Tell a story with parts. Too often we think that people need to see everything to understand. Often the opposite is true. If you show everything – people think about the specific situation. If you show them part of the scene, they fill in the blanks with what they know and understand and relate more deeply to the image.

Let people fill in the blanks – don’t give them all the information. You will connect with more people by giving them to relate to the story on their own terms.

If the individual viewer realizes that for him what he sees in a picture corresponds to something within himself that is, the photograph mirrors something in himself then his experience is some degree of Equivalence. Minor White

A good photograph is knowing where to stand. Ansel Adams

The most common angle shot in photography is that of a photographer holding the camera and looking at his subject straight on. This is nice for a realistic approach. However, it doesn’t say anything new about the subject.

I must confess that I dabble in writing poetry. One of the rules for poets is to take something common and ‘make it strange.’ I apply that rule to photography too. A new perspective can change everything.

1. Get down low or move up higher.
2. Try laying on your stomach or on your back.
3. Climb up on a ladder for a different perspective.

Don’t be afraid to embarrass the people around you. My father wasn’t. When I was a sophomore in high school, we went to Royal Gorge in Colorado. My Dad thought it would be neat to show what it looked like when walking on the bridge and looking between the rather substantial gaps between the bridge planks.

I was sixteen and completely embarrassed. My father likes to recall how after he got done taking his photo he stands up and looks around to find all his family had wandered off and was looking in the opposite direction. They were completely unwilling to claim him.

The perspective of the gull from below allows us to focus on his rather ludicrous feet. Notice that this photo also makes use of three points and thus creates a triangle – sing with me “three is a magic number.”

From above, this lounge in a hotel in Mexico begins to look like an piece of geometric abstract art. Oh, did you notice the balding man? Look! Play connect the dot with the lamps. What shape does it make? Bingo! A triangle!

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful John Constable

Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration

Practice!!

With the advent of digital photography there is absolutely no excuse not to practice. One of the initial reasons I switched to digital is because it allowed me to take as many photos as I wanted and not have to go to the expense of printing them. I love photography but I am cheap and lack financial resources so a digital camera was the solution. My first camera was Vivcam10 which takes 640X480 photos.

The Vivicam is so basic that most peoples pocket digitals are able to take higher resolution shots than the Vivicam. However, the Vivicam’s simplicity was a blessing for me. It forced me to develop my eye since the camera couldn’t do anything for me.

So Shoot. Shoot. Shoot. Sometimes a good shot will come as a result of skill sometimes it will be a sheer luck. There is always that one percent of inspiration that in the case of photographers is sometimes more luck than inspiration. But that inspiration/luck moment doesn’t happen unless you practice.

Practicing increases your odds. Odds are that you will have more good shots if you take more shots.

If you are shooting film and need to save money or resources try to pick one subject per roll and concentrate on a more detailed photographic shoot. Concentrating on one subject at a time is one of the best ways to improve your photography even if you are shooting digital.

I have often thought that if photography were difficult in the true sense of the term-meaning that the creation of a simple photograph would entail as much time and effort as the production of a good watercolor or etching-there would be a vast improvement in total output. The sheer ease with which we can produce a superficial image often leads to creative disaster.

Ansel Adams

Carry Your Camera

Hand in hand with practice is keeping your camera with you at all times.

If you have your camera with you, you increase your chances of getting an unusual or a once-in-a-lifetime shot.

I have a fascination with cemeteries so I frequent them. If I had not had my camera while visiting this cemetery the opportunity to get a shot of a cat yowling next to a decrepit tombstone would have been missed.

I love Schoolhouse Rock. Whenever my girls watch their dvd I find myself humming the songs for the rest of the day, week, month…

I bet you didn’t know that Schoolhouse Rock could be applied to photography. But I can bet that if you know the tune to the following song, it is going to get stuck in your head.

Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it’s a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number.

The past and the present and the future.
Faith and Hope and Charity,
The heart and the brain and the body
Give you three as a magic number.

One of the rules of composition is to use odd numbers. It is a good rule, when one remembers to use it. I think it is best utilized when dealing with small numbers.

For instance, if you have a choice to present two, three, or four of something. Try three. It makes a more interesting photo and gives the eyes room to roam. If your eyes are roaming, they don’t get bored.

If you are dealing with like objects, remember, it isn’t necessary for them all to be in focus.

Every triangle has three corners,
Every triangle has three sides,
No more, no less.
You don’t have to guess.
When it’s three you can see
It’s a magic number.

The nice thing about the rule of three is it makes a triangle. When you are composing different items in the frame, it isn’t necessary for them to be the same, in order for them to still be subject to the rule of three.

For instance, in the image below there are three points: the blossom, the bud pointing into the frame, and the bud in the upper right corner. These three elements or points make a dynamic triangle that moves the viewer through the frame.

A man and a woman had a little baby,
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family,
And that’s a magic number.

—Three is a Magic Number by Bob Dorough

Anybody can take a picture. And I do mean anybody can take a picture. In fact, almost anybody can take a reasonably decent picture. There are dozens upon dozens of magazines and websites out there ready to tell you about equipment and how to use it. Information about how to take a technically strong photo is abundant. But…truly good photography is art. It is the art of telling others what you think without using words and doing it in such away that they understand you and feel a connection to you and your work.

If you are passionate, you can learn to be a real photographer and you don’t need a great camera to do it. My goal is to help you find the way to say what you mean and express what you feel and make your photos speak.

Some of what I write will be similar to what is available in other magazines and websites because to speak clearly – you need to know what you are doing but a most of what I hope to share will be about developing your eye and your ability to translate how you see the world into a photo that speaks to others.

So lift you glass for the toast: Here’s to ‘real’ photography.

Genius is not a possession of the limited few,
but exists in some degree in everyone.
Where there is natural growth,
a full and free play of faculties,
genius will manifest itself. — Robert Henri