Better Photo Tips - a Picture Thinker

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? If you have Dyslexia or are close to someone who does; you realize that this is a much more accurate statement than many people give it credit for. It is said that a verbal thinker may have 2 to 5 thoughts per second. A dyslexic person is considered a picture thinker and would have 32 thoughts per second. Picture thinking is estimated to be, overall, 400 to 2,000 times faster than verbal thinking. This information comes from: “The Gift of Dyslexia” by Ronald D. Davis.

When a verbal thinker learns the word “CAT” for example; he has basically 4 thoughts, each letter and what they sound like together. The picture thinker on the other hand; will see the letters in the word “CAT” in at least 40 different ways, before even thinking of sounds. From an outside perspective; it seems that the picture thinker is handicapped because he or she is so much slower, but in reality they are putting MUCH more effort into the process.

Having worked for a large nation wide portrait chain before, I remember being limited to 7 shots per portrait sitting. Even if I was only shooting one subject that still came across as verbal thinking, (very limited). If I was shooting pictures of a family that gave me even fewer options. A picture thinker on the other hand; could easily shoot 30 to 40 photos of the same subject and not think anything of it. If they wanted to push themselves; a picture thinker might do 50 or 60 photos of the same subject.

Some people will argue that when you take that many photos of the same subject, of course you will get “lucky” with a few shots. In my opinion, luck has nothing to do with it. When you explore all the possibilities (not just left, right, up or down); something magical starts to happen, you start to tap into that section of the mind that too few of us dare to venture into. You start to find your creative edge in photography.

Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo de Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, and Henry Winkler were all successful NOT in spite of having dyslexia; but largely in part because of having it. Because they were picture thinkers they had greater vision (no pun intended). You too can share in that vision by releasing yourself from your own limitations.

Of course you will have more failures; because you have made more attempts but as Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. I know 10,000 ways NOT to invent the light bulb.”

Obviously; if you are a newspaper photographer or a portrait photographer who has people waiting in line at Christmas that would not be the best time to expand your creativity. But on the other hand, if once a week, or even just once a month you took any subject and pushed it beyond your limits . . . I guarantee those limits will start to expand.

When someone has mastered something, they have learned it so well they can do it without thinking about what they are doing. It is human nature that we all learn by doing. I invite you to step outside your comfort zone and shoot more photos than you have ever shot on a single subject in your life. This process will help transform you from a verbal thinker into a picture thinker. Remember, as a man thinketh, so is he.

Once you master how you think, you will discover your gift is no longer a handicap. You will be seeing things without effort that a dozen other photographers at the same event will miss. If you are serious about photography this is how you take your photo work to the next level.