Most photographers don’t have a gear problem. They have a thinking problem, and this video lays out 18 principles that cut straight to the root of it.
Coming to you from Justin Mott, this no-nonsense video runs through a lightning round of guiding photography principles that Mott calls the foundation of how he approaches the craft. He wastes no time on sentiment. The list opens with a deceptively simple directive: show people something new, either something they’ve never seen, or something familiar shown in a way they haven’t seen it. From there, Mott gets into light, explaining that your eye always travels to the brightest part of an image, which means a blown-out white sky eating up half the frame is working against you before you’ve even thought about composition. He pushes hard on the idea that light sets mood, and that fighting for the right light is non-negotiable.
Several of the principles hit on habits that are genuinely hard to break. Slowing down, for instance. Mott points out that most people shoot too fast, pressing the shutter before they’ve thought about what they’re actually trying to do, or even why they went out to shoot in the first place. He also addresses the relationship between a shooter and their subject directly: earn your space, don’t force access, build trust first. When you do that, you move freely within that space and get better moments without the discomfort or the intrusion. Principle eight, simplicity wins, is one that applies regardless of what or where you shoot. What you leave out of a frame matters more than what you put in.
A few of the later principles are where things get more demanding. Mott’s point about editing yourself is easy to misread. He’s not talking about color correction in Lightroom. He means culling, sequencing, and making hard calls about your own work, and then, annually, bringing in someone you trust to review it. His reasoning is blunt: most people are bad editors of their own work, and that makes them worse at the craft overall. He also takes aim at the habit of over-explaining images verbally, whether in captions or in conversation. If you’re narrating what a photo is supposed to mean, the image isn’t doing its job. Principle 16 is a push against imposter syndrome specifically, the idea that storytelling and documentary work are only for working professionals. Mott’s position is straightforward: find a story you care about, chase it, and build something. The only condition he puts on it is to do it ethically.
The final few principles cover contests, portfolios, and studying work rather than follower counts, and Mott commits to building a resource list of photographers worth studying for his community members. Check out the video above for the full breakdown from Mott.