Are You Holding Your Camera Like a Cheese and Pickle Sandwich?

Are you holding your camera like a cheese and pickle sandwich? 🥪 One hand, casual, not really thinking about it? 

In this episode, Rick covers six practical techniques that will make your photos sharper — starting the moment you pick up your camera. No kit required. No settings to change. Just how to hold, how to stand, and how to breathe. All of it free. All of it doable today. 📸 

In this episode 🎙️ 

1. How to grip your camera with your right hand (and why most beginners get this wrong) 
2. Why your left hand is your best camera stabiliser — and how to use it properly 
3. How using your viewfinder creates a third point of contact — and makes you a human tripod 
4. Why tucking your elbows in reduces camera shake more than you'd think 
5. How foot position and stance affect your camera stability 
6. The breathing technique that gives you sharper photos instantly 

Full episode and show notes 📖 

Are You Holding Your Camera Like a Cheese and Pickle Sandwich? 

Related episodes 🎧 

Episode 93 — How Do You Hold a Camera Properly? This Is Very Important! 

Episode 89 — Camera Shake — What Is It and How Do I Stop It Happening? 

Next episode 💝 

You've sorted your grip. You're holding the camera properly. You press the shutter. And then — oh no. Another blurry photo. 

Episode 234 — 'Oh No. Another Blurry Photo. Here's How to Stop It Right Now.' — out Friday 5th June 2026. 

Find me online 🌍 

RickMcEvoyPhotography.com 

Courses — rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses 

Resources — rickmcevoyphotography.com/resources 

YouTube — find me by searching Rick McEvoy 🎬 

Text me from the podcast feed if you have questions or want to share how you get on. How utterly splendid. 🤝 

I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. Take care. Stay safe. Cheers! 👋 

 My brand new course Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico, will teach you exactly how to get out at sunrise and come back with photos you love  all told in plain English. it includes real footage of me photographing an actual sunrise in Mexico with an entry level camera. Find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

 If you want to start taking stunning sunrise photos, and why wouldn't you,  check out my Photography for Beginners: Sunrise in Mexico course at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses.

Transcript

Are You Holding Your Camera Like a Cheese and Pickle Sandwich?

You're making your photos blurry before you've even pressed the shutter. And you don't know you're doing it.

I want you to picture something.

You've made a cheese and pickle sandwich. You pick it up. One hand. Casual. It's fine — it's a sandwich. It doesn't need to be stable. It doesn't need to be still. It's going in your mouth. Nobody cares.

Now. How are you holding your camera?

If the answer is 'same sort of way, really' — we need to talk.

I should mention — there is a back catalogue episode on this. Episode 93, 'How Do You Hold a Camera Properly? This Is Very Important!' covers the technical foundations really well, and I'll link to it in the show notes. This episode is different. This one is about what actually happens in practice. The specific, very human, very understandable things beginners do when they first pick up a camera and treat it like it's a sandwich. And why that one habit — that one casual, unthinking grab — is quietly ruining photos that had every chance of being brilliant.

Right. Let's get into this.

Holding a camera properly sounds like it should be obvious. You pick it up, you point it, you press the button. Job done. But there is a gap between picking a camera up and holding it in a way that gives you sharp, well-framed photos. And that gap is responsible for a very large number of slightly blurry photos sitting on cameras right now.

I want to give you six things. Six very specific things that will make an immediate difference. Not settings. Not kit. Just how you hold, how you stand, and how you breathe. All of it free. All of it doable today.

1. How to Hold a Camera With Your Right Hand (Most Beginners Get This Wrong)
Your right hand holds the camera body. That's the side with the shutter button. And there is a grip there — a proper raised section designed for your fingers to wrap around. Use it. Fully.

I don't mean rest your fingers on it. I mean grip it. Fingers curled around the front, thumb sitting behind. Firmly. Not strangling-it firmly — you're not wringing out a wet towel — but deliberately. Intentionally. Like this hand has a job to do and knows it.

Most beginners hold the camera loosely. Fingers draped across the front. It feels natural. It looks fine. But every tiny movement of those fingers or that wrist transfers directly into the camera. So does every nervous twitch. Every small shift in weight.

Grip it. Properly. Let that be a conscious choice every time you pick the camera up.

2. How Your Left Hand Can Instantly Stabilise Your Camera
This is the big one. This is the tip that makes the biggest immediate difference.

Your left hand goes under the camera — or under the lens if you have a longer one attached. Palm facing upward. The camera — or the lens — rests in your left hand. You are a human camera rest. You are supporting the weight from below, not clutching the camera from the sides.

