The Big Mix: Learning Through Variety

Learning to Shoot Under Any Condition

PHOTO JOURNAL 2026

James Bradley

8/6/20268 min read

The Big Mix: Learning Through Variety

The Big Mix: Learning Through Variety

One thing I have learned since I started taking photos again is that I apparently have no interest or capability of staying on one subject. I have since seen numerous posts (via social media) and have spoken to numerous other photographers about how critical subject focus is. It’s almost unanimous, whether online or in person, they all tell me I need to pick a lane and stick with that if I want to be successful at this new endeavor.

Why?

Wildlife? Sure.

Pets? Absolutely.

Sports? Why not?

Macro? Let’s make everything difficult.

Landscapes? Of course.

Night shots? Welcome to the world of low light shooting.

Sounds like a great way to confuse myself.


I’ll probably lose my mind, or what is left of it, learning all of these different styles. I’ll learn to shoot under any condition. I’ll do it, not to drive myself crazy, but so I am capable of shooting any subject that I want to with a reasonable amount of success.

Let’s talk about my totally chaotic and random array of alley walls, cats, dogs, temples, bridges, birds, basketball, roller derby, cactus, bread, and whatever else happens to catch my eye? There is one concept that has started to be super obvious so far. It’s this: I have literally started to see the world differently. I see things I used to walk past every day. It almost feels like discovering the world again.

I now see the world through a fresh set of eyes.

At the beginning of all this, I thought I was going to be taking pictures every day and seeing slow, incremental improvement in my skills (or lack thereof). That was the basic idea. Take the photo, post the photo, learn something, move on. Simple enough, right?

Nope.

What I thought would happen is that I would start taking some pictures for the farm to post on the Bradley Family Farm (BFF) website and maybe some for my friends and family. Boy, was I in for a shock. What actually happened is that I started bouncing around, trying any and all different styles of photography. They all came with their own massive learning curve. With wildlife it was patience and timing. Sports jammed shutter speed down my throat. It showed me how fast things can go wrong indoors. Macro…well when the depth of field is less than a millimeter any vibration, fluctuation in light, or movement can cause catastrophic results in the shot. Landscapes pushed me to think more about composition and light. Night shots, my first ones were done on the Rio Grande near Taos, New Mexico, made me start paying attention to ISO, tripods, and long exposures. Product and indoor shots forced me to start trying to understand controlled lighting and props indoors.

This has been one of the biggest surprises for me so far. It’s not just one skill. It’s a massive pile of smaller skills all stacked on top of each other, and every subject seems to demand a different part of the pile. It’s kind of like a big pile of nachos where you have to keep digging through it to get to all the flavorful stuff that’s not only spread all over the top, but in the middle and on the bottom. I’m still getting the goodies nearly every time I shoot.

A bird in flight doesn't give a crap that I was just a noob to my camera settings. It flies when it wants to fly. A dog chasing a ball isn’t going to slow down because my autofocus is confused. A flower in bright sunlight is not going to move itself into the shade because I blew out the highlights. A basketball game doesn’t pause while I scratch my head in confusion to figure out why gym lighting hates me personally (believe me it does).

Fun was had by all!

Looking back from January 1 until now, I can see a pretty big shift in how I approach a photo. In the beginning (let’s get biblical), I saw something and I reacted. I mashed the shutter and hoped! I pointed the camera at the victim, whatever subject I was reacting to, and hoped I could fix whatever happened later. Sometimes that worked. Most times it really didn’t. There were plenty of blurry photos, blown highlights, overdone colors, missed focus, and moments where I looked at the image later and thought, “Well, that almost worked.”

I am not seeing this happen as much now because I am starting to pause and think a little more before I press the shutter button. I mean, not always. Let’s not get crazy, but way more than I did at the start.

I am paying more attention to the light because it has a massive effect on all photography. I am looking at the background more and trying to decide whether I want the subject frozen sharp or whether a little motion blur might actually help the photo. I think about whether I need a wide aperture for background blur, a faster shutter speed for action, or a lower ISO to keep the image cleaner. Every setting I adjust in camera has an effect on every other setting in the camera. I understand that the camera is not some magic gadget that gives me the exact image I want with a point and shoot. It is a tool, and I have to tell it what I want instead of expecting it to read my mind.

I guess if it were easy, everyone would be a photographer, huh?

