The Beginner Photography Podcast

The 7 Rules Every Photographer Needs with Nick Church

• Raymond Hatfield

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#589 Nick Church is a seasoned wedding and commercial photographer, educator, and the founder of the Nick Church Creative Academy. With nearly a decade of professional experience, Nick has become recognized for both his creative eye and his commitment to helping other photographers grow in their craft. Having transitioned from the software industry to full-time photography, he brings a unique blend of business acumen and technical expertise to the table.

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. Evolving Creativity and Staying Motivated in Wedding Photography - Nick explains how shooting countless weddings can make the experience feel routine, but emphasizes the necessity of finding fresh creative approaches and engaging in personal projects for artistic fulfillment. Changing locations, experimenting with new techniques, and even switching camera systems (like using Fujifilm for personal work) can reignite passion and broaden skills.
  2. Seven Foundational Rules for Photographers - Nick outlines crucial “rules” every photographer should keep in mind. Topics include:
    • Avoiding GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) by focusing on developing skills before investing in new equipment.
    • Developing a critical eye, always evaluating what works in your images and areas for improvement.
    • Not expecting post-processing to “rescue” fundamentally flawed shots.
  3. Transitioning from Hobby to Business - Nick advises beginners aspiring to start a business to focus on visible, authentic self-marketing, sharing their real passion, and building community presence. Technical prowess matters, but connecting with potential clients on a personal level is equally vital.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS): The compulsion to continually purchase new gear in hopes of improving photography, often without a concrete reason or understanding of how it will address one’s actual needs. Nick stresses articulating specific problems with current gear before making a purchase.
  • Shooting with Intention: The practice of planning or visualizing the purpose and effect of each frame—be it emotion, composition, or storytelling—instead of just “snapping” photos. This leads to more impactful and meaningful images.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How can you maintain creative motivation when photographing the same event or venue repeatedly?
  2. What steps can you take to evaluate whether a new piece of gear is truly necessary for your photography?
  3. Reflect on a recent photo you took: What were you trying to communicate, and did your intention come through?

RESOURCES:
Visit Nick Church’s Website - https://www.nickchurchcreativeacademy.com/
Check out the Photographer Unleashed course! (From which the 7 Rules, comes from) - https://www.nickchurchcreativeacademy.com/photographer-unleashed-online-course
Follow Nick on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nickchurchcreativeacademy/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Nick Church:

You can take a photo of something that's beautiful in flat, dull light. And it won't be very interesting. You won't love the photo, but if you find a little shaft of sunlight coming through some trees and you put anything into that little pool of light, doesn't matter if it's a cup of coffee, a flask of coffee, a shoe, anything. It will just look really interesting and beautiful.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner Photography Podcast, brought to you by Cloud Spot. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and today we are chatting with longtime listener favorite Nick Church about these seven essential skills every photographer needs to grow their craft. But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by That's Right Cloud Spot. With Cloud Spot you can simplify your business with studio management which means that you can organize clients, send professional contracts, automate invoice payments, and so much more. So keeping track of everything just got a whole lot easier with Clouds. Spott, why don't you grab your free Forever account today over@deliverphotos.com and only upgrade when you and your business are. You know, I first interviewed Nick, back in the beginning of 2019, about how he went from, being a beginner to going pro as a wedding photographer in just 24 months. And to this day, that remains one of the most downloaded episodes of the podcast for obvious reasons. Well, it's been almost seven years since then. He's still shooting weddings, so I thought, Hey, maybe I'll invite Nick back on to catch up. See how his business has grown and evolved since then as well. And with those extra years of shooting, Nick has come up with a simple list of seven things that all photographers need to be doing if they want to grow in their craft and become better photographers. And, that's what he's gonna share with you today. So, be sure to get a pen and paper ready,'cause you're gonna want to take notes. So let's go ahead and jump on into this interview with Nick Church. Nick, last time you were on was 2019, which is crazy. So not only is the world a very different place, which we were just talking about right before we hit record, but also, you in a very different place. I think you had just recently went full-time in weddings. And I recently listened back to that episode and I could hear the like, optimism in your voice, right? The excitement in your voice. So now that it's been, almost 10 years shooting weddings, or fully 10 years shooting weddings, it's been a long time since we chatted, what has changed most in your perspective about, photography since then?

Nick Church:

I've got no optimism left. I'm a husk of a man. I'm dead inside. No, I'm not. I'm still really optimistic. Oh, you made me, you made me feel. that, that's a bad thing.

Raymond Hatfield:

No, no, Now you're just seasoned. Right? It's not as exciting. I get it. Yeah.

Nick Church:

that season. Yeah. no, so I've been doing now weddings. Now for what about, yeah. So another six years from, last time, we chatted and it's been great and it would be a lie to say that, it doesn't become a bit of a run of the mill every wedding, and that, that's made me have to develop a different set of skill or an additional set of skills, which is something different each time, to try and keep things new and try and doing different things creatively and working out, how can I do this well, especially if it's at the same venue that I've been to a dozen times before. It's, it would be really easy to operate at 80% effort level and just do all the same shots.'cause that couple don't know because they haven't seen the other ones.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Nick Church:

am sort of digging deeper in terms of, right, what can I do to make this one different? How can I make this one more creative? How can I keep that interest there? Because I think that's pretty important for motivation is to always have a feeling that we're doing different things and we're progressing our expertise in an area.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, I am very much the same way. I don't think I would want to shoot the same venue every single weekend. But there are other photographers who I've interviewed who are like, that's the dream, right? Like, just show up. You know exactly what you're gonna do. You're prepared and you're ready to go. But yeah, no, I'm like you, I would rather have, something new going on. view the world through some fresh eyes. So you said that you've had to adapt a little bit and, change things up. So what does that look like?

