take my photography forward.

I am new to photography, due to the lack of tuition in my area I am trying to learn from youtube. I am finding it very difficult as there is a great deal of contradiction between photographers on gear , method etc. It is a pleasure to listen to your videos as I come away with a clear head instead of the brain fog I usually get from most of the others. My age is against me so I am never going to get the experience to become a decent photographer but you are helping and inspiring me, thanks .

One thing that I find interesting as an adult: as a child/ teen, I would take two kinds of photos: ones with a personal meaning, an interest in the subject matter and pseudo "arty" ones. The pseudo-arty ones were the one of which I later asked "why the heck did I take a photo of THAT?!"

When about 10, or eleven years old, in an old cupboard, I found old film photos, no doubt all dating back many years old. I was hooked. An old 127 film camera, which just lay there. Begging and borrowing money, guess, that was my early introduction to photography. Ilford b/w film cost about 1,6 shillings per roll. And similar to contact printed. Point and shoot, no technical ability required. In my late 70,s, they are a great reminder of family and friends, sadly, most long gone. In my opinion, film photography is a direct link to many happy and sad events in life. Digital, was a challenge, seeing an image appear, in a dish, is like opening a Xmas present, every time.

I've gotten rid of all of my cameras. I now only have a leica iiif, with a 50mm 2/0. My mamiya super 23, and my bronica s2a. that's it, that's all. All of them are prime lenses. One camera for each situation. I have street photos, my fashion/portrait photos, and landscape images. done. Keep it simple. Less kit, less clutter, and you know innately how each camera works, how each lens works, etc. I've stopped pursuing instagram fame, and instead, create artistic concepts in my mind, which I then make. Hard shift to artistic photography.

I love taking a small memory card with my dslr every so often. Go for a walk and only come back home when that old 4gb is filled

Love this video.. Love this channel! Finally I've found a channel that is about photography, NOT cameras or specs, or technique, but just the pure joy of taking pictures!

A little tip you can turn off your LCD screen on your camera. I recommend doing this if you chimp all the time even when not using this playtime ( exercise )! FYI I don't use the word practice anymore I use Play and learn. Holga also sells lenses for modern cameras, Well DSLR not sure about mirrorless. This was a great video to get motivated to be a kid again with a camera. Thank you

That was great. Thank you. Why I picked up an Olympus 35 EC, hoping it would guide me away from my N90s, or moreso my Nikon D7100. There is one young Aussie photographer, shoots only film, and exploratory, fresh, and curious.. Her enthusiasm is always there and often photographs the most interesting compositions.

Wonderful advice. I tend to only take 1 lens with me each time I go out, but obviously the lens needs to be suited for what is intended to be photographed. So, if I am going to take surfing photos, I take my telephoto superzoom. Or if I am going to take landscape, I take a lens with less reach and more breadth. And so on. I rarely ever change lenses in the middle of taking photographs. Rarely even change camera settings unless the weather requires it, or looking for an effect like long exposure. And yes, this allows me to be more in the moment and focused on composition rather than tweaking settings for minor differences that can be managed in post processing. I do this out of necessity as a newbie who isn't skilled enough to properly change things on the fly, so it was nice to get this advice as affirmation of what I am doing.

Thank you for this. When I first started, it was about walking around with the camera, seeing something I liked, and snapping a picture. As I evolved and grew, I became more "technical" Not a bad thing at all, but I appreciate those images more now, and re visit when I find myself on a plateau or in some sort of rut. Then I realize the simple joy I felt at capturing a moment and creating something

Thank you. Your channel is an inspiration and a reminder what photography is all about. When I first picked up a camera as a child, it was fun and made me happy. Then along came all the rules , dos and don'ts, you must have this you must have that . I stopped enjoying photography. Thank you for kick starting my interest and enthusiasm again.

Great bit of fresh air! "Program mode" are not dirty words. Today, I bring only one lens and it brings the fun back into photography.

Thank you! I love your messages! It sends me to a creative day!

