On learnng

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The most frequent questions I receive are on the subject of flash photography - balancing ambient and flash light, flash exposure compensation etc. People are keen to understand the 'rules' or logic behind the technology so that they can develop their technique in a rational manner. Although I would encourage people to seek out as much information as possible on all photographic subjects (reading widely broadens your horizons), ultimately, for a practical subject such as photography, nothing beats 'doing it'. It's the only way to truly develop a deeper understanding and, with digital cameras, this learning process is aided by the almost instantaneous feedback loop between experiment and results.

The concious competence learning model captures this learning process nicely. It was probably developed by management consultants (it reminds me of Donald Rumsfelds infamous 'known unknowns' quote), as it has that business-ring to the language, but I think it captures an essential truth about learning.

1. You start out 'unconciously incompetent' - you don't know what it is you're unable to do.

2. As you develop an interest in the subject and seek out information you become 'conciously incompetent' - you know what it is you're unable to do. If you only read about the subject you'll be stuck at this stage.

3. As you practise the discipline that interests you, you become 'conciously competent'. You can get the results that you want but it requires a great deal of mental effort.

4. As you practise more and more (apparently 10,000 hours of practice are required to become an expert) you finally become 'unconciously competent'. You're great at the discipline without even having to think about it.

So put your books down, stop browsing the internet, and get out with your camera and flash unit and start learning!

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