Simple Photography Tips - Learning To Notice

Seven simple photography tips for Learning to Notice

• Walk a tad slower than normal.

• Be Intentional;Start noticing shape, light, and things that stand out

• Look for the one thing that doesn’t belong. A lone leaf on grey stones. A splash of colour in a muted scene. A bent branch that stands out.

• Change your angle of view, stand, crouch, get really low

• Do a “three-step series”: wide scene;mid shot; close detail.

• Before you press the shutter, check the borders of your frame. Remove distractions by shifting your feet a few inches.

• Wait for the light.

  
  

  So here’s the scenario; you’re out for a stroll, fast or slow, walking down a tree-lined lane.

  
  

  It’s winter, a few leaves cling to the tree, their source of birth and sustenance, but most have fallen.

  
  

  The weather is broken cloud, the sun peeking through, then hiding again.

  
  

  You’re in the mood for learning to notice. Seeking something quirky in this seemingly rather featureless wintery lane, as a diversion from Christmas 'festivities' perhaps.

  
  

  You might start to notice a few things; the way the recycled road material has formed a pebbly surface, with shapes and shadows. The trees either side of you, and the way their trunks sit in parallel up to the sky.

  
  

  

  Image One - A blob of yellow

  
  

  Then you spot some yards ahead a yellow sort of blob, as you get closer you realise it’s a leaf. Distance has masked the details, and the closer you get, the more you see. The leaf sits oddly, its stalk twisted between two stones on the track, the main lifted by the breeze.

  
  

  

  Image Two - The blob taking on other colours

  
  

  The colours start to become separated, the dominant yellow of distance, now sharing the space with rusty gold.

  
  

  

  Image Three - Backlit with a relevant backdrop of trees

  
  

  Getting closer you notice that faded remnant of summer green. The colours telling the story, phases of the loss of chlorophyll that inhabited the leaf in its prime colour of bright green.

  
  

  This is the situation that I encountered recently, winter has come, but autumn is hanging in there, and not all the colour has drained from the scene.

  
  

  The scenario described, ended with the wonderful moment when the sun shone, low angle, early morning, and lit the leaf.

  
  

  

  Image Four - Backlit, with striking colours

  
  

  You could go in even closer, capture the veins, the juxtaposition of colours, the sharpness of the edges reflecting the light.

  
  

  Be careful in your 'story telling' how much do you want in focus, do you want a background, do you wait for the sun and the highlights it causes, or are you content with the depth of colour that it's absence brings?

  
  

  Unless you’ve trained yourself, perhaps encouraged by me, you would quite possibly have missed the image.

  
  

  Ok, so it’s not a world beating prizewinner, but then I’ve never been all that interested in that sort of thing - although have had pupils go there, with huge success.

  
  

  The point is, the process of learning to look around you, takes time and attention and a fluidity of mind. All of which can be in short supply in many busy lives.

  
  

  Posted on Christmas Eve, perhaps you’ll end up on a walk tomorrow, one side or another of whatever your celebration meal looks like, bored or desperate to get out, perhaps had enough of those with you?

  
  

  Even better reason: keen to share with someone the excitement and sense of awe that can come with “that you may look until you see”.

  
  

  Wishing you a happy, blessed, and peaceful Christmas.