The single most common thing beginners do — and it is completely understandable — is hold the camera from both sides with their fingers around the edges. This looks like how you'd hold a camera. It does not work like holding a camera should. It gives you two grip points, both of which wobble independently.

Supporting from underneath gives you a stable cradle. The camera sits in your left hand the way a bowl of soup sits in both hands. Supported. Level. Going nowhere.

Try it now, with whatever you're near. Anything — a book, your phone. Hold it from the sides. Now hold it from underneath. Feel the difference. That is the difference in your photos.

3. Use Your Viewfinder to Create a Third Point of Contact
This one takes a minute to get right but it is absolutely worth it.

If your camera has a viewfinder — the small eyepiece at the top of the back of the camera — use it. Get your eye to it. And when I say get your eye to it, I mean bring the camera up so your face and the camera are in contact. Your cheekbone or brow resting against the body. Your eye in the viewfinder.

That contact is a third point of stability. Camera in right hand, camera resting on left hand, camera against your face. Three points of contact. You've built yourself a human tripod. For free. Right now.

If you're using the screen on the back of the camera instead — which is absolutely fine — hold the camera as close to your body as you comfortably can. Arms stretched out in front of you with the camera at arm's length is the least stable way to do this. The closer the camera is to your body, the less work your arms are doing. The less work your arms are doing, the less they wobble. Simple.

4. Tuck Your Elbows In to Reduce Camera Shake
Arms out, elbows pointing sideways — this is the sandwich pose. It's what we do by instinct. And it is not what we want.

Tuck your elbows in against your body. Both of them. Snug against your chest or your ribs. Your arms are now braced. Your whole upper body becomes a support structure for the camera rather than just your hands doing everything.

This sounds minor. It is not minor. The difference between elbows out and elbows in is the difference between two long wobbling levers holding your camera and two short braced supports. That reduction in camera movement is immediate and real.

If you're wondering why your photos are slightly blurry even when everything feels steady — try this first. Just this. See what happens.

5. How Your Stance and Foot Position Affect Camera Stability
You're not just holding the camera with your hands. Your whole body is involved. And your feet set the foundation for everything above them.

Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. A slight forward lean — weight fractionally toward your front foot, not a lunge, just a gentle forward intention. And if you can, bring one foot slightly in front of the other.

Your body becomes dramatically more stable when it has a wider base. I think of it the same way as a tripod. Three legs, spread out, planted — stable. Two feet together, close and upright — not stable. Spread them. Plant them. Make yourself as solid as you can before you press anything.

This matters more than people expect. You can have perfect hand technique and still introduce camera wobble by rocking gently as you breathe, standing on soft ground, or just being slightly off-balance. Sort the foundation first.

6. The Breathing Technique That Helps You Take Sharper Photos
Your body moves when you breathe. Not much. But enough to show up in your photos.

This technique has been used by photographers — and by archers and riflemen, since we're on the subject of things that need to be steady — for a very long time. And it works.

Take a breath in. Let it out. As you let it out — at the end of the exhale, in that natural brief pause before your next breath in — press the shutter. That moment is when your body is at its most still. Not tensed with a held breath. Not moving with an inhale or mid-exhale. Just calm.

Breathe in. Breathe out. In that still pause — shoot.

Practice this a few times before it becomes automatic. Once it does, you won't notice you're doing it. And your photos will quietly thank you.

Quick Recap

1. Your right hand grips the camera — deliberately, fully, fingers wrapped around the body grip.
2. Your left hand supports from underneath — palm up, camera resting in it, not clutched from the sides.
3. Bring the camera up to your face to create a third point of contact — viewfinder or as close as possible.
4. Tuck your elbows into your body — let your whole upper body brace and stabilise the camera.
5. Plant your feet shoulder-width apart with a slight forward lean and one foot a little in front.
6. Breathe in, breathe out — and shoot in that natural still pause at the end of the exhale.

Six things. None of them cost money. All of them available to you right now.

What If I Use a Phone to Take Photos?
If you're shooting on a phone, your grip situation is different — but the principles still apply, and there's one phone habit worth watching.

Most of us hold a phone with both hands, one on each side, thumbs on the back, screen facing us. That's actually a fairly stable position — better than you might think. But there is one habit from phone photography that transfers badly when you move to a camera.

The arm-extension habit. Holding your phone out at arm's length to see the screen. If you then use a camera's rear screen the same way — arms out, camera held away from your body — you've brought that instability with you.

