The key to making images that truly convey your unique perspective is by improving your artistic vision. It's only though sharing your vision that you can be truly authentic as a photographer, and in my mind that counts more than being original.

It means that even though you may photograph something that's already been photographed, you have the opportunity to show others how you see the same subject, and hopefully how you feel about it as well.

While this is a deep subject, here are ten ways to improve your artistic vision you can apply right away.

1) Recognize that you are photographing light, not objects.

2) Photograph every chance you get, it's is the only way to understand light.

3) Let go of identification and labeling. Learn to see the world as color, masses, values, shapes and edges.

4) Develop a curious mind. Cultivate a childlike awareness and freedom, as if you have never seen nature before.

5) Understand your own personal visual biases, those objects and colors that you notice and those that you tend to ignore.

6) Study the art of others, especially painters. Try to understand their compositional choices and how they establish their focal point.

7) Practice developing a vigilant eye. Always look for artistic potential wherever you are.

8) Study light and all it’s variations; warm, cool, side, front, back, reflected, and diffused.

9) Work to improve and sharpen your visual literacy. Learn to identify what separates a captivating image from a technically proficient image.

10) Forget making masterpieces, learn to value practice.

"The master is the one who stays on the path day after day, year after year. The master is the one who is willing to try, and fail, and try again for as long as he or she lives." - Mastery by Gorge Leonard​

“When we truly pay attention, we see each object or situation for the first time—and it always seems fresh and new, no matter how many times we’ve encountered it before. We break free of our habitual ways of seeing.” - John Daido Loori

Robert :)