For those who take photos but don't see improvement. What you lack is not talent, but 'thinking'.

Are you taking photos?

You keep taking photos, but you don't feel like you're growing. You've made progress in your technical understanding, and you have fewer issues with settings. Yet, you still feel a sense of stagnation.

And then, don't you sometimes think this?'Maybe I just don't have any talent.'...

However, that conclusion might be a bit premature.

This is because this state of 'stagnation' is often caused not by a lack of talent, but by how you use your thinking.

Today, I'd like to talk about the traps that people who feel stuck fall into, and how to break through them.

What is a state of stagnation?

First, as a premise, it is important to understand how you perceive a 'state of stagnation'.

In many cases, stagnation is treated as something negative. But if you change your perspective, it can also be said to be'a state where you have acquired a certain level of skill and can take photos unconsciously'.

In other words, you have already acquired basic reproducibility. That is precisely why you end up mass-producing similar photos.

Whether you view this state as 'stagnation' or as 'your current position = the initial form of your individuality' will greatly change how you grow from here on.

What is important here is that'becoming the same photo' itself is not bad. Rather, it is a state where your habits of choosing and feeling are surfacing. How you frame, how you choose light, and your sense of distance to the subject.

By repeating these unconsciously, a kind of 'pattern' is formed.

The problem is not being aware of that pattern.

Why can't you be aware of it?

The reason is simple: because 'thinking' is not intervening.

When looking at photos or taking them, you end up with 'it feels good somehow' or 'taking it somehow'.

Why did you choose that composition?
Why did you feel that light was good?
Were there any other options?

Without such questions, the same choices will be repeated. And you won't even realize that you are repeating them.

At this point, many people think, 'I don't have enough input.'

They wonder if looking at more photos would change things. They wonder if adding new stimulation would help them break out of their rut.
They wonder if adding new stimulation would help them break out of their rut.

This is one of the traps for those who are stuck.

However, input without thought hardly functions at all. Even if you see it, it isn't compared; even if you feel it, it isn't verbalized; and as a result, it doesn't remain within you.

And so, only the feeling of 'having gained nothing' remains.

What is important is... resolution and output.

So, what is the solution?

What is important in photographic expression is not the amount of input, but the resolution.

Thinking is the act of increasing resolution. And output is the act of fixing that resolution. Without these two, no matter how many photos you look at, no clear outline will be formed within you.

So, what should you do?

Resolution

The task is simple. It is to insert thought into your own photos that you already have.

Not into someone else's photos, but into your own.

For example, choose one photo you took in the past.
Then, try thinking about 'why you took it'.

Why this composition?
Why this distance?
Why this moment?

It would be ideal if you could even think about, 'Could I have taken it differently?'

Only here will your own 'style' begin to emerge.

This is what it means to increase resolution.

Output

And another important thing is output.

That said, it doesn't have to be a grand announcement.Just a single word is fine; put your intentions and realizations into words.With just that, your vague sensations will begin to take shape.

Input is merely the raw material.

If you don't think and don't output, no matter how much material you gather, your photos won't change. In fact, how you handle the material you already have is more important.

There is no need to force it

If you feel like you're in a rut right now, you don't necessarily have to force your way out. Try accepting that state as 'your current personality' for a moment. Then, observe it and put it into words.

Then, strangely enough, what should have been the 'same photo' will begin to change little by little.

A rut is not stagnation. It is a state where there is room for thought to enter.

And when you can intervene there, your photography will deepen by one level.

Not through talent, but through thinking.

Take another good look at the photos you have now. The hints for moving forward should already be there.