First entry in a new series featuring Barry’s tips and tricks to better photography.
I’m grateful to be in a lifelong career that I love. Grateful for my eyesight and the ability to capture the decisive moments in front of me thru the medium of photography. Grateful to wonderful clients who trust me to tell their stories using this vision.
I’m thankful for the right side of the brain which kicks into high gear when I bring a camera to my eye because it opens up amazing and incredible scenes for me to photograph. As cliche as it sounds, the camera and I become one, images come into focus, and photographs are made. Sounds simple yes? To me it is but many struggle in their attempts to take good photographs.
These Photo Tips are passed along to make your photography easier and more enjoyable, producing images you’ll be proud to show.
Most important tip of all: Always have a camera with you. Don’t wait for the blue sky and sunshine. Bundle up and get outdoors.
Even cloudy dreary days have beauty. Forget the sun and blue sky, look for shapes and textures that stand out from the background. These reeds have both and lead your eye to the reflections in the water and the far shore. The sky is cut off on purpose so the darker trees, in my opinion, send your eye to the plants in the foreground.
We normally walk past weeds, long grass, and thistles in the summer paying them little attention. An overnight coating of ice gives these a beautiful sparkle. I walked around several of them until I found the darkest backdrop.
Moving in much closer to another iced plant, using a close-up lens to help blur the background and catch fine detail. It looks like a glass Christmas tree ornament doesn’t it? Of course this scene didn’t last long as the temperature warmed, melting the ice, leaving brittle brown sticks. If you snooze you lose.
Finally, ice droplets on aspen leaves. We normally try to photograph the fall colors in better weather, with the sun shining thru the branches and leaves. But this close-up has a quality of its own. Still have nice fall color. The veins in the leaf and the ice drops provide a different look at Mother Nature’s work.
So, keep your camera handy, don’t be afraid of putting it to use in less than ideal weather and enjoy the surprises you’ll discover.
