The Power of Graphic Simplicity

There is very little in this picture. A moon, a silhouetted mountain range, not much else. Therein, the making of a good photo. Simplify.

Time of Day

Twenty-three and a half hours of the day this scene is just some rocks and some sky. In fact, considering that not every day ends with an epic sunset it is probably even more of a rare scene. The rarer the scene (in general) the better the photo.

This photo should also serve as a good reminder. When you are shooting that epic sunset you may be missing the best photo opportunities behind you.

Monochrome Need Not Mean Boring

What do you think of when you hear "monochrome"? You think black and white, right? But some of the most powerful images can come from taking the whole image down to one or two colours. In this case, of course, the effect is natural.

The Power of Three

Sets of three are very arresting in a frame.

RED!!

I love the painterly effect of getting close to flowers and keeping the aperture wide.

Viva La Grain!

Crunchy and grainy and nice. And you thought big grain was just for black and white...

Power Colour Pairs

Black and Red. Mmmm! A favourite colour combination.

Colour as The Subject

Sometimes a literal and recogniseable form is an unnecessary distraction if the real focus of your image is form and colour.

Trust Your Instinct

For the purposes of this post we will ignore the stains and streaks. Try to look through to the photo underneath. This has a beauty that is immediately apparent. I'm not quite sure what it is about this subject in this light.

Rather than try to reason it out, however, I made sure I took the photo.

Distracting Elements

One of the reasons why a lens with good "bokeh" is prized is its ability to smoothly throw the background into washes of pure colour. This can help you isolate subjects by focus when the background is distracting. However, as you can see here, it is essential that there is nothing else to distract the eye. In this case, improper processing has caused a multitude of flaws on the film which themselves provide a distraction.

Strong Colour Strong Picture

Lines and Details

Two things really make this happen for me. First, the hand lettering and small sign on the powerful drag car. Second, the sweep of the header exhausts which mirror the line in the pavement.

Get Closer

This is a real instant photo. And, no, the Fuji Instax 200 does not focus anywhere near this close. I simply held some closeup lenses in front of the camera lens. Yes, I had to experiment to get the right focus distance but sometimes you have to break a few eggs to get a decent picture.

Carpe Diem

This is a good example of smashandgrabphoto in action. I had no idea I would see the stadium like this until I was parking my car. Having a camera and tripod in the car allowed me to get this shot (these lights were only on for the football match which had just ended).

Graphical Elements

One important difference between seeing and a picture is that a picture has a definite border. You can harmonise with this border by having strong lines in your picture lead to or from corners of the frame. Lines can also focus attention within the frame.