Learning to Create Instead of Imitate with Photography

Lead your learning to grow in competence and start creating

Whether we accept it or not, we have all been incompetent at something in life, or many things. Walking, reading, writing, driving, cooking…the list could go on for a while. You and I have once been incompetent.

Start By Doing, Learn from Others

At some point along the road we either find our development reaching a plateau, or worse stopping, or we continue to develop skills, obtain new knowledge and perspective, becoming ever-increasingly competent in whatever that ‘thing’ might be.

Some things become essential for survival, like learning to walk, others more of a luxury, like photography. All of these things we do involve a layering of learning. And it starts with just doing it.

At first, the thought of being accomplished at or in something brand new to you is incredibly daunting. The breadth, depth and range of information is too big to swallow the elephant in one go. This is especially prevalent in the current ‘always instant, always online’ environment where the availability of information makes it even more daunting, and the shortcuts to “success” more tempting.

And that is perhaps where the excitement and energy for learning something new stems from; the vastness and opportunity to explore a new world. It is also where I think AI takes away the fun of it all. Sure, AI can offer up an image probably technically superior and better favoured online, but it didn’t help you learn how to do it.

Hobbies, Hobbies, Hobbies

I am a terror for new hobbies. Already I find myself holding too many like the antithesis to the niche-inducing world out there, I simply have a lot of interests. I am told I am easy to buy a birthday present for though, so now you know…no excuses!

Reading, photography, sport (like any), travel, culture, politics and current affairs, TCG’s, beer tasting…I could go on, but I think you get it. I’ll give it a go.

But why is it I am like this?

I think it stems from the enjoyment of learning. The motivation to improve might be something innate, but whatever drives it I am learning to embrace it.

I like to try, fail, try, fail, try again. As I fail, I tweak and I start to sense patterns and sequencing to help build up layers of learning to compound my understanding. I am essentially a human onion when it comes to something new, tears sometimes included.

Learning for the Love of It

Now, learning for many people I imagine defaults to formal academia and curriculums; being spoon-fed a subject or topic geared to a rigid assessment process. This, I am not talking about.

I am talking about the open-ended learning of something you have a desire to do. Where that desire comes from is determined by you and for you. It might be curiosity. It might be a long-burning desire to do it but constraints have stopped you from doing it in the past. It might be by chance.

Everything I have learned about photography is virtually self-led, bar one two hour workshop with the lovely Tesni Ward in the Peak District (I did learn a ton in this session, thank you Tesni).

What I don’t know is what motivates me. Photography is an open-ended creative world of infinite possibilities. You capture stills of a scene never to be repeated. Both the controllable (your settings, composition et al) and uncontrollable (light, weather, subject) change, all the time. Pre-meditated or spontaneously reacting, you capture a fraction of time in still form.

Choosing what to Learn

The only boundaries are the ones you set. How much, when and where is for you to choose. Do you read, watch or do to learn? You can pick. Is there other people involved, perhaps a new community to engage with? You can look, you can engage.

You can also stop. No one is going to test you. So you got your exposure wrong or forgot to switch IBIS on or off making the image a little blurry - does it matter? Go again next time. You probably fell over learning to walk.

The main thing is you did it, and you enjoyed it.

We might not see or describe this as learning in the same way we think of formal academic education, and that’s because it isn’t. It’s far more than that. You are motivated to learn through enjoyment, not through rigid parameters.

It is learning through doing, through enjoyment, whether you acknowledge it or not.

I simply love the process of learning. The buzz of figuring something new out or going into full-on investigator mode to solve a quandary is fulfilling. Each time you learn a bit more, there’s more problems to solve you hadn’t previously known existed. Each step is one part of the elephant.

Learning to Move Past Imitation

Yes it can be hard and overwhelming, especially early on in a new venture or interest. That initial ‘oh geez’ at the breadth, depth and shear wealth of information can be off-putting. It can also lead to a sense of aspiration from the outputs of others, others who are deemed successful already.

I recall starting out with photography and the terminology was a language of its own and camera spec sheets was like The Matrix (some of it still is). I was also swallowed up by what I now realise to be the subjective opinions of others; let’s face it ‘10 mistakes photographers make’ is not a hard YouTube video to find. And this type of material started to shape what my learning was from. To put it another way, when I started out I didn’t have the required competence to go out and simply create for myself.

Being Amateur is Absolutely Fine

But then I did. I learned to understand how I learn, and that made it more enjoyable. Mistakes still happen, but I developed enough skills and made many more mistakes, but it allowed me to start creating rather than imitating.

Does this make me a master? No, of course not. I’m intending on learning for life. I’m an amateur, which neatly translates from the latin amare which means ‘to love’. My photography is for me to do, and for me to value.

It is for the love of learning that drives my hobbies. Being better at photography is a means of looking out for myself and building my confidence to say “I did that”.

The same applies to any hobby or pursuit of mine. In fact, I am probably an ‘amateur generalist’ - I don’t need the eyes of one world watching me when I can have a few eyes from many worlds keeping me interested.

What I learn will be different from what the next person learns. We are all different; different backgrounds, preferences, influences and perspectives. But we can all learn to love the positive stimulation of learning something new. You just need to make a start.

Lunenburg, NS Yacht Club Sailing - August 2025

A short note on the photographs in this post:

The images were taken across Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada during a summer evening sailing event. I have sailed once, badly, but I wouldn’t say I’d never do it again! Another new (and expensive) hobby to take up…

The wildfire smoke made for incredible conditions combined with the evening light. I was shooting with telephoto which has compressed the scene; Mahone Bay is a large body of water with many islands.

I hope you can resonate the next time you think about learning something new!