I have found the true master!

When i want to make a "useful" picture, i noticed how much pressurized i feel myself always, to make a good exposure. Especially with this into mind - it simply doesn't work. I do think, good pictures do happen accidently, it's rarely, that i can make a picture into my minds eye turning into a real photograph...sometimes it works, but not usually. It's always the same, when i spot something interesting to take a shot, and haven't taken it...i regret it almost instantly, because that fleeting moment is gone, forever.

So true. I had the same experience with music, getting too focused no making technically "correct" productions. It made the music and me much worse. Took years to find the creativity and curiosity again.

Ive been learning photography for the last year. I recently came first in an online photo comp with a holiday snap on my my phone. Im realising i need to stop trying so hard and just let the pics speak for themselves

I enjoy knowing I’m not alone in trying to simplify the process.

I confess to a love of gear and have the trinity of zooms. A store sale and a Nikon rebate convinced me to get a nifty 50. It has taken me back 45 years to my first slr and I love the freedom it has given me. Great episode that I will rewatch periodically to keep me on track.

Yes! Your channel is hitting the photography void I am feeling at the moment.

I am a huge fan of “bad” photography. With my technical knowledge playing in the background, my creativity takes over and the fun begins! I often go out with only one lens. Or, I set my camera to a particular setting, like sepia maybe, and use it exclusively. I recently got a Holga, but haven’t developed the film yet. I think it’s going to be a fun camera though. I love your Holga shots! There’s some inspiration for me. 🙂

I think my present obsession with vintage film 35mm cameras and lenses is to 'feel' the freedom of simplicity when out photographing. I've acquired a few different systems. I can casually keep looking, but I do have enough. It really is time to go out and explore (and discover) with them :) Thank you for this upload.

Would love to get a proper chat with you. I lost my way 10 years ago photographing as a professional before my mum died of cancer and yes I've been suffering with PTSD since I was a child. I live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and 1st started photographing when I was 10 years old. I've documented the troubles using an old camera that my grandmother gave me when I was a child and turned professional 1n 1997. I have seen everything from a war through photographing and filming the troubles in my own country and across the ponds as I got hired to document other places. I am well travelled but would love to show you some of my work because watching your upload videos has sparked a fire I thought I had lost within my creative mind. Peace my friend, Andy McDonagh, Eclipso Pictures p's new website under going + keep these amazing video coming

"Proces of taking photos" - how important it is. And how simple. We forgot about it during the journey. I had a lot of cameras. But the best one I have, is always with me. And no, is not a smartphone. It is my own eye. Best camera i ever had. And joy of making photos. Just like that...

This is such a great channel...you hit on so many aspects of taking photographs for not just personal reasons but also just for the fun of it. I also have a Holga and only used it once because the results were far from what I expected and usually strive for. Using film can also be a hinderance because you feel like it's being wasted if nothing turns out "just right". I'm going to pull my Holga out and start using to again...life is just too short not to have fun and enjoy taking photographs no matter the outcome. Thanks for this video...David

Howzit Howzit ...A very big yes (Agree with you ). . . The best way to learn is with a prime lens .(fixed lens) It take a lot of thinking out of the process and forces you to get in the right place to take the shot..so 2 steps back or 1 step forward and the image is there ...Everyone should learn this way

and once again I'm completely with you. Especially since a friend gave me an AGFA Clack as a present. It is so much fun to take photos with this plastic camera. It's the eye of the person behind the lease, which takes the picture, not the camera.

I had an almost identical path into photography, from my old 126 camera to the AE1, I still do similar things when exploring a new place. My new 90D will be here Monday, I can’t wait!

Please do an in-depth review of the Spider Man camera .

Ofcourse, creativity emerges on top of craftsmanship, but it takes a real craftsman to use only the tools that are necessary at that moment.

I just discovered your channel, thanks to RU-vid's algorithm, I guess. Thank you! I love the introductions to well-known photographers, and the focus on the art of shooting. I'm very happy to not see anything about gear here.

