Sharing what we know
One of the best ways to help those around you happens with things you already know
One part of photography I have always loved in the 15 years I’ve had it as a hobby has been just how much information exists out there to learn. I’m a curious person and have always ended up going down rabbit holes of things I’m interested in, cameras, coffee, watches, all things I have gone into the deep end on. Another thing that goes hand in hand with wanting to learn as much as I can on a subject is how I can turn that around and share information. I’ve always taken great joy from helping others with their learning journey.
When I worked in camera retail I spent a lot of time helping people learn about their cameras and about photography concepts more generally. This is where I think, especially in the early parts of someone getting into photography is where the most progress is made. Having a grasp on the mechanics of what makes up a photo and what happens when things like aperture, shutter speed and ISO and knowing which one to change to get the image you’re after.
I’ve had a domain for a project called Welcome To Photography. I’ve wanted to put time into and have gone back and forth with doing small bits to plan and start it. I want to Welcome To Photography to be a little learn as you go system that is a bit like a skill tree in a video game. One topic links to another and the next piece is based off an understanding of the process previous concept. I’ve always enjoyed helping people while working in retail and the same things always came up as core things to learn and share to help with someone’s understanding.
Over the last few years I’ve tried to interact with more of the community as well across a variety of spaces and another common theme is the sharing of information as a core pillar of that. Sharing information also doesn’t have to be explicitly teacher and student in its dynamic either, it comes from conversations, problem-solving, questions about thought process too. In my experience this has either lead to the reshaping of something I have thought about previously from a new perspective or casting some light on a new aspect of photography I have yet to look at.
In the current environment we have when it comes to searching for knowledge online there is a shift where information is heavily distilled through chatbots.We loose the delivery and personality present in the original material that the chatbot has pulled the information from. While we can speed run the answer a lot of the time through a whole bunch of different tools and more and more automated features in modern cameras. We can slide further from understanding what the feature is doing which gives an understanding why it's a good feature.
When I was starting as a software developer I was incredibly lucky to have a mentor that was extremely generous with their time. Getting the explanation from them of what was the issue and how he had to do the same thing that was now wrapped in a function or easy to use tool. Getting taught the before to better appreciate the after was a great way I learnt early on and it has driven a large part of my journey and growth as a developer.
Having people like that who have such large amounts of knowledge, combined with openness to take the time out of their day to share that knowledge with someone new to the industry. This is exactly the kind of view I have always tried to embody to everything I do. The best part about this idea of sharing what you know is that it's almost no effort to you, if you have the information already, sharing this with someone in your community cost's nothing and they benefit with new knowledge.
See you next month,
Tom
