Advice to 18 year old photographers

You're about to go to college or get a job. Some advice for you:

Okay first of all, don't get suckered by social media hype.

My regret: wasting too much time building up social media.

Better strategy: build your own website or blog.

For your college present, or 18 year old birthday, ask your parents to buy your own website. Treat it like your playground, or sand castle. Have fun with it. Build shit you're interested in, and upload it to your own blog.

I recommend bluehost.com, and just use WordPress on it. If you don't wanna use money just use WordPress.com.

Don't be like your sucker friends, wasting their time on the Gram and Snapchat. When I was 18, Myspace, Xanga and Live Journal was all the rage. Have you ever heard of it? Of course not. Probably will happen to Instagram and Snapchat.

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2. Use your smartphone

The future of photography is not buying an expensive DSLR or other camera. Just use your smartphone, iPhone, Android, whatever. Use VSCO to process your photos.

You will have friends who will buy expensive cameras because they have no self confidence. They are trying to compensate for their small (ahem) size by buying a big camera and big lens.

Rather, show off and brag that you can make badass photos just on your smartphone.

Consider, wouldn't it be cooler that people look at your photos and ask you:

Wow your photos are so good! What camera do you shoot with?

And then you say:

My phone.

That's fucking badass.

3. Clean compositions

In your photography to make better photos, focus on getting clean edges and backgrounds in your composition. Don't center in your subject. Get a clean background, and having a good photo is easy.

Conclusion

Just have fun. The point of photography is to document your life, your loved ones, your adventures and shenanigans.

My regret in college is not shooting more of my friends and personal memories.

And I'm sorry to say buddy, but one day you're going to die.

So never stop hustling, and oh yeah… Enjoy the ride.

Be strong,Eric

Source: Advice to 18 year old photographers