WHAT IS PERFECTION.

Thankyou for your content. Love your channel and your approach, it's very refreshing. . Looking back at when I first started taking my photography more seriously I became obsessed with gear and with the technical side of creating pictures. Using the internet and especially YT as a technical resource I would go out on my photographic adventures, spending full days, just taking shots. Eventually after a year of this I realised I had amassed a hard drive full of perfectly exposed, pin sharp, mostly uninspiring shots, never being able to put my finger on why. Eventually talking to a friend she gave me some great advice. She had experienced something similar and told me to put my gear away and only go out quite casually with my phone in my pocket. Leave it on auto and just concentrate on looking for great light and compositions that work, but without the pressure I had been putting on myself to get results because I had gone to get results. I started having a far more casual attitude , just taking the occasional shot when it presented itself, Eventually I was taking one or two shots going to work or going down to the shops when I saw a composition. I don't know if that makes sense but after a while started to get my eye in and was consistently producing much better shots, even though often not perfectly exposed or often a bit soft. It worked and breathed new life into my creative juices. Now I'm back to going out for a full day with my DSLR and a couple of lenses and consistently produce much better pictures and enjoy doing it far more.

I live in North Wales and am surrounded by almost infinite beauty. I just want to photograph it - and despair at the shots that are missed for the sake of the *perfect setting.* In any case - if I've slightly over or under exposed - I'll correct it in PS or LR. It's no longer necessary to achieve perfection in camera - but a shot not taken can never be adjusted.

I recognised Victoria Street before you said it was in Edinburgh (my nearest City). Thank you for talking so much sense and giving me “permission” to keep it simple and go back to basics. A bit like learning to drive and remembering your mirrors, gears etc etc. Much less to think about with an automatic, lol.

The thumbnail says it all 👍👍👍

I absolutly like your videos. I am a disabled person with limited mobility and I will give the one lens and on P mode and try I would love to see what results would be. I love this channel and thank you for being down to earth, keep up the good work

I try to pick one day out of the week where I have tube extensions between my lens and my camera, so that I can only shoot macros that whole day. What has been becoming more of a daily practice is to turn my autofocus off and manually focus. When I pick a scene to shoot, I’ll focus through the entire range of the lens, and often I catch myself choosing a different area to focus on than what I originally had in mind. I find by doing this I can really comb through each layer of the scene. These things help me to break from the boredom of photographing the same thing the same way.

I love your channel. There's so much to learn. I never had any formal training in photos or videos, but was doing it at work for about 1 year. As with many people, I was obsessed with gear, yet it hasn't improved my craft much. I started shooting when I worked overseas for a year. As James Popsys said, shooting in new locations all the time was like photography on easy mode. Nothing against it, I love to travel and explore, but now that I'm back in my normal home... I barely shot anything in the last 1 year. I'm going to take a long weekend to just walk around a few places to re-learn, and try to find interest in the mundane. Going to experiment with the 35mm field of view. That was a focal length I never liked, and it showed in my Lightroom stats as well. Most of my shots were 28mm and 50mm. Still, I'm keen to learn more about why I don't like the 35mm look. Perhaps I'll come to like it, perhaps it'll reinforce my love for the 28 and 50. But I'm excited. I'm excited to learn after all this time of not shooting.

Great video ! Thanks for what you do ..... A photography professor I know who was all about Large format , the zone system and the philosophy of striving for the perfect negative , Well , His wife , for Christmas gave him a Holga ........ He said it was a just what he needed ........ The gift of letting go and having fun again ......... :D

well said Alex. I agree 100%. my Holga is my best “release” when I want to blow away the cobwebs & just enjoy a few hours of no-fuss shooting. plenty of scope for those happy accidents too

Creativity's a paradox. Yourself but hardly controllable. Sometimes here, sometimes not. But you can't always win. And what if every picture was a dream? Maybe we'd suffer from an hypertrophy of the ego. Or maybe worse : get bored. Let's accept frustration as buddhist monk would, or let's take a Holga. Your wedding pictures are great!

