How I take photographs, simple and maybe simplistic advice.

Good photography is all about being in the right place at the right time.

And that is down to forethought, reaction speed and luck. It’s up to you to make sure you are ready for the opportunity to take a good photograph. It’s like knowing when ripe fruit will fall off a tree and being there to catch it.

Anyone can take a good photograph, photographers take good photographs consistently.

You are taking the picture not the camera.

Think of your head, eyes and imagination as a very very clever and expensive camera.

Try spending a day taking mental pictures without a camera. Then reshoot the day with a camera and work out why you didn’t get what you saw.

Get in the habit of taking your camera with you everywhere and experiment and shoot with it when you would normally read, watch tv, or stare into space.

Try to shoot a picture that says exactly what you can say in a single sentence.

Be gentle on your friends, only show them the work you think is best. Editing your own work will strengthen your vision.

Look at the light wherever you go, there will always be somewhere where it’s beautiful.

Your camera is only as good at taking photographs as you are. Do your best to understand it.

How does it auto focus? On the centre or all around?

How does it read the exposure, again in the centre or all around?

If it is slow in taking a picture can you speed it up by setting some tasks [like exposure or autofocus] manually?

If there are automatic settings like portrait and landscape and so on make sure you know what they do. Experiment by trying those settings out in other areas.

Experiment as much as you can, [if it’s digital] it doesn’t cost anything.

- try taking thirty pictures and then editing them down to one.
Do this several times and then try and limit yourself to taking one picture a day for a week.

Try taking as many different views of one thing as possible, a person or landscape for example.

Think!

What is the light doing?

Where is it coming from?

What is it doing to your subject?

Does it look better coming from the side, straight towards you, or from behind you?

Is the light making your subject squint?

Are you helping the person looking at the photograph see what you see?

Make sure you are seeing in the viewfinder what you are seeing in your mind or heart, if not move till you do.

Why are you attracted to what you are seeing in the viewfinder?

Is the composition the best it could be?

What is it you want to say with this picture?

Is it boring?

How do you want people to feel when they see it?

Can you say or do something to make what you see in the viewfinder more interesting?

What will the camera need to do to take the picture?

Will the flash go off it’s meant to?

Will the flash go off if it’ s not meant to?

Will what you want to be in focus going to be in focus?

Get in closer.
-always a good rule of thumb.

Learn the rules so you can break them better.

Portraits.

If you aren’t ready, tell your subject to look away whilst you sort it out.

[Watch someone else taking a portrait and see the natural expression drain out of the subject's face as they wait staring at a camera that’s being fiddled with.]

When you’re ready tell them to look back and get the shot.

Or crack a joke or tell them something shocking and then get it. But remember you’re taking a picture of them, not a picture of what they look like bored or uncomfortable...

Make your portrait victims as comfortable as possible, they are THE SUBJECT not you.

People are used to immediate results with digital pictures, but don’t show them the bad ones. Get rid of them as you go along. Only show your subjects the good ones, and generally it’ s best to do that once you’ve got what you need...

If you can find a way to overexpose your portraits a tiny little bit your older subjects will thank you for it.

Landscapes.

Often disappoint when you get the pictures home. Small cameras aren’t always good at showing the scale of a wide view.

A good way to overcome this is by adding something smaller into the foreground that gives the viewer a sense of scale [know as “foreground interest” in the magazines] and allows them into the area.

Again know what you want to say about the space you see before you, and look for the best way to say it.

Photography is best when it is the combination of light, time, thought and emotion.