Camera Dates Recap: What We’ve Been Learning Lately

If you’ve been following along, you may have noticed a quiet thread running through recent Camera Dates Posts. This hasn’t been about collecting tips or memorizing settings. It’s been about learning how to make one clear creative decision at a time.

Here’s a quick reset on what we’ve been covering so far and why it matters. As this site grow, I will be covering these topics in much greater details.

If you have not read these individual posts yet, I invite you to go back and read through them all.

Aperture Priority: Deciding What Stays Sharp

Aperture is not just about background blur.
It controls depth of field, subject isolation, and visual hierarchy.

At a professional level, aperture answers one question first
What do I want the viewer to look at, and what am I willing to let go?

Wide apertures reduce visual clutter and simplify the frame.
Smaller apertures increase context and environmental storytelling.

Using Aperture Priority allows you to lock in that decision and work quickly while the camera handles shutter speed and ISO changes as light shifts.

Shutter Speed: Deciding How Time Behaves

Shutter speed is not about exposure first.
It is about motion, energy, and emotional tone.

Fast shutter speeds freeze detail and remove ambiguity.
Moderate shutter speeds preserve realism and human movement.
Slow shutter speeds introduce blur that communicates motion, flow, and time passing.

Professionals choose shutter speed based on subject movement and camera-to-subject relationship, not just light levels.

Shutter Priority is most effective when motion is the primary storytelling element and consistency matters more than perfect technical control.

The Exposure Triangle: Balance, Not Control

Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are not equal partners in every photograph.

One of them should always lead.
The others exist to support that lead decision.

Changing aperture affects depth of field and exposure.
Changing shutter speed affects motion and exposure.
Changing ISO affects brightness and image noise but should usually be the last adjustment.

Balancing the exposure triangle is not about locking in numbers.
It is about protecting your creative priority while maintaining a usable exposure.

The Core Principle

Your camera already knows how to expose a scene.

Your responsibility is to decide what matters visually
what should be sharp or soft
what should feel frozen or alive
what belongs in the frame and what does not

Once that decision is made, the technical side becomes cooperative instead of distracting.

A Quick Side Note

By the way, that first Camera Date post where I asked you to take some intersting shots in your kitchen — how did that go?

There is no right answer here. If you have not participated yet, I advise you to give it a shot. Use what you have learned here so far and try a few shots in your kitchen.

If you noticed light, texture, and moments you had never paid attention to before, it worked.
If it felt uncomfortable or surprisingly difficult, it worked too.

Everything we have been building since then grows out of that same skill
learning to see clearly before worrying about settings.

Camera Dates is not about chasing better gear or better locations.
It is about training attention and intention.

Shoot what matters.
Jonathan Charles
Cameradates.com