3 things I would tell a new photographer
1. Always shoot what intrigues you, never worry if it looks good or would even make a good photograph.
2. Move closer to the subject. I mean really close. Make it fill the frame, if your camera doesn't let you do this, you have the wrong camera.
3. WAIT. Click when something special happens. The poser stops posing. A breath is exhaled. In the case of the napping fishers on a dock, wait for an arm to be raised or an ass to be scratched.
Think of it this way, if the subject is a dog (ugh), make sure the dog is panting or scratching or begging. Dogs pant, don't they. Even if it's waiting three minutes for the forced smile of your subjects to disappear, WAIT for it to happen.
EXTRA ADVICE by way of precedence: Andres Kertesz (Hungarian-American) used to set "visual traps". He would identify areas that would make great backdrops for a shot and then wait for something or someone to enter the trap. Then he would take the shot..... Really I should follow my own advice.
Happy clicks to you.
2. Move closer to the subject. I mean really close. Make it fill the frame, if your camera doesn't let you do this, you have the wrong camera.
3. WAIT. Click when something special happens. The poser stops posing. A breath is exhaled. In the case of the napping fishers on a dock, wait for an arm to be raised or an ass to be scratched.
Think of it this way, if the subject is a dog (ugh), make sure the dog is panting or scratching or begging. Dogs pant, don't they. Even if it's waiting three minutes for the forced smile of your subjects to disappear, WAIT for it to happen.
EXTRA ADVICE by way of precedence: Andres Kertesz (Hungarian-American) used to set "visual traps". He would identify areas that would make great backdrops for a shot and then wait for something or someone to enter the trap. Then he would take the shot..... Really I should follow my own advice.
Happy clicks to you.
Comments
If pictures really told such complex stories, we wouldn't have invented the typewriter! We'd still be doing cave-painting. It's perfectly fine for a photo to tell a simple or obvious "story". It doesn't have to have layers of meaning and symbolism.