Nick Church:

While using different techniques. looking for more interesting light, trying to do things a bit more creatively and thinking, oh, that reflection looks, you know, quite interesting that if I could get that bride standing there or those grooms standing there, then I can work with that and try something a bit different. You don't need to do, I don't do it all the time. You know, you do have your stock toolkit of photos that you know are gonna work really well and you have to be a bit careful because as photographers or professional photographers our brand is our portfolio and they're expecting that. So you can't just completely decide to change up and do something totally different. But, yeah, it is just looking at other people's work and without duplicating it, sort of being, trying to be, encouraged by that and take reference, reference to it. And, yeah, just getting inspiration from different places and using what I can on the day. One thing I've found. Since we last spoke is, is definitely that I've had also to work lot harder on doing photos for my own enjoyment. You know, just

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

and that's something that about a year ago, I guess I realized that I hadn't taken my camera out for probably a year. Just to take any photos, it's all on holiday or anything. I just couldn't be bothered. And I thought, that's not a great situation. I wanna still have that passion for photography as well as having a passion for my business. And, so I have tried to sort of do a bit, a few more personal projects and things like that. And the side, it's really hard to fit it all in with, really busy kind of calendar of weddings and commercial shoots. But yeah, that's something that's helped as well because when you're doing that, you kind of, you have a, I actually even bought a different system. I bought a Fuji, Fuji film camera as well, just so I wasn't taking my usual work camera. So, so it felt very different. And that's really helped as well because, you're developing because when you're doing your own stuff, you can do whatever you like. You don't have a, a pattern that you have to try and fit it. You know, I don't have to produce the same images. I can just try something completely wacky and that helps. Then to put that into weddings, I can then go and think, I'm gonna just do a bit of that stuff that I did last weekend on my own, you know? And, yeah, that's kept things interesting as well. But doing the what I have found is reducing the number of weddings. I'm sure most wedding photographers you're probably the same if you are doing 40, 50, 60 weddings a year. It's very tough to keep, um, enthusiastic and to give that each new couple, all of your attention'cause we wanna make them feel like they're the most important thing

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

their wedding day'cause of course they are. that's really hard to do at the end of a sort of 45, 55. Wedding season, you know? So, I've built up the commercial work that I do, so interiors and, I don't do headshots and stuff very often anymore, but it's mostly, sort of interior, interior sort of high-end kind of properties. That nice.'cause it's just meant that the weddings have come back a little bit into something where I'm still up for it. I'm still up, I'm still interested in it. When I get up, I think, all right, I'm excited to get to this wedding. Whereas a couple years ago, that was quite hard to do. I still did it and

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

was just a little bit, it took a little bit more effort to be as motivated. So that, that's been a nice change as well.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, so what I heard most from that was that, Fujifilm cameras give you the creative eye. I love it. Perfect. All other camera systems can, just go by the wayside. That's perfect. I love it. That comes straight from Nick Church there. Just kidding. I'm just kidding. but, tell me if you feel the same way, because I, have found also that personal projects have really helped me. However, coming from weddings where it's like the day is scheduled, you're gonna be there that day, and whatever happens, you're just gonna photograph that. But with personal projects, there's not a defined date, there's not a defined time. There's not a defined schedule of exactly what's gonna happen. So it feels harder to put together and feel like there's a finish line. Do you feel that same way as well? And if so, or if not, like, how do you deal with that?

Nick Church:

Well, they, no, I do. And I think the, I suppose when I say projects, I might be overstating a bit. I'm talking about just going out with my camera for a

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

of time with the purpose of taking photos. you're absolutely right that what happens is that. That's in your free time and it's alongside loads of other things that are competing for that same precious few hours, like family and socializing and relaxing and trying to get some exercise and all these other things that you think you've gotta decide what to do. So I, I tend to go out, either for a walk and just take my camera and just be a bit more mindful about it, about just going for walks. So rather than going specifically to somewhere I know I can take good photos, go for somewhere where I like to have a walk with my camera just trying to look, look in a different way to, as I normally would. I'm normally quite a epic landscapey type viewer. That's what I tend to look for.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

finding that when I'm doing that, I'm finding things like little fungi or maybe, some tree roots or something like that. Just completely more, much more abstract than I would normally do. And so that, that feels like quite a nice kind of, a nice balance. But it is, it is hard to do it. And when you get really busy, when the editing stacking up, or your tax is due, then of course it's the thing that just falls by the wayside, like

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Nick Church:

and like everything else, you know, it just gets swallowed up that time.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, it is definitely hard. I've been through that as well, but, I try to keep reminding myself of that phrase, if it's important to you, you'll make time for it. maybe because I operate, based on guilt, right? Like if I guilt myself into it, like I'll have to do it. but, yeah, that is difficult. And I also, am not good at sharing photos, because at least with weddings, it's like they feel like they're meant to be shared. And it's like this moment and you know how it's going to be delivered in the end. But with personal photos, again, nobody wants to see a photo of just like a fungi on Facebook or whatever it is. So then you think, you start to question yourself, well, what's the point of this?

Nick Church:

I ever do post something that's very different, get a lot more likes on those posts than I do for my wedding things. I think people are probably saturated, I've saturated my feed with,

Raymond Hatfield:

Uh,

Nick Church:

images. Yeah, I think people do like the fact that there's something different there. but

Raymond Hatfield:

I gotta try that.

Nick Church:

a, I don't even edit some of them. Do you know what I mean? It is the

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, of course.

Nick Church:

of of just taking them because to then come back and then sit in front of the light room and start editing them, ahead of ones that are in the queue that I really need to get cracking on, you know, commercial images or whatever it might be, then I'm making a bit of a decision that I'm pushing back work. And that's quite a hard one to, to do when you're running a business. So, yeah, sometimes I'll, I'll shoot and just jpeg and just get that immediate kind of, endorphin rush first, oh, that's a really nice photo. I'm pleased with that. And then move on. And then sometimes don't even look at it very often again.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's the joy of Fuji. Like that's what I've loved. Once I started, I started shooting Fuji in 2016, and pretty quickly I went, I went straight to jpeg. Like I just stopped shooting raw, even like for weddings and whatnot. And still today, I've never had a photo that I thought to myself. Man, I really wish that I shot this in raw. But I mean, I acknowledge that that comes with a few years of experience to being able to get it right in camera. And when you're just learning photography, maybe it's, it's not as easy. So, that insurance policy does help.

Nick Church:

doesn't it? It's a little bit of

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

bigger margin of error when we're

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah,

Nick Church:

out and I find it at wedding sometimes. I need that if, if stuff happens really quickly and

Raymond Hatfield:

yeah, yeah.

Nick Church:

like, like every other human on, you know, you make mistakes and sometimes you think, well, I'm,

Raymond Hatfield:

Not me.

Nick Church:

I shot that in

Raymond Hatfield:

No.

Nick Church:

No. Well, you are a machine, so.

