This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Every once and a while I stumble across a dusty forgotten folder on my hard drive, full of photos so old I don't even remember taking them. Like this 2002 shot of an Azteca adrepens ant from Paraguay:
I was terrible at photography.
I mean, I still make impressive numbers of truly bad photographs, but I know better than to show them in public.
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Many of my early photographs are similar: the subject is dropped unimaginatively in the middle of the picture, not doing anything interesting, and the image is lit by blindingly bright flash. I suspect I was just happy to get something in focus.
For contrast, here is a recent capture of a related ant species:
While the second image was taken with more expensive equipment, the heavy gear is not why the second photo is more compelling. Rather, I have learned the patience to photograph the animals actively doing something, and to compose a photograph with interesting lines and intentional subject placement. Getting better at photography is not a matter of improving one's gear so much as improving one's craft.