Simple Photography Tips - take pictures whenever
- Michael Blyth
- Apr 11
- 3 min read
Six simple photography tips for you on how to make the most of a few minutes out strolling with your phone camera
Look around you for quirky or beautiful.
Make use of the macro-facility if you have it..
Use the metering system on your camera to select the right exposure
Beware of background distraction.
Remember the intersecting thirds (Rule of thirds)
If it's summer, mind the stinging nettles, yes it is a simple photography tip!!
Whenever you have a few minutes. Build your imagination and creativity
Much of the inspiration behind these simple photography tips blogs is the wish to enable someone who is generally just too busy to isolate for a few moments and take advantage of where they are.
The other day I had to take our dog for her morning walk, it had rained overnight and it was now a calm still morning. One of my blessings is living in the countryside, but you could be blessed by living in town and having a local park to do a dog-walk in or maybe you're a mum or dad, with a child to push in its pram.
Or maybe you're lonely at wherever you spend your day and just want to get out.
Many years ago when I was running a photography course for teenagers, I sent them outside to find something quirky to photograph. Is had also rained that morning.
One of them, Will Fortescue, a 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner, and astounding wildlife photographer, came back with some images he had taken, looking down a drain, raindrops and spider webs. Later on I set a small competition for the best photo of cracks in the road. He won, and if you look at his images online, he learnt the lesson of getting down low and using depth of field effectively.
Like me on my dog walk, let your eyes wander to the details of the scenery around you. Search for the easily missed, the often too obvious to notice. in this case of light and raindrops caught and held in the quietness of the morning.
So let's take your imagination a bit further. You are out for a walk, you may have a few minutes semi-time to yourself away from the busyness of your life. That phone thing currently stuck to your ear, physically or via Bluetooth, has a much more for fulfilling use as a camera.
Look around, anything catch your eye? How about doing something creative? Breathe, relax have some time to yourself, take some pictures of what caught your eye.
That's what I did. Let's have a look at what I took, and I'll make some comments.
Okay, with the first picture, it's taken from quite close but not macro as such. it's sort of okay, but something I took to illustrate for you, to illustrate the need to be wary of what's behind - in this case a shed was the intrusion in the background. Better to spot it now than later.
Slight change of camera angle is better than realising too late and having to do it in Photoshop or similar. But be careful, the next picture, Image Two, above, has lost a lot of the light that was shining through the raindrops. The cause is the same change of camera angle that enabled me to get rid of the shed!
As you get closer, depending on what phone camera you're using, it may go into macro mode, keep an eye on focus. Don't forget to think about the point of the picture; is it in the right place to give balance. I am quite pleased with it here, having got the point of the photograph the big drop on the intersecting third on the left-hand side.
Similarly, the image below, I've got in close, the lights quite good, and the drops are focused on the lower intersecting third. An OK shot, but needed more time and thought on getting the light better on the raindrops, as Monet spent his time doing when planting in his garden, to create 'shimmer'. But it illustrates the point.
I had an impatient mutt, but you might have a few minutes more to really make visual best, the way the light is sparking through the water droplets.
Oddly enough bright days can be easier to use the sunny days when the camera will struggle to deal with the extremes of light and contrast.
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