I'm totally going to follow this advice for a couple of weeks. And since I have a Canon with a flip screen I can just leave it with the wrong side out :D

and once you start shooting like that you will discover your own rules. For me a rule I discovered for me is ignoring the frame, but adhering to rule of third. I'll put the subject somewhere in rule of third but the framing can go to hell, sometimes the head get cut off arms aren't there etc.. but I get lot of interesting pictures using that... Which is something I came up for myself by shooting in P mode for a while

Great advise! I decided one day to get out to a local state park. Just brought a camera with a standard prime lens kept all the other lens in the car. I had no idea what I was going to photograph. I did some hiking and just took photos when something caught my eye. It was very different feeling, not having a choice of lens, but had a great time and was enjoying the experience and perhaps freedom from gear clutter! I ended up with some nice photos as well! Enjoy the content of your channel!

I stopped working with digital camera's and (re) started analog. I feld somethng was missing about de digtal camera's and talking about photography. It was the photography. If I'm talking with digital "photographers" (i'm generalising, I know) it's always about the choice of using M or P. Never about the photographs taken. I quit with in all and i'm using some of the most simple camera's made, manual focus, manual lighting and film. When they ask about the EXIF of my shot, i tell them ISO 400, rest I have no idea, i don't care. Look at the photograph, not at the data!

Another cracking little film. I love using my 50mm prime, and every time I come back to it after using a zoom for a couple of days it is always a real joy. Some people get very hung up about creativity all the time thinking they should be firing on all four creative cylinders every day, which just puts pressure on them and flattens feelings of creativity even more. When I feel like that I have a “play day” and always something surprising happens.

I love this idea. I've been doing this, actually, but also feeling guilty for not pushing myself more. I guess I can let that guilt go.

Spoken from your heart and soul, great advice to shoot by, live by... Be by. Good time, not a long time! Simple is the idea you extol... Simple works... Funny how hard simple actually is! Terrific ideas that apply to photography and non-photography. 🙄🙄

I am so deeply in love with this channel and your mindset. Thank you Sir, a lot! 🙏🏼

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon your work, but I'm glad I did. Every one of your videos stirs great thought... which seems to be missing in so many videos on RU-vid today... or as far as that goes... anywhere today. Please keep your outstanding work coming! Thank you!

Such an underrated channel. Gold

What you talk about here reminds me of the Zen concept of "beginner's mind".

Love the Bob Ross quote lol. But really, some of my favorite pictures were taken "lazily".

I had the same camera when I was 8 but it was the Postman Pat version.

I like your voice, it's calm and your point of view is also amazing.

This is such a valuable lesson, I’ve saved several of your videos, I want to have them when my creativity and self confidence is down. I also learned something about myself- thanks to my dyscalculia I’m “liberated” from being a slave under the technical side of photography. Loved the Spiderman camera! Thank you for giving such interesting, educative lessons!

This channel has been helping me through some quite challenging times, mentally and creatively. Sitting down and watching your videos before I go to bed make me feel very at ease and optimistic. Thank you for your contribution* to the photography community.

The Japanese have a term for imperfection: “wabi-sabi”. Finding beauty/art in creative mistakes

Oh my goodness, this has to be one of the most inspirational videos I've watched. It's made me want to go out with my prime 35mm lens (50mm on Fuji) even though it's grey and baltic outside tonight. .

What a joy to watch your videos... they are inspirational. Thanks!

I bought a Fujifilm X100f fixed lens and it was like being baptized. All of the fuss and stress you're talking about was washed away so to speak. I ended up selling all my larger cameras and lenses. I took the money and bought an Fujifilm X-E3 with 3 primes and a zoom . I now feel like a kid again!