Raymond Hatfield:

Speaking of machines let's move on from this because I wanna get to the main topic of our conversation today because you shared with me seven rules or themes, that I think are gonna be really important for photographers today. So I guess quickly before we get into that, for those who hadn't listened to your past episode of the podcast, give them a very high level, 30,000 foot overview of how you got into photography and, where you're at today in terms of weddings.

Nick Church:

Yeah. I had a career in the software industry in 2014 I was sent off to do some work in Malaysia. So I had a meet set of meetings over there. Hadn't ever picked up a camera before. Picked up a, a camera, learned how to use it, and started taking photos and just immediately, like, fell in love with it instantly. This, the immediacy of it, because I was previously doing pet and ink drawings and things like that, which took a long time. This was just so immediate. I started taking shots of my local city selling those in art galleries and cafes and things. A lady was looking for some money to buy a print of mine and she said shoot weddings. And I very foolishly said, absolutely. Yeah, I do. I'd be happy to do that. I, I did explain that I hadn't done one, but I would happily do it. And so I became a wedding photographer completely by accident. And I didn't have a vision of that I was gonna do it as a career, but it just grew and grew. And it got to a point about sort of two years later where I had so many weddings booked in. I thought, I'm gonna have to decide what to do. I can't do this. And a really demanding job. So I was able to, just get a few more bookings and then leave that corporate career and do wedding photography full time. So that was where I created Nick Church Photography, since then. So things have apart from a little, you know, COVID, issue of a few weddings, but things have just escalated from there. And I've done more commercial stuff and also built up the training side of my business as well. So that's something that I really love to do. I do really like sort of mentoring and coaching other people. And this year has been whole new, massive project of creating the Nick Church Creative Academy, which is taking a lot of the content that I deliver in person and putting it online as a suite of online courses and, I really love them. I'm really passionate about'em. I, I've put a lot of effort into them. I really want them to be the best place to get, you know, for a photographer, wherever they are in their journey. So whether they're beginning, I wanna take a hobby forwards or whether they have an idea of doing a career that then this course, the photographer unleashed course, is aimed at getting them to that point. And one of those lessons that, that I recorded is my thoughts on, here's just some themes that. found it, it's really useful for all of us photographers to be thinking about the time when we're taking photos. And so, yeah, that, that's what you are referring to seven, sort of themes that I've got.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's perfect. And I think one thing that I love is that, and I'm sure you know this as well, I'll get like emails several a week from people like just asking to be on the podcast, you know, and they're like, I gotta share this thing. And I'll just give a quick, like ten second look into who they are, because I've never heard of them before. And it's like, oh, they, they just started photography like last year, you know? And here they are trying to tell people how to build a six figure, you know, photography business. And there's not a lot behind that. And that's why I love having people on like you who are battle tested. That doesn't mean old, that just means, you know, you're seasoned, like I said earlier, and, you've been, you know, through the trenches of, of this. And now you're at the point to where you can share that knowledge that you have learned over the years.

Nick Church:

Hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

While actually behind the camera. So I'm really excited, to hear, these seven things today. So, let's start off with number one. what is the first rule or theme that photographers need to know and keep top of mind?

Nick Church:

Yeah. Well, these are in no particular order. The first one is avoid gas, so gear acquisition syndrome, which is something that afflicts all of us as photographers and that's not to say people can't buy stuff, but it's this idea that we can buy something going to improve our photography and we're not really sure why it is. And that's the crucial thing. We're buying something in a endless quest to improve our photography, but we're not really, don't have the data or the understanding about if that's gonna make any difference. And so. way that I've, you know, had to do an intervention on myself about this'cause I love buying kites as much as everyone else is to ask myself two questions. this new thing I'm about to buy, it might be a camera body, a camera lens. Can I articulate the problem I've got with the thing I've got now?

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

that something I can say? Right? There's a problem with that. And can I articulate it?'cause you find a lot of people I work with just can't articulate. They don't know why there's a problem. So can you articulate it? And the second question, can you be sure that that new thing is gonna solve that problem? So if it's like a kit lens for example, then you know you have a problem where you can't really get very shallow depth of field. Then of course, you know, buying a prime lens, a 50 mil prime lens is a pretty low cost way to fix that problem. It's very sort of nailed on. when you see things like someone might be having problem focusing. They're just having a problem focusing, and they find a lens review that says the focusing on this lens is absolutely stellar and the lens is like$2,000. And of course, you know, unless they've got a really old lens or it's broken, the lens isn't the problem there. It's technique or camera set up. And just

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

on that one word, it is they're suddenly dropping a load of cash on something that's actually not gonna make any difference probably. So that's the first one is to just be mindful of improving our skills with the kit we have. Work out into what the problem might be'cause we will get to a point where we think that I've now got a problem with this. I've reached the limits of this kit. Once we

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

that, that's the time that if you can afford it and justify it, that's the time to move on to a different, different equipment.

Raymond Hatfield:

Perfect. Yeah, and my take is like if you want to buy new gear, like buy new gear, like I'm not gonna tell you what to do with your money, but if you want to know if it's actually gonna help you as a photographer. I mean, you said it perfectly right there, articulate what problem you're having and what problem this thing is going to solve. And that's something that so many people don't think of. or one thing that I've noticed a lot is most YouTube reviews let's say that they're talking about how fast and fantastic focusing is, it's like compared to what, you know, compared to a kit lens, yeah, it's probably fantastic. But compared to last year's, you know, L Lens or flagship model. What is it, five, 10% better? You know, is that going to make a huge difference in the way that you shoot? So, just trying to be more open about that and, aware that there's a certain amount of people on YouTube who are doing everything that they can to sell you

Nick Church:

Of

Raymond Hatfield:

that gear rather than just inform you on what it is. So, I love it, number one. Fantastic.

Nick Church:

you know, I think that's the reason that, we kind of, we think we're gonna improve something and then you think, well, hang on, this latest lens only came out last year, Have no decent shots. Could people not focus before last year?

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Nick Church:

clearly isn't true. So

Raymond Hatfield:

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. All right. What's number two?

