10 Annoying Habits of Photographers

Now of course I don't do any of these bad habits but if you read this and find that perhaps there are one of these bad habits (or even a number of these bad habits) that you are guilty of just take note and remember ..... WE ARE WATCHING YOU! 

By the way bonus points if you can guess who the person is in the first photo.

No. 1 Lens Cap On  - Carrying your camera with lens cap on. 
You need to be ready to grab that next picture and you need to be able to react quickly. That extra few seconds you need to get the lens cap off is probably more than enough time for you to miss the shot. The only time your lens cap should be on is when your camera is packed away in your camera bag. Worried about scratching or damaging your lens? - get a lens filter which offers protection and is cheap to replace if damaged.

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No. 2 Lens Hood Reversed - Shooting with lens hood on camera in reversed position. 

If you are going to use a lens hood ... then use it. Otherwise throw the piece of plastic away. It does nothing in the reversed position on the lens .... and looks very un-cool.

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No. 3 Unnecessary Flash - Using flash taking a picture through a window 

Think about what the flash is doing. If there is a window in front of the flash then all that is going to happen is an extreme back scattering of light rendering your picture into a mass of light reflections.

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No. 4 Beep - Having that annoying 'beep' function switched on when focusing. 

I rank this on the annoyance scale just below those annoying squeaky shoes that some parents seem to insist their toddlers wear.

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No. 5 Airport Photos - Taking photos of friends in airport terminal

This is usually executed with some bland, grey airport background which could be any airport in the world. Honestly if you are going to take a photo of friends in the dream holiday location you have just arrived at please find a more interesting background than an airport wall. Airports are no longer enjoyable and are places to move through as quickly as possible, so forget the photos.

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No. 6 The Two Fingered Salute - Getting subjects to pose with two fingers raised in the peace sign. 

This seems to be an unfortunate trait of Malaysians posing for photos. Learn to use the two fingers in the appropriate situation like when driving along Old Klang Road and signaling to the guy who has just cut you up from the outside lane.

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No. 7 Lens Changing  - Changing lenses with no regard to outside dust getting into camera. 

Keep it clean. Your camera may be equipped with the latest sensor cleaning technology but do try and minimise the amount of dust, dirt and grunge that can enter your camera body when changing lenses. When changing lenses point your camera downwards to minimise dust entry. This may save you hours of post-processing and cloning out all the dust specks or worse still an expensive sensor replacement.

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No. 8 Countdown - Counting down "1-2-3" before taking picture. 

This only assures you of getting a picture with all of your subjects straining to pose with a fake, plastic smile. A guaranteed method to capture a bad shot. Get your subjects to relax, talk to them, crack some jokes and take the shot when you identify that special moment or even better take numerous shots to ensure you get one keeper.

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No. 9 Flash Fail - Not being able to get built-in camera flash to operate. 

So many times I'm sure you have seen this particular camera man trying numerous times to take his shot with his flash failing to fire. He fumbles with his camera, ask his subjects to pose again and then the whole cycle continues. The camera man appears to randomly press buttons on the camera in the hope that he will get lucky. Learn how to use your flash and know where all the operation buttons are on your camera so you can do this in the dark without looking.

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No 10. Mega Posting 

Posting massive posts of images on Facebook or Flickr

This usually includes posting of every single image shot including all the badly composed and out-of-focus shots. Do some basic editing and screen out all the bad shots keeping your posted images to the point and without multiple repetitions of your girlfriend in 20 or 30 different poses. Yes we know she's a looker but after scrolling through 20 images of her boredom will set in.

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