If you don’t mind, I would like to share with you some thoughts.
First one: you are enough now. If quality comes as something natural to your efforts, I think it is just perfect. But if you are concerned all the time to get better, to take better photos… you might forget living and enjoying all those beautiful moments when you are into the fields, into the woods or other very beautiful place.
Second one: be glad for all your results. I know there are thousands and maybe thousands of thousands of people who take greater photos that you. So what? You see and admire their photos. But, are they really happy during the process? I suppose some of them are not. Why? Because all the time they try to be different, they try to be better, they try to defeat their concurrence, they put their lives into danger for all sort of photos. For what? For a perfect exposure? For a very, very sharp photo? For a new point of view?
I know, we all want better photos, but I suppose greatness comes as a bonus to your joy. Greatness isn’t a goal, greatness is just an effect of your mood, your way of seeing and doing things. You are better today than yesterday. And if you see your imperfections and your lacks, this means to me that now you are more aware, more attentive to yourself. Awareness don’t come easy. It is a gift. It is a light.
Third one. It is not about the gear. Yes, good gear helps a lot, even more than we can imagine, but if you cannot afford to upgrade, then be glad for what you have. Yes, you will lose some opportunities. Yes, your photos won’t have the best quality but still, your experience and your feelings are documented by your photos. No one else will ever feel like you when you will see every single photo you have taken.
Now, after all, it is all up to you and it is none of my business to tell you all these.
Do you want a better camera? Great. You will find a way and you will have it. But don’t forget to tell me after you buy it if you are happier.
Some years ago I wanted so hard to capture the things as I saw them but after a long time I understood it is more important to attend to myself, to observe things around me, other beings around me and just be happy and grateful.
I end this here saying: enjoy your time, enjoy your life.
p.s. These are the words of an amateur photographer, and they might not have any value at all because there is a huge difference between the mind of an amateur and the mind of a pro photographer.
Cornell's photos and words 
That is a lesson that can be applied to life as well as photography. If you’re too caught up in acquiring more, you probably aren’t enjoying what you have.
Thank you for all your comments and all your wise words. 🙂
I have to agree with you Cornell. We all need to be aware and enjoy our life here on earth. Perfection can be a good thing although none of us are perfect. We should enjoy our life, our visions, and our achievements be it in photography, writing or living. None of us are here on this beautiful planet for long. Let’s make the best of things!
Very true.
Thank you.
beautiful post to me. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment.
And I also thank you for all your likes.
Even if almost all your post are in Vietnamese, still you do have some interesting ones in English, too.
As I enjoy landscapes so much, it would be interesting for me to see more landscapes from Việt Nam.
Thanks for your reply. I have been lazy and given up taking photos with digital-lens camera as it is too heavy for me, but if you want to see some photos of Vietnam, taken by me, you can have a look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93362428@N04/albums/72157646339007943.
Hope you like some of them. And obviously keep posting your nice photos and thoughts. I hope one day I can visit Romania to see its real beautiful landscape and people.
Wow, amazing series of photos.
Maybe for you they are not so interesting but others, like me, they certainly are.
Thank you for the compliment. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed them.
Your words have great value, Cornell. I use my camera to record what I see, If it comes out well, hooray. If it comes out not so well, I still saw it and recorded it. And I have en enormous amount of fun. I try to get better though.
I think we all try to get better but sometimes we might forget about the amount of fun we are having.
While I tend to agree with what you’ve said in this very well written post about being happy with who you are, the photography gear that you have, and remembering to not let the quest for better photos ruin your enjoyment of the here and now, I get a great deal of pleasure shooting an image that I’m proud of, and shows details of what I see in nature better than I can see with the naked eye. I think that there’s room in life both to enjoy the here and now, while trying to improves one’s skill at the same time, but that has come slowly to me as I worked so hard to get to where I am now. I think that I’m to the point where I can strike a better balance from now on.
You know, I started this post as a comment to your latest post but after a while I said to myself this might not be ok as a comment, it might be offending you, somehow. So I wrote this blog post.
Once again, maybe it is my difficulty in understanding English but I think you are very concerned about gear in a lot of posts and I thought you are slowly losing your joy.
Indeed, when you have a large amount of detail in one photo, you are very, very glad. And I do understand this. I feel the same.
Yes, you are right, there is enough room for improvement. But here’s the principle: too much of something else.
I was shooting frantic birds and at the end of so many days I was realizing I almost haven’t seen any bird except through the view finder or through my screen. I was so preoccupied to get a picture, the best picture of them, and I wasn’t enjoying their behavior anymore… Well, it was a sad period of my life. I decided to end that. I put my camera in a box and went alone to enjoy nature many times. It was hard for me, all the time I was seeing only missed occasions for some of my best shots.
If somehow I said something which was inappropriate, I apologize, it wasn’t my intent. I do appreciate all your work, the quality of your photos but I also want to see you full of joy.
Maybe we do things differently, I often watch bird behavior through my camera and telephoto lens the way that some people use binoculars or spotting scopes. When the right time comes, then I’ll press the shutter release. Also, looking for birds to photograph keeps me more aware of my surroundings, not less. I’m always looking for clues as to where the birds may be, while if I’m just hiking in the woods, I tend to put my head down and trudge on, seldom looking around me.
Oh, and by the way, I know what your intent was when you wrote the post and I wasn’t offended at all by it, I know that you’re trying to help. But, I don’t have your natural talent as a photographer, so even though I love photography, I have to work harder to accomplish anything close to what you can do.
I am so glad to read that you wasn’t offended at all.
I want to write a post in order to show you how I decide what photos to take, my reasons, the way I see things, the way I compose my frame and many other facts.