Nick Church:

Number two is to always be critical about our work. with's a really important skill I think, for us to develop. And you can develop it.'cause I've developed it with coaching clients of mine to look at your images and try and work out what is it you love about it, what is it you don't love about it? it's this, the quest that I've got, and I still do this to this day, is to look at every image I shoot, try and critique it. The ideal situation of every photo I take is generally this photo I really like, the couple's gonna love it, my client's gonna love its commercial, whatever it might be. But I also have some ideas on how I could do even better next time and that kind of relentless improvement. And it might just be composition or I wish I'd just gone left a bit, or maybe that if I'd stopped down a little bit, that person just, you know, a bit further back would also be sharp. But they're still gonna love it and they won't notice that. But it just always helps us get better. And developing those skills a really useful thing to do because we can, and, and the same applies if we're looking at other people's photos. A lot of beginners, and I can remember feeling this myself, that you look at someone else's photos, you think, man, my, I wish my photos looked like that. They just don't look like that. And identifying the difference between our photos and some photos that we really love is pretty much the same base skills that we are gonna use to get there. We will get there, we just dunno how to get there yet. But having that base skill of seeing the difference and thinking, oh, those colors, or, wow, the light, the contrast. It's fantastic with the side lighting that's come in, that's all you need to actually get there. It just takes a bit longer. You're a bit further behind, but you will get there then. And we can exercise that by looking at our own work and critiquing it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Follow up question there for you, because one of the things that I hear from a lot of listeners is they'll ask how to get better photos because when they look at other people's photos, they just look more polished, but like that doesn't necessarily mean edited. Right. So do you have a, pillars of things that you look at to determine, well, this needs work. That's okay. This thing could use some work. And then, you know, same with this other thing, like, I know for me, one of the things that I look for is just my direction of light, right? That's one of the things that I always look for in not only my images, but others. Is there anything else like. a pillar like that, that you look for to determine this needs help, or, I'm good with this.

Nick Church:

It is often light related. It's either light or depth of feel with me. I mean, obviously if it's a missed focus, then that's just an error. You know, there's no way to sort of, you can just fix that. You can't really improve it. But if the depth of feel's not right, and I think I've definitely as time's gone on, not always gone for the shallowest depth of field possible because it's just a bit of an easy win, isn't it? Especially if you've got a nice F 2.8 70, 70 to 200 lens, you can shoot an event. And you've got beautiful photos of everybody, but it

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

a load of really nice headshots. There's no story being played out there and that needs you to stop down a bit, go a bit wider, bring lots of things into the frame. And that means you can't just have junk in it. It has to be a bit more careful with composition to make sure that things work. And so it's, it's usually things in the frame that. I wish weren't there and I could have easily been something we can't move, but I could have moved a bit and just avoided it. I could have avoided that and created a much more balanced image having anything that's bright behind. Certainly when I started out, that was the key thing for me is I realized by doing this process where if I'm, let's say there's somebody stood by a window. If I shoot alongside that window, kind of parallel to it. I'm getting some beautiful sidelight there and the window's not in the frame, so I'm not getting all these blown highlights behind.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

sorts of things have really elevated my work. And that's been, really useful.

Raymond Hatfield:

It's funny how whenever, like you'll go somewhere, family gathering or friends or whatever, and they're like, let's take a photo. Let's all get in front of this window, and they want to put the window directly behind them thinking that there's just a bunch of light and you're like, no, no, no. This is. Let's turn the other way.'cause otherwise we're all gonna be silhouettes.

Nick Church:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

But it is funny that, like, everybody understands that we need more light. They're just using it wrong. So I think you're right. If you can just figure out, how to use light even just a little bit better than most people, your photos are gonna take off. They're gonna explode. So that was great. All right. What's number three?

Nick Church:

Number three is don't try to rescue a shot in the edit. And I see this one all the time, certainly in in Facebook groups where there's a shot that ultimately it isn't quite right. It's never gonna be a great shot. This idea that if a shot is gonna be great, it'll be great in camera. You look at it before you've edit it and think, wow, that's an absolute banger that shot, that's gonna be fantastic. And then it really is, you know, you reedit it and it's, when you are trying to work on it and you are using AI to sort of select the subject, make it brighter, and then they look stuck on, so you make it a bit dark, you're better off just leaving it as it is. It's probably still a really nice shot. And just do better next time. Go back out and reshoot it. There's very few situations that you can go out and reshoot. If it's your kids, a local scene, pets, flora, whatever it is you're shooting, you can go out and do it again. And with that knowledge of that previous rule about what you can improve next time, they genuinely will be better and you will start getting those great.

Raymond Hatfield:

Mm-hmm. you expand on me a little bit more? Just for those who might be confused, are we saying no editing should be required? That our goal should always be 100%. Get it right in camera.

Nick Church:

Oh no. Absolutely not. It is not in my rule, in this list of rules, but that's one of another lesson on the online course is about photography myths. And that's one of them people saying that, you know, you need to get it right on camera, that you shouldn't need to edit. And of course you should because raw files,

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

example, need to be edited and JPEGs are already edited just by your camera, not by you. So, no, we definitely need to edit our photos there's a point where the editing is bringing out the things that are really lovely about that picture. if it might be, some really lovely, a very autumnal scene, or it might be a very warm, very late golden hour sort of scene, and you could really enhance that with editing. But it was, right in camera. It would be too flat in camera, so you need to edit it to bring it out. But it's when there's mistakes in camera that we're

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

We're trying to repair things and it's become more common now with AI's ability to, you know, remove things, replace things, easily select subjects and make them brighter. And it just never looks great and you are always gonna be better off going back out there.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. I find that, at least when I would go and cull through a wedding. The thing that I would look for first and foremost would always be moment. Like, if it's a good moment, if it's a good laugh, I'm gonna save the photo and then I'll do a second pass. And then look at things like lighting composition, camera settings, things like that. Because I know that, if I get a photo with a good moment and maybe the camera settings weren't that great, I can. I don't wanna say that I can save that in the edit, but like, that's already 90% of the way there. Like for my style of photography, the moment is the most important. And then secondary are the other things like the light, the composition, the settings, and then those are things that you can of course enhance from there.

Nick Church:

Yeah, I agree with you completely. everything you said there that I think I'm talking about, so you absolutely can rescue images. You can make them deliverable rather. Right. So you can make shots that, well, it's got some good things that are great, like a moment, like you said, that are really strong images and a, a couple don't care if there's blown highlights in the background.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Nick Church:

the fact that there was, everyone was doing shots or there was people just laughing hilariously. That's a lovely photo for them to have. Is it gonna be, let's use that as an example. Say there was, there were blown highlights'cause that moment happened and you, I grabbed my camera and, and took it. captured it. It's too bright. There's blown highlights. It's never gonna be a great image as, as a result that's gonna be really

Raymond Hatfield:

Right,

Nick Church:

be very great for them. But is it gonna be something that I could put on the front page of my website? Probably not because

Raymond Hatfield:

right.

