It was nearly the sunset hour when I met with Melinda at the Tudor Overpass in Manhattan. this was my last photoshoot for 2019. I first discovered that location early in the year, and it kept calling me time and time again months after. It feels like I completed a chapter sort of speak.

Despite the wind chill, taking portraits in the fall is quite fun! Cloudy skies make an excellent source of light, and warm tones give images a film-like look. The downside to the fall season, I think, is that it goes by fast, giving you very little time for planning. When Melinda and I began this session, daylight transformed into nightfall within 45 minutes, making me feel a little under pressure.You can follow Melinda on Instagram as @melindazhou

On this post, however, I’d like to switch my attention to the things that come to mind as I reflect on the numerous photoshoots I did in 2019. With every subject being different to the next, I would like to share that portrait photography has given me plenty of opportunities to explore locations, recognize different personalities, and exercise my need to stay creative; something that’s even more difficult as you get older.

The past ten months or so have given me a good number of chances to think about how I can be more effective when using a camera. What follows are my top three lessons learned from many photoshoots in 2019. I hope someone finds them useful.

The person comes before any setting configurations with the camera.
Over time, I learned that leaving home with the camera pre-configured to shoot made my job a lot easier because that enabled me to engage and have a better response to the subject. Since the majority of shoots I did in 2019 were on location, my main concern was having an adequate shutter speed of no less than 125/sec to avoid camera shake as much as possible. I would also preset the ISO to 400, so technically speaking, in most situations, all I needed to set my attention was on the aperture. These settings, however, would change as daylight became shorter.
Less gear more flexibility.
For me, when it comes to casual, lifestyle shoots, gone are the days of me carrying a backpack filled with my entire lens collection, flashes, triggers, stand, reflector, and even a backup camera! Limiting myself to a single focal length helps me pre-visualize. I now embrace working with limitations; it's more fun than switching lenses every so often!
Setting focus on substance, not quality
I'm grateful to be in a time with so much technical progress, but I'm now very disinterested in photographic equipment. In recent months I made a conscious decision to avoid camera reviews and even look out for tutorials on how to take better pictures. I'm now more critical, and those I follow are people with consistency in focusing their content on the creation process and not technical specs. I want the best camera available, just like anyone else. To paraphrase famous photographer Annie Leibovitz, the moment you're thinking about the camera, you're not taking pictures.