1. The Way leads the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him at the risk of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

We must have an intimate knowledge of our cameras. We need to love them and assimilate them into ourselves. In order to be able to use the cameras instinctively, we always need to keep them close to us and build a trusting relationship by understanding them. We need to share many experience with them in a variety of situation. Then, they will automatically respond to our intention and helps us shoot in our styles to take the best pictures regardless of conditions.

2. Heaven means night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

We need to adjust to natural conditions such as seasons, weather, and time, and develop a sense to enjoy them. All we need to do is read tone curves, colors, and details of the subjects, be moved by them and capture the emotional motives. And, we don't need to shoot if our feeling doesn't synchronize the air because it will be meaningless if our feeling can't harmonize with the surroundings. And, sometimes we choose the color mode between color and monochrome according to the subject.

3. Earth signifies great and small distances, danger and security, wide and narrow, death and life.

We should pay attention to the surroundings wherever we are, act according to the current location and direction of light, and always compose within our own picturesque frame. By doing so, we don't panic even when we suddenly encounter the sweet moment and we will be able to capture it securely. If we preset the focus, aperture, and shutter speed according to situation, we don't lose the timing. If we do a research on shooting locations, we can shoot efficiently. Of course, sometimes we wait until the best moment comes.

4. The commander stands for the wisdom, belief, benevolence, courage, and strictness.

It's important to have a strong belief in our photography, face the subject fairly and boldly, and fully control the camera. With a full-auto setting, our emotion won't emerge from the photography. We must be familiar with the characters of cameras and lenses, and take a full control of them. When we carry more than two cameras or lenses, we must judge what to use instantly and calmly according to circumstances. It's all up to our sensitivity and skills whether we can use our cameras beautifully and smoothly as if we're using our hands and legs, and whether we can let the equipment demonstrate the potential.

5. Management represents the system, the rules, and the equipment.

It's essential to be familiar with the usage of cameras, lenses, and accessories. This means that we should also learn photography theories as well as specifications of equipment. Although there's an unlimited number of combinations of the settings according to subjects and situations, as long as we know the basic principle, we can choose to follow or neglect the rules to shoot in a variety of exposure settings to best depict the scene even if it is ordinary.

Those who know the five fundamentals will win, while those who don't know them will lose.

I thought it might be a little to eccentric to quote Sun Tsu written in BC to talk about photography, but interestingly it corresponds to photography pretty much. And, I wondered if the universe recurs to one truth in the end. Am I going too far again?

Cherries have started blooming outside. The rainy season will be over soon.