Nick Church:

it. I could replace the sky into all these other things, but I think you just strike it down as a miss and go back out and think, well, that was really good, next time I'm gonna try and make sure I do that without blowing the highlights. And it's because there's just seems to be a lot of, you can spend a lot of time fixing things or trying to fix things. Trying to make a shot really, really great that isn't just, isn't, hasn't got the legs to get there. Whereas all the time, if you spent an hour in Lightroom and it was a shot from your local forest, you could probably gone there and back and taken another one in in that

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. I'm right there with you. Yeah. And I didn't mean to contradict what you had said it was, I think that when you can marry moment with all the other things, the light, the settings, the composition,

Nick Church:

Hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

right there is a great moment in camera. And now it's set up and ready to go to. Put it in your visual signature when editing. So that's really good. That's really good.

Nick Church:

that's always the goal, isn't it? For, you know, weddings and events, photographers, but I, I suppose family, you know, when, if it's your own family gatherings as well, a moment and great light and everything else. It's like that's what we're all chasing. We're all

Raymond Hatfield:

It feels great.

Nick Church:

I think photography is such an addictive pastime because we're always trying to achieve that. And you things like all of those things where stuff happens like that, you can't control it. So you can't generally, you can't say, right? All have a really nice moment, but just turn the other way a bit so I can get nice at light on it. It doesn't work. So we're always trying to work with that.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. you would kill the moment so fast to do that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we are, uh, we're just pumping through these. How about we continue, that was number three. What's number four?

Nick Church:

right? Then number four is trying to think about does this photo I'm about to take communicate?

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

And it, it doesn't mean that every photo has to be an a really piece of ironic art or a street photo, you know, something like that. But when we're thinking about this, what does it communicate? Is there a lovely balance to it? Is it a, a beautiful scene? Is the light really beautiful? Is there some humor in it? Is there some expression? If it's of kids and stuff, you know, is some kids sitting, you know, are kids sitting. Just staring at the camera they've been sitting there for five minutes, isn't a great photo. But once they look at each other and one of them said something really rude and they're really laughing, that, that is a lovely photo. And that's what that it then picks up a load of energy. So having photos that try and communicate something, whether it's sort of emotion or, some, if it's a travel photo, does it really make us feel like we wanna go there or can we walk into that photo? And all, all of those things aren't things that we can do every time. But when we're thinking about it, I find in my clients that our photography does start to improve because we're thinking, oh, right, yeah, that, there's something here. And it sort of, again, it's all about that muscle memory. So our internal brain muscle memory. When that's the vision, that's the goal that we're going for. We can actually start to put that into practice'cause otherwise, ultimately we're, if we don't have anything like that, then it's just snapshots. And those do have value because they capture memories and moments and you know, that's how we look back and remember our lives through these snapshots. But that's what

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

are, they're snapshots. And if we really have a desire to create something that's above that, then we're looking for something else in there. And we don't do it straight away and it's very hard to get it right, but just start thinking about it now as soon as we can. And then that, that will redevelop sort of in the background.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, I say something similar, which is like, the difference between a photograph and a snapshot is just the amount of intention that went into it, right? So

Nick Church:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

it sounds very similar, right? What are you trying to communicate here?

Nick Church:

a

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. And it's, it can be hard sometimes because as, I think the first thing you said there was like, it doesn't have to be this crazy photo. It doesn't have to be poignant necessarily. Sometimes you're just trying to communicate, this is what my child looks at nine years old, and that's okay. Sometimes you're trying to communicate this is what the sun looked like when it was hitting the back of these leaves. And that's okay. It doesn't have to be, this is what life is about. This is the meaning of, the world and everything in it. It can be smaller stories. And I think that that can be hard to fully understand.

Nick Church:

Mm-hmm.

Raymond Hatfield:

you ever go through anything like that as far as like you felt like you were trying to tell too big of a story and you had to narrow it down? Or are you still trying to tell these massive stories?

Nick Church:

I am trying, I'm still trying to capture something and it, it doesn't, I find that it can be something very slight, just a slight sideways glance between, you know, say if it's a, it is a wedding and, and it might just be, a grandmother looking at the bride's dress. And that that is a really strong moment. And there's, there's no great big kind of motive behind it. It is just, but when you're looking for those things, you do start to see them all the time.'cause life is happening

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

it? You know? And if we're not thinking like it, we just miss it all the time. And what I find myself doing sometimes is something's happening, I think. Oh, that's amazing. I think what we're doing, I'm not taking the picture, so I've forgotten to actually take, take the picture of it'cause I've, I'm enjoying the moment happening right there in front of me.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, it happened to me once. I regret not taking a photo of a flower girl puking into a trash can because she was so nervous. But I was looking at her like, is she gonna do it? Is she gonna do it? She's doing it. And then it was too late. I missed it, but I know I should have, I should have been behind the camera. Yeah. Well, let's move on to number five. What do we got?

Nick Church:

Number five is to shoot more photos than you think you're ever gonna need. And this is because. if I do a, a photo tour with people, we'll find a nice scene, we'll find some nice light or something, and they'll take a shot. Yeah. Great. You know, I think, you're just gonna take the one then. Let's take some more. Let's very, you know, because there's nothing worse than coming back. If you just take one photo, you look at it, you bring it up on your computer. might be slightly out focus. It is one problem you think, oh man, I wish I just, I wish I checked it or it might be that you wish you'd taken, if it's something moving or something you wish you'd taken one, just a fraction a second before or afterwards. And if we're just taking loads then we've just got, we've given ourselves a much bigger toolkit to choose from. I think that the reason often people don't do this is'cause we're worried about running outta space on our cards. And,

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

because you're storing images on your SD card, then that's a problem in itself because your SD card is, they're designed for size, not for security. And they, that

Raymond Hatfield:

Sure.

Nick Church:

most fragile place to store your images. So get'em off of there. Get a, you know, memory cards are so cheap nowadays for sort of$15, for 128 gig. Get a fresh card. just put it on rapid fire and just find, you know, just take loads of options, loads of options, fill us. So that, that's that one.

