What am I photographing ?

[GitteK]

I shot more than 1300 photos this vacation - some good, some very good, some dull, some absolutely crappy, BUT one thing I tried to train myself doing was:

1. You see a beauuuuutiful scenery, house, flowerbed, street, square - or whatever. Or maybe not beautiful, but extraordinary in a special way that makes you want to take a picture.

2. You whip out your Canon, hold it up and shoot, right ?

3. STOP !!!

4. Trust your intuition, your instinct - your should and you will take this photo.
But what photo are you taking ?

5. Put the Canon down and ask yourself:

What exactly am I photographing here ?
What exactly is the image I want to keep, take with me and show to others ?
Is it the special light ?
That particular red flower in the middle of the flowerbed ?
The two windows with the blue curtains on the 3rd floor of the house ?
The long shadows that fall from this tree ?
The reflections in the pond ?
What exactly was it that made me reach for my Canon right now ?

6. I found this to be an extremely inspiring exercise - instead of just shooting away at everything. It trains your eyes, your perception, your senses.
Also most of the time it is FAR better to pick your image on location, focus on it, zoom, make choices, create your photo on location - instead of just relying on being able to cut a big photo to small pieces in your Photoshop

Just an idea - which works great for me. Makes the sport of photography much more interesting. The only backside for me is that it made me wander around talking aloud and discussing with myself......

[mossie]

I'm nothing like as organised as you, I know, I'm a man. But I set out to picture certain things and when I find a subject I take a quick picture. Then I think about it, walk round to study different angles etc, before possibly taking some more photos.
I think that the digital camera is a really bad thing in the respect that you are almost encouraged to snap away, willy nilly. The bad old days of film cameras made one much more selective, hell I started with a 12 on rollfilm camera and you really had to think your shot, that and the wait for the film to come back.
But, Gittek, 1300 pics!! Your finger must have been on the tit the whole time!

[mossie]

And I'll ramble on. You, GitteK, have an artists eye and can see pictures which lesser mortals cannot. So please, next trip make it 2600.

[Sarastro]

With digital photography, all of one's mistakes can be easily erased, but he pays to have prints made. Thank goodness.

My three rules of photography:

1. Pictures are more interesting with people in them, particularly people I have met.

2. Frame the photograph with the heads located at the top of the picture. The instinct is to place someone's head in the middle of a scene. OK if you blow up the image but if not, you end up with a lot of sky.

3. Avoid standing too far away from your subjects. Nothing worse than those in your picture appearing as tiny specs against majestic backgrounds.

[Laidback]

Gitte,
Interesting that your photographic hints come right on the heels of one of my posts with amateurish photos ;D

Your advice is indeed superb and I will try to advantage myself of their merits except that #1: you and my family insist on anonymity therefore eliminating many people friendly shots suggested by Sarastro and #2: I already wander the streets talking to myself! and #3: many of my efforts are wine inspired and at the time seem to border on perfection; only later when viewed in the cold light of sobriety are the flaws revealed that are beyond the scope of any editing program.

[gertie]

Laidback, I would call that time to have more wine!