-- One "T" and Three "Cs" --

TCCC - stands for "Think", "Compose", "Click" and "Check"

Through my mind's eyes... over the years I have semi-consciously put together a portfolio of mental images that I want to take. This set of semi-conscious mental imprints was formed through the hundreds (maybe even thousands) of  photos that I have seen and admired. It may even be my own interpretations of photos I have seen or feelings I have experienced. The bad news is that in the heat of the clicking moment (when I am actually on-site and looking at the scene), I tend to fall into two traps that always adversely affected the outcome:

1. Clicking without thinking and composing - this is my no. 1 enemy. And sometimes even when I told myself consciously not to do it... I somehow forgot about the simple, think, compose then "click" rule (TCC rule). An example is when I visited the Michigan Capitol Building recently, I ended with only a handful of images that I felt happy about (and I have spent three hours there). How did this happened? Simply because there were "great" scenes all around me and I was trying to capture everything without applying the TCC rule. I forgot to "think" about what is the subject matter... what message am I trying to convey. Because the subject (or hero) of the shot wasn't well defined, I didn't "compose" the shot. I just click on whatever is in the frame... indiscriminately. Well, the end result... I did a lot of "clicking" but zero thinking and composing - and I ended up with almost nothing. Sigh!


(Only a handful of shots out of almost 500+ taken at Michigan Capitol Building)

2. My next mistake is what happens after I click... I forgot to check. Sounds strange? Oh yeah, I thought so too... it wasn't until I opened my image on photoshop that I noticed the subject was completely out of focus!!! Another recent experience, I was at a baseball match at CoAmerica Park last month. I decided to go for a panoramic shot of the Tiger's Stadium from behind the grandstand. The scene was awesome (with dramatic sky) and I knew that it will be a great shot... well, if only I checked my shots. I would have noticed that the two critical shots right in the middle were completely out of focus! I could still do a panoramic ... the only problem is that the center shots would be completely out of focus.


(Love this shot I took in the Detroit Packard Plant)

Hopefully we all get better and exercise the discipline of TCCC.