Its a common tradition among armchair psychoanalysts explaining the source of artistry and technical abilities in our brains that the right side is associated with non-linear thought processes required for art while the left is more closely aligned with linear, practical thoughts. No surprise to you that medical science also figured out the right side of the brain controls left motor functions while the left is just the opposite. For most of us, one side is dominate over the other leading to the propensity to be either right or left handed. Hence one side is guiding the boat more than the other. While most of this train of thought does absolutely no justice to messy complicated medical details it does give a start to what a brain needs to realizing a final imageis it technical or artistic?.

Rarely do you see anyone fortunate enough to have equal control of both hands. As noted before youre either right or left handed. Which leads to a conclusion either your right or left side is dominate. This further results in a determination youre either a non-linear artistic thinker or a linear, technical kind of person.

Let me add some more background detail. Have you ever wondered why there arent any 10 year old prodigy photographers? Sure youve got prodigy violin players, artists, and singers, but have you ever heard of a prodigy photographer? Neither have I. Why is that? Lets look at what it takes to shoot compared to the other arts. Photography requires a robust capability to handle technical details to produce quality results. The whole task of conquering light, speed, and exposure along with composition through a mechanical device needs a healthy dose of left brain to keep things organized.

Lets see, the highlight area is 1/320sec at f/16 while the shadows are 1/5sec at f/16thats 6 stops of dynamic range and exceeds the capabilities of my slide film; not enough for one shot. But, if I shoot one image based on the highlights and another for the shadows, I can merge both in Photoshop using a contrast mask. Oh, dont forget 1/5sec needs a steady tripod and the White Balance needs to be set manually to avoid subtle exposure changes from one to the next... Quite a lot of technical mumbo jumbo for anyone and we havent even thought about composition yet.

Its been my experience most kids minds arent developed enough to handle the logical thinking required to keep track of all this. Shoot its hard enough for my 10 year old to understand complex board games with lots of rules let alone trying to convince him one over the focal length is a good rule of thumb to make sharp images handheld.