Raymond Hatfield:

I have one follow up question there, which is, talk to me about the balance between shooting with intention and shooting more shots than you think that you need because I think somebody listening might think, oh, great, I'm just gonna put it on burst mode and just, just shoot a ton unnecessarily. So what, Yeah. help me figure out that balance.

Nick Church:

It's so the intention should always be there. Once the intention's there, we are just shooting multiple versions of that same intentional shot just to give ourselves options. When you've taken lots of shots of the same thing, I mean, there's no point taking 200 photos that are exactly the same. then move a little bit, you know, get a different angle and that then helps us when we're reviewing them, the intention's still there. It might be a really lovely, there's something about that shot that you really love, but just change the angle and take it again, change the angle and take a few more options. And then when we're reviewing them, we can think, oh, actually when I moved lower, suddenly got different perspective and it feels much more immersive. It feels like I walk into the photo more. And that only happens when we're kind of doing this mode of, rather than just taking a shot, let's take lots of them, let's change our position, take a few more. And we're just intentionally doing it. That's not to say that you just, you know, walk around on rapid fire with your finger held down and just pointing at various different things and hoping that you

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

because yeah, you, you never will.

Raymond Hatfield:

No. Oh, man. And I can't, oh, that just sounds so dreadful to have to go through 10,000 photos of, of just junk and hoping that you get one that you like.

Nick Church:

I do find that I do take, I mean, I, I'm looking at. staring down the barrel of 7,000 photos sometimes from a wedding, and it's

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

to go through. And what's your thoughts on using AI to cull

Raymond Hatfield:

Honestly, I haven't used it, from what I've heard from others. they find it great to just one, immediately get rid of things like duplicates or misfocused or, lack of smiles. But, you know, because suddenly if instead of having to go through 7,000 photos now you only have to go through 4,000 photos. It's a lot easier to do yourself. Do you do any ai calling?

Nick Church:

No, I don't. I do with editing, I use AI to do a base edit, but I still retouch every shot afterwards. yeah, and I just interested because I think at what. I think as we've talked about, finding those moments that may not be the perfect photo. let's say you managed to get that girl that was being sick into a bucket

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah,

Nick Church:

grabbed it and you got it, but there was technically some, a little bit of an error there. AI probably wouldn't have included it'cause it doesn't know. Oh, that's quite funny.'cause she's being sick in a bucket. It,

Raymond Hatfield:

That's a good point.

Nick Church:

you know, so it does miss these things sometimes when someone's eyes are closed, they might be closed for all sorts of reasons. Not just'cause they're blinking, they might be emotional or something else. And you, I dunno how accurate it is it picking up those moments. I'd hate to miss some of those things just because it's looking for what it classes as good photo. Anyway, we, that, that's off topic. We've gone off the tracks a bit.

Raymond Hatfield:

I still thought, I still thought it was interesting.

Nick Church:

That was number five. So number six is to keep practicing the harder stuff. And this is, something that I do with, I found with when learning an instrument as well, when I'm sort of, I was learning guitar a couple years ago or learning guitar again'cause I'd never learned it properly realized that just doing a little bit. the harder, the bits that harder, that we're finding more difficult regularly and often really help the muscle memory. it's like magic And you know, you just practice for five minutes on the things that aren't so easy that we're not finding so natural. And the next time you come back, the next day easier and something's happened in the background, it's carried on kind of working even, you know, while we sleep. And it's just like, it is like magic, but you have to combine it'cause it is harder. It is not as fun to do that stuff, and that's why we can sometimes avoid it. And photography is supposed to be fun as well. So you want to balance it with take, doing the stuff that you like doing. And also, if you're learning manual mode, for example, just take it outta aperture priority or whatever mode you're in and just get into manual mode and just try that for a little bit every day, even just for a couple of minutes. And it will really develop and you pretty soon get to a point where you're faster and faster every time.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, what I love about that is that I feel like there's two schools of thoughts either you gradually learn something before you actually implement it, or you just dive straight on into the deep end. But that's not. That's not always the case for everything, right? Like, you can't just dive straight into the deep end when it comes to opposing couples because you only have so much time with finding somebody, and getting them in front of your camera. So you do have to take these shorter moments and then try to just do them more often but that manual mode example is perfect, right? We're not saying. I mean, you could be the person who just wants to turn it to him and, you know, lock it in place, use super glue and you know, never turn it off. But I found that for me, when it came to posing my couples, because I only had that time in front of them, that was so short, what would help me a ton was when I would get ready for an engagement session, I'd be packing up my bag. I would have the couple's name in my head, and I would just verbally say out loud the directions that I will be giving them to get them into a specific, pose or a position. Yeah, so then that way when you get there, it doesn't feel like you're starting from scratch. It's like, oh wait, I already said this earlier. Now it's easier to kind of remember these things. And I always did the first like 30 minutes of my engagement session almost exactly the same, just to ensure that I got all the shots'cause I have a pretty terrible memory when it comes to bouncing all over the place. And then the last 30 minutes was just fun goofing around. Trying some interesting and, and more creative stuff. But yeah, there's always a way to figure out, I think, how you can implement more of a strategy or more of a technique into your everyday life, even if it's not a dedicated 6, 8, 12 hours of learning. As you said, maybe it is just five minutes a day and that'll, that'll do it.

Nick Church:

And what could be a danger is that you leave it too long. You leave it a couple of weeks, and then you do spend an hour doing it and then leave it another two weeks. And every time you do that, you're going back to square one every time. And it's just

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

every time. On the photographer Unleashed online course that I've launched, we do go into manual mode straight away. And it's slow to start with, but there's a process I've devised, which makes it really easy. And then we do, then we go into ab priority afterwards'cause I find that way if you're never using manual mode, you'll never get good at using manual mode.

Raymond Hatfield:

Sure. Sure.

Nick Church:

you know what the camera's doing in manual mode and, what the process is to find your settings, which is pretty much what Apture Priority's doing. It's just doing it for you. You can then use apture priority or auto because you can then use it as a tool to help get you through certain situations and you,'cause you know what it's doing. But if you're doing it in a way, if you're using AP amateur priority, because manual aid is just a bit of a, sort of black hole of knowledge at the moment, then I think you'll, you're never gonna get out of it. You're never gonna kind of experiment with manual mode but

Raymond Hatfield:

Right.