My variety in these photos really shows me how scattered as well as useful the photo challenge has been. My temple shot is calm and still, with the blue evening sky and reflections doing most of the work. The seven ducks in flight are all about motion, timing, and trying to keep up with moving subjects. This shot also created a dilemma for me. It was kind of a fluke that I got this shot in the first place as early in the process as I was when I shot it. The simple fact that I caught seven frozen in flight in one shot is amazing. Since then I have struggled to get a decent shot of a duck. As it turns out, they are notoriously difficult to catch in flight. I mean six months later, I still have very few.

In contrast, the elk and eagle shots lean into wildlife and patience in photography. They force me to wait for the right moment. Domestic animals like cats and dogs are more personal, and they remind me that not every photo has to be dramatic to be worth shooting. Once again, the shot does not have to be worthy of wall hanging to be a good shot.

Macro-style shots, like the plant hairs and the bees around the flowers, are really rewarding to shoot. The results are vastly different from anything else I’ve shot in the past. The bulk of my previous shots have been from long(ish) distances. Nothing up close and personal. For macro and close up shooting I needed a different mindset. It’s a completely different kind of challenge. When shooting up close the tiniest movement can throw everything off. The macro lens I have is a super macro, the Laowa lens. It has a 2.5 to 5x magnification. Which means the depth of field gets so thin, less than 1 to 2 Millimeters, that one part of the subject can be sharp while the rest falls away into blur. I don’t have a “true” macro lens, but from what I have heard a regular macro has a 1x magnification and they are much easier to shoot with. Shooting with this lens (Laowa) can be beautiful, but it also makes me question my sanity because it is so touchy to shoot.

Basketball, roller derby, and BMX all forced me to work with speed, timing, and backgrounds that do not always cooperate, if ever. Indoor sports are especially tricky because the light is almost always terrible, mixed, or just plain rude. I can’t say every time, but I have yet to find any gym lighting that wants to help me out. Outdoor action has better light…sometimes, but then I have to deal with harsh sun, zebras, shadows, and fast movement. Either way, the camera settings matter a lot more when the subject is moving.

Landscape and night shooting taught me a different kind of patience. These are less about reacting fast and more about slowing down enough to see the scene. For me it’s about taking the time to set up the camera and asking myself a few questions while doing it. Where is the light coming from? Is there enough light? What is the strongest part of the image? Can I find any framing? Is the sky doing something interesting? Is the foreground helping or just standing there like it wandered into the wrong photo? So many questions, so little time.

This is where composition started to matter more to me. I am learning that a good subject does not automatically make a good photo. Where I stand, what I include, what I leave out, and how the lines move through the frame all change the final image.

I also like that some of these photos are not “serious photography” in the “snooty photographer” sense. Some are just moments. Susan with the cat. The dogs playing. A loaf of bread. A random bird out the window. These still matter. They are part of how I see things now. Once again, not every photo has to be a wall hanger.

Some of them are just proof to me that I noticed something.

This may be one of the biggest discoveries so far. Photography is not always about getting the perfect image. It is about paying attention.

The more I shoot, the more I see that every subject teaches me something different. Wildlife teaches timing and patience. Sports teaches speed and anticipation. Macro teaches precision. Landscapes teach composition and light. Product shots teach control. Cell phone shots provide convenience with limitations. I guess technically any camera has its limitations. All of these concepts teach me the differences between what a bad and good photo is, whether I asked for that lesson or not.

And believe me, I have had plenty of lessons.

Having said all this I am putting together a very basic beginner photography class or guide in the near future. I am not going to pretend to be some lifelong expert or master photographer (far from it). I am still learning, still messing up, and still arguing with my camera more often than I probably should. But I also think this is exactly why I might be able to explain basic photography in a way that makes sense to someone else just starting out.

I remember what it feels like to look at aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, white balance, Kelvin settings, autofocus modes, RAW files, editing software, and all the other photography parts and pieces, and think, “How in the hell am I ever going to understand this?”

This is the kind of beginner-level stuff I want to help break down. Not in a fancy, technical, make-your-eyes-glaze-over way. More like, “Here is what this setting does, here is why it matters, and here is how I messed it up before I started understanding it.

Because honestly, that is how I have learned most of this.

I am not locked into one type of photography. I’m not sure I want to be. Maybe someday I’ll narrow it down more, but for now the variety is helping me progress nearly every day. Every different subject forces me to adjust. Every new situation gives me another problem to solve. Every mistake gives me something else to research, practice, or try again.

From January 1 until now, this has become a lot more than just posting one photo a day. It has turned into a long, messy, frustrating, exciting, occasionally ridiculous crash course in learning how to see, learn, and improve my photography.

Apparently, I am not done bouncing between subjects yet.

Thanks for reading!

I would love to get some feedback from you all about the photography learning process.

Please feel free to shoot me an email through my contact page.