Learning How To Notice - The Photograph May Not Be the View You Came For : Simple Photography Tips by Michael Blyth

How to make little things you notice, become the story - Three Simple Photography Tips on Learning How To Notice

• you will miss wonderful images by not looking at the details

  Once you have taken the obvious shot, pause and look for a smaller, more unique detail.

• Let the light show you

  Golden hour light often reveals things you might otherwise miss. In this case, the backlit flowers growing from the cliff became important because the light gave them presence.

• Move your feet, not just your camera

  If a detail matters, change position until it becomes part of the composition in a meaningful way. A small step left, right, up or down can completely change the relationship between foreground and background.

  
  

I've just returned from an all too short 'long weekend' on the Balearic island of Mallorca, where I wanted some spring-time images, before the heat and lack of rain parches the island.

Heading out along the winding tortuous road that leads to the lighthouse at Cap De Formentor we took a side-road the side-road that climbs up to Talaia d'Albercutx in the hope of seeing a fine sunset.

As it happens, the sun sank behind cloud before it sunk off the edge of the world.

Setting up a landscape shot to balance the falling sun, my eye fell upon a small plant with yellow flowers sticking out from the nearby cliff.

Lit by the setting sun, it was part silhouette, part rimmed with gold.

But as you will see, to become a real part of the scene, it needed some attention in terms of composition.

I took a few pictures to illustrate how you can include details in such a way that they totally change a landscape image.

Image One - Sunset approaching

Image One, is the original image I took before I noticed the flower poking out from the cliff. In itself made quite dramatic by the sharp vertical shadow pointing up towards the setting sun, with quite good visual balance overall - the lighter but larger rocks to the left, countering the smaller but darker ones on the right.

But it seemed a good opportunity to bring in a change of composition, and after-all, flowers in the foreground of landscapes can on occasions add hugeley to the power of the image.

Image Two - The backlit flower

Image two - to get the flower into the image required being very aware of the fact that there would be one rather splatty bounce between me and the sea a few hundred feet below.

But I've managed to survive so far, and with great care worked my way down a few feet, and somewhat closer.

This has brought the flowers onto the lower intersecting third, and they are now a point of focus.

In one way I'd like the flower on the upper third, but the sun has that spot, and besides it leads the eye around the image more.

Image Three - Forgetting the sunset

In image three I've elected to crop the sun and give the flower much greater visual dominance. This has some negatives in that it becomes less of a landscape, but not quite a flower shot. But with a phone camera rather than a proper job (a proper camera), and a cliff stopping me getting closer, I had to make do.

In summary, three Ok shots, but the latter two are the result of learning to notice - as per my motto - 'look that you may learn to see', and I was quite pleased with them all.

As a look back and learn, have a look at image one and notice once again the plant with flowers, as a little thing on the side, then come on down to Image Two, where it has become much more involved, then Image Three where it's the main feature. I'm not saying that either or correct, just different, and worth recognising the options.