THE THREE CLAIMS

Photography improves when decisions are made before the shutter is pressed — and fails when they are postponed. Still Frame is built on three claims that describe how images actually come into existence, how meaning is sustained, and why progress breaks when those claims are ignored. These are not opinions. They are constraints. Everything in the Learning path assumes them.

These claims are not meant to be agreed with emotionally. They are meant to be tested in practice. As you move through the Learning material, every decision framework, exercise, and critique assumes these constraints. If a lesson feels strict, it’s because the system is enforcing them.

A Photograph Is a Decision

  • Nothing meaningful “reveals itself” to the camera. The moment only becomes a photograph because someone decided what mattered before pressing the shutter. If no decision was made, the image has no job — and whatever works in it is coincidence.

Clarity Governs Meaning

  • A photograph doesn’t need to look impressive. It needs to make one thing clear. When attention is scattered, meaning collapses. When attention is deliberate, the frame holds.

Inconsistency is Explainable

  • Good shots don’t happen by accident — and bad ones aren’t unexplained failures. When decisions are made after the photo exists, learning breaks. Luck takes over. And progress stalls.

Explore the Learning Path

The Learning path exists to make these claims usable in the field. Every lesson assumes the constraints you’ve just read — and builds skill by enforcing them.

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