Whatever you're using — phone or camera — the core idea is the same. Get it close to your body. Use both hands properly. Create as many points of contact as you can. Elbows in. Feet planted.

And if you're thinking about making the move from phone to camera, the grip adjustment is one of the first things you'll notice. It feels strange at first. Give it a few sessions and it becomes completely natural.

And yes, a phone is more like a cheese and pickle sandwich isn't it….

What Do I Do?
I'll be honest — after 40-odd years, I don't consciously run through a grip checklist every time I pick up my camera. The habits are automatic now. But they were built deliberately, and I still use all of them.

I use the viewfinder whenever I can. I'm a bit old school about this. There's something about getting the camera against your face that makes you feel like you mean it. Like you've committed to the shot rather than just vaguely pointing at it.

The viewfinder is there for a reason. It helps you to take better photos. Look through the viewfinder and you are excluding everything else – all you can see is what is in the photo you are about to take. And this genuinely helps you and I take better composed photos dear listener.

And this is one of the stand out reasons why it is better to take photos with a camera rather than with a phone – a phone doesn't have a viewfinder.

And using the viewfinder helps you to take sharper photos – I have already covered that so I wont repeat myself here.

For architectural and real estate work I'm usually on a tripod, so a lot of this changes. But for travel and landscape photography — anything handheld — all six of these tips are running every single time. Elbows in, left hand under the lens, feet planted, wait for the exhale.

The breathing one took me the longest to make automatic. Now I don't even notice I'm doing it.

Here's Something for You to Do, Dear Listener
Pick up your camera today — or this weekend if today's no good. Not to take photos. Just to hold it.

Right hand wrapped around the grip. Left hand underneath, palm up, camera resting in it. Elbows tucked in. Camera to your face. Feet shoulder-width apart.

Hold that position for a minute. Feel how solid it is. That's what you're going for every time.

Then let me know how it goes. Did something shift? Did it feel strange at first and then click? Text me from the podcast feed — the link is in the show notes. How utterly splendid.

Related Episodes
Two back-catalogue episodes worth your time here.

Episode 93 — 'How Do You Hold a Camera Properly? This Is Very Important!' — covers the practical fundamentals in much more detail. This episode builds on that one. If you want the full technical picture, that's your next listen.

And Episode 89 — 'Camera Shake — What Is It and How Do I Stop It Happening?' — covers the enemy we're fighting when we talk about grip. Understanding what camera shake actually is makes everything in this episode make a lot more sense.

Episode 93 — How Do You Hold a Camera Properly? This Is Very Important!

Episode 89 — Camera Shake — What Is It and How Do I Stop It Happening?

Next Episode
Next episode, we're going somewhere that follows on from this perfectly. You've sorted your grip. You're holding the camera properly. Your stance is solid. You press the shutter. And then —

Oh no. Another blurry photo.

What is going on?

We're going to dig into every single reason photos come out blurry — not just camera shake, all of them — and I'll give you the simple fixes for each one. It's called 'Oh No. Another Blurry Photo. Here's How to Stop It Right Now.' That one is out on Friday 5th June. Don't miss it.

Sign-Off
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Photography Explained Podcast. 🤝 I do hope you enjoyed it and found it useful. If you have any questions 💁 or suggestions for a future episode, please let me know. 🙂

And if you did love this episode why not subscribe so you get every new episode straight to your listening device of choice. And if could tell one person all about my splendid podcast that would be greatly appreciated.

For everything else — courses, resources, my weekly email and lots of other good stuff check out RickMcEvoyPhotography.com. And you can find me on YouTube by searching Rick McEvoy. And text me from the podcast feed – how utterly splendid.

This episode was brought to you by a cheese and pickle sandwich, consumed before settling into my homemade, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.

I've been Rick McEvoy. Thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast, and for giving me 27-ish minutes of your valuable time. I reckon this episode will be about 23 minutes long after editing out the mistakes and other bad stuff.

Thanks for listening. Take care. Stay safe. Cheers from me, Rick!

Want to go further with your photography?

I have two courses at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses. If you want to turn your photography into a business, my real estate photography course takes you through everything — from the kit you actually need to delivering work clients will pay for, based on my 20 years of doing exactly that. And if you're at the beginning of your photography journey, my beginner course was filmed on location in Mexico — real places, real light, real results. Not a studio. Not a grey background. The actual thing.

My resources page at rickmcevoyphotography.com/resources is worth a look too. I've pulled together the gear, software, and tools I actually use and recommend — and some of them will save you a lot of money compared to what most people assume they need to buy.

rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses

rickmcevoyphotography.com/resources