Soon as you lift the camera up to your eye you must take the photo.

Why?

Because this won’t allow you to second guess yourself. 

If you brought the camera up to your eye, that means you saw something that moved you, which then made you want to remember by taking a photo of it. 

So take the photo. 

Many photographers will raise the camera to their eye and then constantly shift around. Different angles. Levels. Horizontals. Verticals. While more may be better (for your editor if you are shooting an assignment), more is not necessarily truer to who you are and what you felt at that very moment.

I guess it’s a bit like when we say “I love you” to our significant others. We say it when we feel something deep in our gut. We don’t need to say it twice. Nor do we need to say it in 20 different ways. We just need to say it once. The moment we feel it is the exact moment we should say it. 

So, go ahead with your camera and your gut feelings. Tell them "I love you". All within one second.

Don’t hold back.

by Jason Lam