275: Photography and your Health

11/02/21 • 29 min

1 Listener

Im renaming November to MEvember and focusing on my health. Since photography is a large part of my life I wanted to examine how it contributes to my health. Today I want to share with you the 4 ways that photography is incredibly beneficial to your health and well being and how photography can take care of you.

Memory

Have you ever noticed how you have strong memories of taking photos more so than the event itself? Science may have an answer as to why! Reviewing our photographs builds new path ways from our hippocampus to more visual memory parts of our brain.

Creative

Have you ever wished you were a born creative? According to science, creativity really can be strengthened like a muscle when practiced regularly. The key, the more you do, the more experience you have, the more experience you have, the more you can tweak that experience to apply to the current situation at hand.

Physical

I routinely get 20k steps in at a wedding. While photography is not the most physically demanding job it’s far more demanding than a desk job or video game hobby. Physical exercise also helps in the creative aspect. When you move your body, get your blood flowing to the brain, reduces inflammation, and lowers stress hormones which can help create more connections between brain cells and brain areas.

Feels good to give to others

We all know that when we give to others, the mesolimbic pathway lights up increasing activity in the prefrontal cortex and activating the subgenual area which is also associated with higher levels of social belonging.

Resources:

Connect with Raymond!

Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/

Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Memory

Creative

Physical

Feels good to give to others

Resources:

Connect with Raymond!

Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/

Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Previous Episode

274: Introduce Fun into Your Photography

The fun-o-meter in photography can be quite the rollercoaster. When you buy your first camera, its up high, when you take your first photo with the new camera, its down low, when you pre visualize your shots, its up high, when you look at the photo its low again. Learning your camera settings is important and once you do, if you dont push yourself to keep learning your progress will stall and thats no fun. This week I share 5 ways to introduce more fun with your photography.

1: No Social Media

Social media can be a great source of inspiration if youre looking for it but more often than not its where we see other photographers work and feel like we dont measure up. Getting off social media for a few weeks will help open up the creative side of your brain.

2: Remove all Controls

Use a GoPro or just your phones camera to go out and shoot but dont look through the screen. Look at the world with your eyes and try to place the camera where it needs to be to capture it. This exercise becomes stronger as it forces you to audit your own photos from a critical perspective.

3: Destroy your Photos

As photographers we tend to treat our photos like gold. To really break out of a rut we need to accept that our photos always have room for improvement and not to take them too seriously. I like to shoot in black and white and color on my photos using the ProCreate iPad app. This also helps me to see hidden compositions of color within the frame what I might not have seen naturally.

4: Print your Photos

Printing your photos can make a huge impact on how you shoot. From being able to hold your art in your hand to seeing that shooting at ISO 1600 wasn’t as bad as you thought, to reinforcing the fact that you are fully capable of taking photos that you love. Printing photos is magical.

5: Create a Styled Shoot

A styled shoot does not have to be a big production. Come up with a photo in your head and then make it happen. It could be a photo of your dog wearing a funny cheese hat thats then photoshopped in front of the Eiffel Tower. Focus on nailing just 1 photo, and the rest will fall into place!

Fun Photography Exercise: 100 Photos in 15 minutes.

Wha

Download your free copy of
46 Creative Photo Ideas to Get You Out of a Rut
at https://creativeimageideas.com/

Connect with Raymond!

Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/

Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Next Episode

276: Old School Photography Methods: Get in the ZONE

We live in an ever changing world where information and education is being updated all the time. While we have made a major shift from film to digital photography there are still many “Old School” techniques that are not only relevant to today but incredibly powerful and when mastered will skyrocket you ability to capture compelling images. This week we are talking about two such old school methods, The Zone System, and Zone Focusing.

The Zone System

The Zone system is an approach to better seeing and understanding light by breaking them down into just 11 shades, or zones. From pitch black to pure white and every tone in between. When used correctly you will achieve better exposure and have a stronger ability to point your viewers eye in the direction you want them to look.

Zone Focusing

Zone focusing is a technique where using your understanding of depth of field you can bypass your cameras autofocus and still achieve tack sharp images.

Resources:

Connect with Raymond!

Join the free Beginner Photography Podcast Community at https://beginnerphotopod.com/group
Get your Photo Questions Answered on the show - https://beginnerphotopod.com/qa
Grab your free camera setting cheatsheet - https://perfectcamerasettings.com/

Thanks for listening & keep shooting!