Nick Church:

in, looking off. seeing how it works. I in a controlled environment, so it's not like you're in a wedding shoot or someone's watching you because that, as soon as you get pressure like that, it's very hard to to think straight. And I think that's a really good idea with a couple, because it's all that confidence, isn't it? If you

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes.

Nick Church:

If you've done that, raven, you're gonna then be much more confident, you, with a couple. And they're gonna feel that confidence. And as soon as there's a slight kind of crackle in that confidence, it's like blood to a shark, isn't it? They can tell

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Did we pick the right person? Is he gonna ruin our wedding? Yeah. Then

Nick Church:

you are worried about that and then you both had it, so, so it is such a, it is such a good, a good idea.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point. If you don't prepare for these things. That's, that's exactly right. And lemme just share a personal story real quick. So I told you before we hit record, my son has really been into plane spotting recently. So like we've been going to a lot of air shows. Right. And just for fun, I decided that I'd bring my camera along, along with him, and take some photos and I bombed this thing, like it was terrible. Like for so long, shooting weddings, you know, you get used to changing your auto focus mode as the bride's walking down the aisle or, you know, just different moving subjects you just get into that muscle memory. Because I hadn't been doing that for so long and the type of photography that I do now is much more personal and still, and not fast moving man trying to go back and forth in between these focusing modes. I was missing shots left and right and trying to get the focusing point in the right spot. I missed so many shots. And it was exactly what you said because I hadn't been using it in so long that I lost it. So then immediately after that, I took it to my daughter's softball game'cause I was like, she's gonna have to run down to first base. I'm gonna work on focusing modes again. And, you know, after a few weeks it feels like I'm starting to get there again. But yeah, absolutely. you, once you learn these things, you got to keep doing them. Otherwise, it's not as easy as just riding a bike. There's a lot more involved and, especially with like different camera systems and

Nick Church:

it's occupying a bit of your brain, isn't it? And every bit of new information is, all competing for the same space, and it would just push out the stuff that

Raymond Hatfield:

exactly.

Nick Church:

used.

Raymond Hatfield:

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Do not want that. So, well, we have, reached the end here. We're at number seven. Is that right?

Nick Church:

Now we've got one more, which is kind of we, we've kind of covered this already, but look for lovely light and it's my theory of you can take a photo of something that's beautiful in flat, dull light. And it won't be very interesting. You won't love the photo, but if you find a little shaft of sunlight coming through some trees and you put anything into that little pool of light, doesn't matter if it's a cup of coffee, a flask of coffee, a shoe, anything. It will just look really interesting and beautiful. And so that's, again, something that we always start looking for, you know, and, and if we're doing that in the background, looking for those, that light eventually, and this is a little trick we do at weddings, isn't it? You know, you've got the bride's bouquet. You go into a wedding, into a church, and you see a shaft of sunlight coming the window. You just move the bouquet to where that,

Raymond Hatfield:

Yes.

Nick Church:

light sits, you know, you don't just take it on the other pew because it's in shade. You move it and people say, wow, what a photo. You know what, God, the timing must have been perfect. It's like, well, no, I just moved it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

You have to sort of, you know, work with within the parameters of, chaos, which is what weddings are. You have this all, everything's out of our control so that when we can put things on our control, we definitely wanna take those opportunities, but looking for, yeah, looking for that lovely light all the time. Whether it's like a family and it's that very rosy, golden hour light. At the end of the day, we suddenly start to see, oh wow, I can actually shoot straight into the sun here. And it looks really lovely, really warm, and you know, very inviting. shooting in the middle of the day really hard. It's really hard work if you've got the sun behind them, they're very dark. The sun in front of'em, everyone's squinting. So it's a really tough, tough time to shoot. And just identifying what that good light is, can really help us choose our composition.

Raymond Hatfield:

I am gonna go one step deeper since this is the Beginner Photography podcast. A lot of people I hear when you're like, yeah, look for light. They're like, I see light all the time. Like, what are you talking about? There's light everywhere. Like, what do you mean look for the light? Do you have any exercises for, beginners to start to see things like direction and quality of light?

Nick Church:

Yeah, so, when I say interesting light for me, and it's, it's different for everybody because photography is about light and we've all got different styles of photography, so we all treat light differently.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

I'm very much a, I have quite like a rush, Italian kind of oil painted style, that's what I like to put in photos if I can. So that's always having the subject of that photo being the brightest thing in the shot. And that's a pretty good starting point. If you've got, it doesn't matter if it's college photos, your kids, dogs, anything. If there's brighter stuff in the behind them, then it's not, it's gonna be quite hard to work with that light if they're the

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

thing in that photos. And that means if it's a really bright, sunny. Then people are often correctly going into shade'cause it's just too harsh otherwise. But when you go into shade, you've gotta make sure there's

Raymond Hatfield:

Mm-hmm.

Nick Church:

shade and there's a really bright building behind, it's just gonna blow the highlights and it's gonna be really hard to work with. So that's one really easy tip I can give people that are starting their journey is to just make sure that someone's the, either the brightest thing or at least there's nothing else brighter in the frame. That's gonna make

Raymond Hatfield:

That is, uh, that is good. That is something that, I think so many people can just, be aware of next time they go out and shoot. When I go out and shoot, when I would practice, I would think to myself, what's the one thing I'm gonna focus on today? Rather than, I'm gonna work on, creating nine bangers. You know, every single shot has to be absolutely perfect. And focusing on something like that, how can I make my subject the brightest thing in the frame, is huge. And I, I really don't hear a lot of people talk about that. But now that I think about that, one of the things that people I see do most when it comes to editing in Lightroom is they'll use an AI mask on the subject, bump up their exposure, a quarter or a half a stop and then invert the mask as well, and then bring down the exposure of everything else in the frame, a quarter or half a stop, because it does give that effect, right? The, I don't know if it was. Is it Caravaggio? Is that the right painter? Or, anyway, it like,

Nick Church:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

it,

Nick Church:

or, yeah. All the, yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

it gives that effect and it is pleasing to the eye and it makes your subject stand out. So as you said, kind of one of your first, key themes is, oh, I totally just lost it. It was,

Nick Church:

making the subject, the brightest thing.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, making the subject the brightest thing so that when you go out and shoot, yeah, just always looking for the light. Like that's always incredibly important to do. That was a great exercise even in the midst of my, brain fart there. I apologize for that. so that was seven. That was awesome. let me ask you, a question here, because now you do have the history of shooting weddings for years here and one of the thing that I think, new photographers are always wondering is like, when you get into photography, you're working on the photography, you're working on your camera settings, you're trying to get compelling images, you're working on your editing. But then for those who do one day want to start a business, turn their hobby into a side hustle and generate an income, it's almost like. Their brain goes blank, like that brain fart that I just had, and they don't know exactly what to work on to, to start to make progress there. So what would you say if somebody has worked on the camera skills, they're pretty confident in that and they're ready to start working on growing a business, what is one thing that they should start focusing on this week to, to get them there?

