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A Guide to Better Photography

Photography is About Telling a Story

When you see something and you want to take a picture, there is something there that caught your eye. Your job as a photographer is to capture that moment in a way that best tells the story of what caught your eye to anyone who sees the photo

(examples-child playing, dog running fast, isolated tree, etc)

For Every Single Photograph

The One Thing You Must Know...

What Story Do You Want to Tell?

Knowing the answer to this question is the difference between taking a snapshot and taking a photograph.

An Example

You see your kids/grandkids playing at the beach.  They are so adorable to you as they play and you want the world to agree with what should be an obvious observation.

A Snapshot

In my head as I look at this: 

  • It's some rando kid and mom on a beach
  • I don't care
  • Please stop showing me photos of your kids/grandkids


What's wrong?

  • There's so many people and buildings in the background it's hard to tell what really matters
  • It's far away from the action
  • I don't feel any connection with the kid
  • It's a boring perspective

A Photograph

In my head as I look at this: 

  • Your kids/grandkids are adorable
  • Please show me more of your photos
  • Can I donate to their college fund?

What's right:

  • It is right there in the action, you feel like you are almost a part of their fun
  • The whole image is all about them without buildings, other people or any other distractions
  • It's from a fun and interesting perspective
  • It's composed in a way that forces my attention

In this example, the story you wanted to tell was how cute your kids/grandkids were while having fun at the beach. 

This went from a snapshot to a photograph mostly by using good composition. But you had to know that your story is "adorable kids having fun at the beach" then do everything you could to show all the parts of your story..... "adorable kids", "fun" and "beach" to the viewer and get rid of anything that distracts from your story.

Photography Offers Different Tools to Help Us Tell Our  Stories

It is the answer to this question that tells us which tools we might need to use and how we might need to use them to tell our story.

You have one frame capturing one slice of a 360° view in one instant of time to connect the viewer with what you are seeing and feeling in that moment.  You must do everything you can to help the viewer see and feel your story.

This is why we need the tools photography offers.

All You Have to Do is Take A Beat....

Instead of seeing something cool and immediately snapping, take just a beat and ask yourself "what about this makes me want to take a photo?" then do everything thing you can using the tools of photography to highlight the part of that scene that is drawing you and do everything you can to minimize or get rid of anything that draws attention away from your story.

There are 3 Main Categories of Tools

To Help You Tell Your Story

Composition

The Most Important Tool

Emphasizing what's important and minimizing what isn't.

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Exposure

Capturing the right amount of light for the story. While doing so you will be making decisions about graininess of the image, how much is in focus and motion blur.

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Processing

This isn't done yet!

Bringing out the stories in what you've captured.

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Tips for Camera Phone Photography

This isn't done yet!

General how to info for using a camera phone.

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