Habits you should consider in 2023 as a photographer

New year, new me. What a bullshit. Life is hard, and you need to foster some healthy habits, to strengthen your skills and grow as a person. So that’s why every photographer should adopt some of these habits. This is nothing new, but I summarized some key points. A lot of you will probably know already a lot of these, but maybe there is one or two new insights for you!

Also, if you like what you’re reading, please consider subscribing. This would help a lot. All the photos you’ll see are edited with my presets and can be found on my website: www.chrisperkles.at

• Practice regularly: The more you practice, the better you’ll get. Make it a habit to take your camera with you wherever you go and take photos of anything and everything that catches your eye. As the saying goes, the best camera, is the camera you’ll always have with you. For some, it's the smartphone, or the DSLM. I prefer a small compact camera, for example the Fujifilm X100V, the Sony RX 100 V or the Leica Q2. Those cameras have the perfect size, so I won’t be annoyed or disturbed by them in my daily life. Some of my favourites shots, came from the X100V.

X100F on vacation

X100V always with me, even for partying

• Experiment with different styles and techniques: Try new things and see what works for you. This will help you find your own unique style and voice as a photographer. Oh boy, I did this a lot when I started out. I faked and copied different styles of famous Instagram photographers. One time, I got called out by my blatantly bad copy of a shot, that I got a total shitstorm. But one thing I learned from this, by trying out all these different things, I saw what worked for me and what I’ve liked and where I want to progress more. Over the last months, it has been hard to experiment, due to the high work load. But it’s definitely back on my mind for this year, to try out new styles, new filters, new workflows, to get the creativity going. And this brings us already to the next point:

Old shot of copying an instagrammer

• Edit your photos: It’s important to spend time editing and post-processing your photos in order to bring out their full potential. My style of photography has been pretty consistent over the last year, and I’ve been editing tons of photos. But because of this, I became ridiculously fast editing my shots. This helped me to do more tasks in less time. This year, I wanna add some new techniques, learn more shortcuts and so on, to make this even better. And for this I need to…

X100F

• Stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques: Photography is constantly evolving, so it’s essential to stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques in order to stay competitive. On a daily habit, I’m reading different blogs like www.petapixel.com www.fujirumors.com www.cined.com www.slashcam.de www.macrumors.com www.fstoppers.com www.medium.com to see what's going on in the industry and to learn new things.

staying up to date — X100F

• Now that it seems like the Covid Time is finally over, Networking and building new relationships is back on the menu: Building relationships with other photographers and industry professionals can help you learn from others, find new opportunities, and grow your business. Can’t wait to get some coffee with some colleagues, or go on business trips with my partner, or attending some events in my local area. It’s always fun and inspiring to have some good talks.

Nothing beats a good time with friends and colleagues

• After all, it’s easy to sum up, that you should learn more. Make it a habit to continuously seek out new information and resources to improve your skills. For myself, I fell in love with listening podcasts. Not even photography related podcasts, but everything I spark interest in. This helps me to better understand the world and give me new ideas what to do next.

learn more — x100f

• And don’t forget to have fun. Photography should be enjoyable, so make sure to have fun and stay motivated while pursuing your passion. Life can be very serious, so it should be your top priority to get as much out of your passion as you can!

X100F

I hope these lines are helpful to some of you, if you have any questions, drop me a comment, send me a mail or write me on www.instagram.com/chrisperkles or www.youtube.com/chrisperkles