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Useful Photography Tip

The One Thing Most Modern Photographers Forget to Do

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 06/23/2025
08/04/2025
2 Mins read
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If you’ve been shooting photographs for less than 7 years, we’re pretty sure that you’re guilty of doing something that people forget about. Actually, we think that many photographers were just never taught it. It has to do with good form in photography. We’re not talking about simply just bringing the camera up to your face and shooting a photo. We’re talking about something that’s a lot more serious: breathing control.

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There are a few things to know when controlling our breathing. Keep this in mind, especially if you’re doing bird photography:

  • Some of us become absolutely still when we let all the air out of our lungs. Think of it like a deflated balloon that isn’t moving.
  • Other photographers become very still when our lungs are filled with air. Think of this as a dense balloon that’s smushed between other organs and doesn’t move because it’s so tense. This is typically how I shoot partially because of blood pressure issues.
  • Still, other photographers find their most stability somewhere in between while holding in enough air to make their diaphragms half full.

Now here’s another thing that photographers don’t talk about or mention: lots of people these days have high blood pressure. We’re all drinking way too much caffeine, or are overweight, according to a doctor’s BMI readings. So if you hold your breath, you’re probably going to make your heart rate go up quite a bit. So here’s a method that I developed during my Vipassana meditation certification process. I like to call it rectangle breath:

  • Inhale for a count of 7
  • Hold for a count of 2
  • Exhale for an even count of 7 to the inhale
  • Hold for an even count of 2 to the previous hold

This method mimics a more natural breathing process. It forces you to think more often about your shots and gives you the option to shoot when your chest is filled with air or not. Of course, lots of us might just spray and pray when it comes to bird photography. But then you’ll just be dealing with more images to cull through.

Isn’t it just better to shoot a smaller handful of great images?

air bird photography breathing exhale lungs vipassana wildlife
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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