Nick Church:

You want to be getting your work front of people that are likely to be interested. So that's using social media, your website, although people aren't just gonna go and visit website because your SEO's gonna be low still. So,

Raymond Hatfield:

Hmm.

Nick Church:

but getting your work out there and, that's the main thing to most couples that are likely to be booking a wedding photographer. They're generally, we gotta speak generally.'cause everyone's so different, but generally they're not experts in photography over a certain level, much all of our photos look exactly the same. So what they're gonna be buying is you and your passion for it. So communicating that through social media, through your website, anytime you're talking about your photography or your business, you need to be saying about why you are doing it rather than, this is what I do. Look at my photos. It's, I just love wedding photography. I'd love being part of that amazing day and creating these memories for you. Whatever, whatever that sounds like. When it comes from in your voice, that's what you need to be getting out there because that's what people buy and if they resonate with that, then. You kind of half sold them already. the images is if they're good enough then that that's not a deal breaker. Then they're looking at price and other things. But all those things are much more easier to overcome if they're emotionally invested in you as a photographer. the outset, and the only way to do that is be completely authentic even to say, I'm new to this area, I'm really looking to start weddings. I'm absolutely just so excited about this. That excitement is what people will buy. You know? Don't just silently post photos because you are then up against a million other photographers, they're always just also just posting photos.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

what people are buying. they're buying, the reason why you do it and to have you there on their day. If they resonate with your personality, they're gonna want to have you as part of their day.'cause that they'll know you fit in well with their family and their guests. They can only do that if you show your personality as authentically.

Raymond Hatfield:

And, let me add something onto that, which is that. it can change as well over time. Like your reason, your love for this thing can change over time. So like, don't get hung up trying to craft the world's. Perfect. most perfect reason why you are into photography. Like today, as you just said, Nick, maybe it's, I just moved here and, visually it's very different and it gets me excited to shoot. That's fine, but 10 years from now, it could be. You just really love the connection between, two people who come from large families. Like it can change and adapt over time, so,

Nick Church:

Yeah. whatever it changes to just make sure that that's present

Raymond Hatfield:

no. Yeah.

Nick Church:

all of our voices, because otherwise we're all saying the same thing, which is we're gonna capture wonderful moments of your day, blah, blah, blah. You know? And it, there's just nothing there. But if ev, if we all sound the same, we're all saying the same kind of stuff.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah.

Nick Church:

are indistinguishable in the main, because most people aren't experts in photography, so all they're looking at is your price and that's what they're judging on. And which is not a big deal for a beginner, but it, it is. If you are actually having a mission to sort of go up into the high levels of photography, you need to have something different that, that need to know why they should pick you over somebody else.

Raymond Hatfield:

Perfect. Perfect, perfect. Well, Nick. I think today went as well as our last interview. I really enjoyed our chat today, and I really appreciate you coming on and, and sharing these seven things as well because a lot of listeners have a lot of questions. There's a lot of self-doubt in hearing from somebody who's been doing this as, as long as you have, I think can give people the confidence, that either they're on the right track or. Now they know what direction to, to take their photography. So first I just wanna say thank you so much for coming on today and chatting. But second, I know listeners are gonna be thinking, this was great. I wanna learn more about Nick. The way he communicates is fantastic. Where can listeners find out more about you online?

Nick Church:

They should head to, the Nick Church Creative Academy. So that's www.nickchurchcreativeacademy.com. on there is a coaching courses and online courses in the online courses of, currently still, half price as a launch offer on those. And it, these seven themes that I've just talked through is one of the lessons in the photographer unleashed online course. So there's, photographer Unleashed, Lightroom Unleashed, and Photoshop Unleashed as well. So it's all video prerecorded, lessons and people just run it at their own pace. And there's a community on there as well. And there's my support throughout'cause I found that I created the Academy because find a lot of people that are starting out. You go to YouTube and there's just so much content, it's unstructured and you're not sure if it's right. You dunno what questions to ask to even search YouTube to find the answer to. So this is much more structured. It takes you from the ground up and builds you into someone that's actually thinking like a photographer, which I think I've kind of, you probably sense from the way that I've talked about it. It's not just the technical stuff and all those things are important and that's in there as well. But it's actually thinking about light and thinking about our photography and making it something that's actually, you know, something we're really passionate about and that that's how I believe that that we learn the best is sort of thinking in, in this way and using manual mode slowly to start with building up our skills. So that's the, online courses, so that, that'd be the best place to come in and there's contact pager. Any questions about anything including the stuff I've said today? I'll be more than happy to, answer.

All right. So your action item for the day being, if you implement just one thing from today's interview into your photography, that's going to move the needle forward, let it be this, critique of the next 10 photos that you see. I mean, this could be photos in online ads. It could be a magazine that you're reading while waiting for a haircut. Or probably most likely just scrolling Instagram. So the next 10 photos that you see, critique them specifically to learn from them. So look for something that you like in each photo. It could be the light, it could be the action, or moment. It could be the framing. You know, anything, find anything that you like, then mentally figure out how, if you wanted to achieve something similar in your next photo shoot, how would you go about doing so is it, an editing technique that you want to, get better at? Is it a specific type of light that you need to look out for while shooting? Is it shooting through the moment, just a second or two longer to get fuller expressions? What is the thing that you love and how can you achieve it? When we start to look at everyone else's work as inspiration rather than comparison, you start to rewire the brain in a positive way, focused on growth, rather than focusing on the gap in skill level. So give it a try. All right. That is all that I got for you today. Until next week, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you will be tomorrow. Talk soon.