THE THINGS I DO…

Sometimes, shooting from a different angle will open your eyes to a new composition you had never thought of before. During a recent vacation to the Asheville, NC area, I was chasing some spectacular cloud formations across the sky, trying to find an interesting foreground to use to frame my shot. While clouds can sometimes make great photos by themselves, I was looking for something to remember my vacation by and was in search of something interesting to put in the foreground. We found this little historical park at the site of the old Zeb Vance homestead and seeing this combination of old log homes and rustic fences caused me to swerve into their parking lot.

I was using my circular polarizer to give me a spectacular blue backdrop for the clouds (and to add more saturation to the greens), but I still wasn’t happy with the shot…that is, until I bent down to get a different lens from my bag. Looking up from that low angle, I saw this mirrored composition of the spit-rail fencing against the mountains in the distance and immediately had an “aha!” moment. I swapped lenses (I used a 24-70mm zoom for this) and got down to ground level. I mean all the way down! Lying on my side, I fired off 10 or 15 shots. In a few minutes, the clouds moved on and so did I…happy that I took the “low road” to get this photograph.

At a recent photo walk, one of the participants pulled me aside and expressed his frustration at not shooting lots of “keeper” images during group photo outings. He was visibly irritated with his performance (or lack of) and it was pretty obvious that he was not enjoying himself. Since the whole point of a photo walk is to enjoy yourself, I gave him some words of advice that kept me from chucking my gear in a bin years ago… take things one step at a time and always remember how far you’ve come, not how far you have to go. You see, digital photography can be both as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Be careful not to try too many things at once, especially when you’re learning the basics.

Someone once told me “there’ll always be greater and lesser people than you out there, the trick is to accept that fact and do your best with the tools at hand.” Applied to digital photography, it means set small goals for yourself at every step in your photo evolution. Goals such as “I’m going to use the manual exposure settings for half the photos I shoot today” or “I’m going to experiment with at least one HDR image” are easy to set and, once achieved, will give you a real sense of accomplishment. Stack one accomplishment onto another, then add another and you’ll soon see how much your skills are improving.

I set small “fun” goals for myself all the time. Last weekend, I hosted a photo walk and, knowing I would be tied up helping folks with their photography and making sure everyone was having a great time,  set only one goal for myself. I wanted to make one good photograph…something I could frame and hang on my wall. No stress, just one photo. After walking through the park for a couple hours, I missed several shots, let other possibilities pass me by for one reason or another. No pressure, I only needed one shot, right? As I was leaning on the railing, taking a break after the walk down to the swamp bridge, the shot I was looking for happened right in front of me. That’s when I shot this photo:

Knowing I had this shot “in the bag,” I relaxed a bit and focused my attentions (pun intended) on helping other photo walkers for the rest of the morning. I didn’t stop looking, mind you (see my previous post on why you don’t want to do that), but my main photographic goal for the day was accomplished. As I look at the framed photo over my Mac, I’ll always be reminded of the fun I had hosting this photo walk, thanks to setting my goals to “minimum” for the day. Remember, if photography stresses you out, you’re doing something wrong!

I’m hosting my first big photo walk of the summer and wanted to go over a short checklist of things to take with you so you can devote all your energy toward making great photos. First, take care of yourself. Wear comfortable shoes, bring along sunscreen, water and a snack in case the munchies strike. Don’t forget the water, it’ll end up the most important thing in your photo walk inventory. Second, assess what sort of photography you’ll be doing and equip yourself appropriately. If you’re shooting wildlife, bring long glass, a monopod and leave the flash equipment at home. If you’re photo walk is geared more toward street shooting, bring an 80-200mm zoom and a wide angle. Leave the long stuff at home. Flowers=macro lenses and landscapes means bring out the wide stuff (and polarizers!)

The key here is to not bring so much gear that you can’t react quickly to photo possibilities. The last thing you want to happen is to become dehydrated and be preoccupied with finding water when you should be occupied with enjoying the photo walk! I’ve hosted many walks and can state with conviction that the better you feel, the better your work will be. So don’t rush out on your next photo walk without scanning this checklist first. Enjoy.

After spending the morning stomping around in the brush, I thought I’d share a composition tip. Once you’ve taken the time to line up your shot, don’t be satisfied with it. When shooting animals, I find myself stop trying to improve the shot once I have the critter framed in my viewfinder. It’s a bad habit I constantly have to push myself to undo. It’s a rare photo that can’t be improved by a slight change of position. Take a look at my first frame of a great blue heron on the hunt:

Not bad, but I’m looking past the obvious fact that it’s exposed well and in focus. Look at the background. It has more than a few distracting sticks and highlights. To clean that up a bit, I could either try to throw it out of focus a little more with a wider aperture or change my camera position. In this instance, I moved two steps to the left and moved those sticks out of the frame. Here’s my second try:

As you can see, it’s quite a bit different and the background is much, much less distracting. So, next time you’re out with your camera and are ready to press your shutter, try this visual exercise:

• Move two steps to the right (from your original position), take a photo.
• Move two step to the left, take a photo.
• Back up two steps, move forward two steps, bend your knees (taking a shot each time, of course).

Don’t be happy with your first frame. I hope you see that changing your camera position even slightly can improve your photos. 

Feel free to share your experiences doing my little exercise here…

Looking for a new way to see things? Try shooting from a low angle. I found this patch of gigantic mushrooms perfectly lit by a shaft of late afternoon sunlight. From my normal, standing perspective, the photo wasn’t much to look at. Bending my knees and shooting up from ground level, however, made a big difference.

Keep in the back of your mind “would my shot be improved by going lower?” the next time you’re out with your camera. It can transform the ordinary photo to something extraordinary.

Oh, and purchase a gardener’s knee pad, they make getting low more comfortable and less messy on the knees!