It's not the camera, It's you (who take good or bad pictures)

It's crazy how photographers blame their camera for bad quality pictures.

Your camera is just a tool... To me, the way you composed your shot is the key to a great picture. Plus with technology, you need to have basic skills in post processing. I've seeen guys with 5D's comiing up with horrible pictures / I seen people with cheap little samsung point and shoot taking fantastic pictures.

• Know your damn camera...Indeed know what your camera can do,  know what it cannot do.
• Know how to hold it. It's funny, sometimes you go to these venue, and see so called "professional photographers" that don't even hold their cameras properly...SMH. This Jared Polin video will be a great start for you.

• If you don't have a camera or plan to change your current camera, you need to study cameras, do your homework on different types of cameras, choose your camera according to the type of photography you want to do.
• Get off the CANON andd NIKON wagons, getting a CANON or NIKON camera will not make you a better photographers... Don't get me wrong those 2 giants make great cameras. But other brands make cameras that also kick asses. SONY, OLYMPUS, PANASONIC make better mirrorless cameras. It's a fact.    

• I've seen people who shoots with smartphones, getting some amazing results from it. You know why? They know how to compose their shots.
• Something i've learned is that you need, to pre-conceive the shot before taking it. See the shot, frame it in your eyes and take it. You definitely need to know your camera to do it. know what your lens can take, how wide it can go.... ALL THAT IS KNOWING YOUR CAMERA.
• Know the basics rules of composition like the rule of thirds, leading lins, symmetry. Don't get me wrong, rules can be broken, but knowing, learning and applying them will improve your photography.

Sky is NOT the limit

In the above picture above I ignore all the rules for instance. but know damn well that I preconceived the shot before taking it.

• If your camera has the option to shoot in RAW, SHOOT RAW... your photography will improve drastically. In that picture above , had I not shot this in RAW, you wouldn't even see those clouds on the left. On the JPEG that I saw on the screen of my camera, I couldn't even see the clouds. The RAW file allowed me to recover them. I'll have a whole post on JPEG vs RAW comparison.
• Use on camera flash only when necessary. I rarely use flash... I only use it for.....fill flash, in outdoor portait or bounce it on ceiling when indoor. that's it. Again if you know you camera, it's ISO capabilities, set the right shutter speed and aperture, you would not even use your flash in low light ( unless the conditions force you do do so).
• In broad daylight, you don't even need to shoot in Manual mode. When it's really bright outside, shoot in Aperture priority mode, It saves time.

image from http://www.photoxels.com/

• Shoot what you love, Edit your shot the way you want. I recommend Adobe lightroom (which is relatively easy). Most of my photos are edited in lightroom alone. I use photoshop 1 time out of 4.
• Megapixels are useful but not that important.
• Get inspiration from photographers you admire, don't copy them, I said get inspired.
• Do it for the artform
• Make Art.