Don’t just look… see!
What?
You walk and drive past things every day that are photo worthy. And to be honest, so do I. But when I make the time to really see, I find a whole new world of photo opportunities. And the secret to finding these opportunities yourself, is simply to stop.
To clear your mind of the clutter in your life. To take a breath. And to look.
Don’t glance at a dusty old track crowded with weeds.
See a delicious sweep of purple hugging a rich red road.
Don’t just open the gate and hurry back to the vehicle.
See the beauty of barbed wire spiralling delicately into the fence post holes, and lunging into the distance…
Or the dance of intertwining barbed and plain wire in contrast to the age-burnished timber posts…
Don’t just walk past the horse whinnying over the fence for his supper…
Find what it is about him that captures your eye, that draws you in, that speaks to you…
And press that damned shutter.
Here endth the lesson.
Amen.
20 Comments
Gem
Gorgeous shots. If only it were that simple. You have a really great eye. I can only hope (and keep practicing) to get better. I love the horses eye. I am 2 thirds of the way to saving enough for my first DSLR.
Debby
Oh no. You cannot fool me. It’s not that easy.
Tami
Lovely photos….I’m very curious about the way you hang barbed wire. We staple it to wood posts or wire it to steel. I’ve never seen it drilled through a fence post before. Very interesting that.
PS…my word veri is pregnante….I hope that is not some sort of sign. That is NOT what I want for x-mas!
Jenni
Best photography advice ever! Sure, there’s more to learn, but that’s where it all starts. I would think it very hard to do things the other way around, learning all the technical stuff first, but maybe that’s my learning style. I am thankful for all those who post super simple tutorials on all that stuff, though.
Natarojo
lmao I love it! I just wish I had an SLR instead of a digital so I can play with focusing on certain parts of the image!
Diane L. Dodd
LOVE it! i agree 100%.
and i bet you are so glad to have your nikon back 🙂
Leslie
Great photos today. 🙂 Have a good rest of the week. 🙂
A Novel Woman
BB, love the shots of the red road and purple flowers. Oooh, baby.
Nice shots all, actually!
rhubarbwhine
I do wish I had your eyes….
Jayne
Simple and succinct 😉
Jen at Semantically driven
They eyes have it. I love looking at the photos my son takes because of the way he sees things and then snaps them. That is, the angles, the subjects etc etc.
Bush Babe
OK… I am not saying its this simple to get a really top photo… not REALLY. But it has to start in what you see. In how you look at things. In something that EXCITES you, that pleases you. Your eye. Not what someone tells you in a book.
Pioneer Woman (and many others) do outstanding “HOW TO’s” for photography. I would highly recommend them all. They are important to TRANSLATE what you see into that final image.
However, you can have all of the technical knowledge in the world and still take crap photos. Technically good, but boring as batsh**! What’s the point of that?
I think everyone has the ability to take a great pic – especially with digital cameras that do a lot of the thinking for you. IN the end, you are holding it though… and showing what you see…
The beauty is everywhere people… go find it!!!
🙂
BB
Kate
This is fabulous advice. Thank you very much. I will try “seeing” more though my lens 🙂
Alison
BB, I think you’ve summed up beautifully why it is that I like my children’s photography so much better than my own.
Erin
I love this post. I learned photography (not very well) as a journalist as well, and the best advice my editor gave me was to take many pictures and if you think you’re too close, take another step forward.
Beautiful photos.
Andrea
I asked a Pro once which camera to buy and such, and he told me that it doesn’t matter what camera you have, it’s all in the eye of the photographer. He said you can have the most expensive camera and have horrible shots. It truely is an art. And you are definatly good at it.
Great advice!!
Sabra
What beautiful pictures! You definitely have the right approach. Thanks for sharing.
Debby
You know, I’ve been thinking about these pictures, and I just gotta know: those posts that are drilled with the fence wire running through them…do they make music when the wind blows, like an aeolian harp? Just curious. Seems like they would thrum and hum in a most comforting way.
Bush Babe
Deb – I guess they make some sound if the wind is EXACTLY the right angle for it… but not loudly or we’d have noticed.
Sabra – thanks darl!!
Tami – it’s weird that you guys don’t make wire fences like this – how on earth do you tighten them up?
Diane – I am soooo happy to have my camera back. It’s not fixed properly but good enough – and I ain’t letting it go over Christmas!!! THanks for thumbs up – from a ‘real photographer’ no less!
Kate – yes, I should have made this a meme to you all – to show me a photo that really represents how you ‘see things’… hmmmmm.
Erin – well said. I think I said it somewhere before – one of the tricks in taking a pleasing image is in getting rid of the peripheral clutter: cropping the crap out. Getting up close and personal helps do that for sure!!
Andrea – yah. Agree completely. A photographer who influenced me a lot said once that as long as your equipment was sound, it mattered little what the name on the outside said. The trick is getting the best out of what you have.
Natarojo – continuing on from the above answer… my camera is a DSLR, but I also had to use a little point-and-shoot lately while my big gun was in the camera hospital. You can take decent pics with them (and get them to ‘isolate’ subjects too)… I might pop something up about it soon, but in the meantime read Ivory Hut (she sometimes moonlights on PW).
Jen and Al – you are right. Kids get the greatest angles. Dash has taken some rippers. Why don’t you try their angle when taking your pics (get down low if knees allow!). Might make all the difference!
Leslie, Pam, Shirl and Jayne – you are too kind. This whole post was just a big ‘fishing expedition’! Heh…
Jenni – glad you agree… see my last posted comment about the need for the other tutorials as well. My point I guess is that it is in EVERYONE, the ‘eye’ that we all talk about. Everyone knows what they like when they look at someone else’s photos. It’s just seeing that in 3D and translating it through a camera.
Gem – looking forward to the shots from your new camera next year… but see what you can get from your old one in the meantime!
I hope I got everyone there… gotta go empty smelly prawny bins now. Another post perhaps!!
Deb Thaxton
–>The nice thing about using a digital camera is that you can just keep shooting and delete later if it's not quite right and you can't photoshop through your mistakes.
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