Howzit! Howzit! Loved this video. Wanted to share with you about a week ago after I commented on one of your videos I went hiking and get some landscape photographs, but I was walking around I just wasn’t feeling it. So I decided to go downtown in the city I live and do street photography and the excitement I got from going around and looking at different aspects truly sparked something in me. I even started taking pictures before I parked my car. Next time I’m gonna limit myself and set my camera to one focal length and see where it takes me. Would love to share them and get some feedback. Cheers!

Enjoying these so much, I have been so busy trying to keep up with the latest camera technology, I have forgotten my love for photography and the journey.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on creativity. I used a Holga for all my photography until film and processing became too expensive. Now I am using an Instax simple instant camera and having “holga” fun again. Doing more with less is such fun. Have you ever played with an instant camera? Would love your thoughts

More of this! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

This is most defiantly my most favourite photography channel, it don't show me what I already know, it inspires me to learn what I don't. Its like having your own private mentor :-) Thank you!

Excellent video. I love it.

When I go out to make pictures, it is with one camera and one lens, and it’s been this way for over twenty years now. The pictures come to me, and I let them. One picture leads to another, and suddenly everything in front of me opens up and lets me in. The technical side was mastered long ago, and you know what? the hardest thing is to let go of being an adult, and only then can we see like the child we once were, and the child we now are.

Having a range of technical choices, can make you lazy creatively as you can find an 'easy fix' rather than digging down and coming up with something more personal. A personal example comes to mind taking photos at night with a camera that had very limited ISO range. Then you start to experiment and sometimes come up with images that are far more interesting than those you might have taken with a camera with a really sensitive sensor. I still think

What a refreshing video. It's so easy to be overwhelmed by the technology and lose sight, literally, of what you're looking for. I'm sometimes shocked when I find my best photos are taken on a phone, rather than the ££££s worth of equipment I lug around. Thanks for a great series of videos.

A very good video. I discovered your channel just a few days ago, and I have been looking through some of your videos, and found some good inspiration to get going again with photography. A little twist on the creative aspect I did one day. I was visiting family, and just when I left I noticed two candles that looked funny. I tried without the flash - only flames (that could be interesting in and of itself). Then with the flash, and all was so bright it was hard to see anything. Hmmm! What did I do? I put my finger in front of the flash, and Voila! I got a perfect exposure. Agreed that this is not exactly what you propose in this video, but here we are. I have had film cameras with fixed lenses (still have one lying around, but not much film), and I have used the "foot-zoom" technique. Yes, I do have quite some gear, but will go out again with a fixed lens on my next walk around the village, just to see what my eye can find. .... Oh, wait. I always have a camera with me: my phone, even if I don't regard it as a "real" camera. I use it regularly to document (other) activities. I am doing some electronics work that sometimes needs to be documented, at least to myself.

Another great video - thanks very much.

Great job. "Lazy" can be refreshing. I actually did this a couple months ago. I put a 50mm prime lens on and turned the camera to full automatic. The photos I came home with amazed me.

It's amazing! This video had to come. Inspired by your former videos, I've started to use one Kamera, one lens for the last few months. And it's so much more fun. Now I carry so much less gear and take so much more pictures. I slowly forget to think about what new gear I "must" have. My dealer is probably cursing you 😄 Thxs for all the inspiration and greetings from Germoney 🙋‍♂️

The photos in this video reminds me of photos I took as a kid with a Kodak Instamatic. Great advice, btw.

Inspirational, a cure for GAS!! You confirmed everything I was thinking, I don't need that second camera!! It's getting sold. Thanks for your insight and hard work!!!!!! P.s great shots!!!

"Perfectionism is the enemy of action". I wish I could remember who to attribute this quote to! "Abandoning a technically flawless approach can add emotional connection", that's from Jaime Winsor. So happy to have found your channel.

As I have mentioned in a former poem, my photography is about love and joy. Am I the greatest photographer on earth? No, but I am one of the happiest ones, due to what Ross says, being lazy, not worrying whether I'll make a great image or not. Cause when I do, after all these years of photography, I know when I do. At least great to me and in my naivity and joy, I might share it too. And may I ad, with pride and a prime.